Legal ‘disappearing act’ extends Beatles’ copyright protection for Bootleg album
Beatles’ fans have will have an unnamed lawyer to blame for their disappointment over the possible non-release of The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963.
According to Insight, a Bond Dickinson publication, copyright on the album — which contains 59 unheard outtakes — was due to expire in 2014, some 50 years after the recordings were made in 1963. Expiration of the copyright would have made the album available in the public domain.But in November 2013, the UK passed legislation extending copyright for sound recordings from 50 to 70 years. The problem was that the extension applied only to recordings that had been published or made available to the public. Bond Dickinson reports, however, that Apple Records, which owns the rights to the material, managed to take advantage of the law by making the recordings public “for just over 2 hours in a staged succession of countries before doing a disappearing act.” Gives new meaning to “value-added” legal advice, doesn’t it?
Source: Financial Post
Photo Credit: Handout/EMI
