Pretty big news out of Brussels.

The European Commission has proposed to extend copyright on sound recordings to 95 years from 50 years. (The term for compositions will remain at 70 years.) The asterisk here is that recordings can switch hands after 50 years. Here's how it is explained in the actual proposal (download a PDF of the proposal here):

Article 10a (6) provides for a statutory 'use it or lose it' clause. Therefore, if a phonogram producer does not publish a phonogram, which, but for the term extension, would be in the public domain, the rights in the fixation of the performance shall, upon his request, revert to the performer and the rights in the phonogram shall expire. Further, if after one year subsequent to the term extension, neither the phonogram producer nor the performer made the phonogram available to the public, the rights in the phonogram and the rights in the fixation of the performance shall expire.

In other words, the recording reverts to artist from record label after 50 years if the recording is commercially unavailable, but the artist has only a one-year window to take advantage. After one year of inactivity, the recording enters the public domain.

And since we are all wondering, the EU went on to define a "published" work:

For the purposes of the 'use it or lose it' clause, publication of a phonogram means the offering of copies of the phonogram to the public, with the consent of the right holder, and provided that copies are offered to the public in reasonable quantity. Publication would also comprise otherwise commercial exploitation of a phonogram, such as making the phonogram available to online retailers.

Looks like the EU tried to address both physical and digital goods. "...offered to the public in reasonable quantity" is for physical, and "available to online retailers" is for digital. I have to wonder if this could be bad for artists since this is a one-or-the-other test, not a one-and-the-other test. I can imagine many titles being out of physical print after 50 years but still sitting on a server somewhere and thus salable.

Read a FAQ offered by the EU here.

Also, the European Commission has moved to eliminate collecting societies' deals that eliminate cross-border competition. The intended result is to allow broadcasters to deal with a single collecting society for all of the European Union rather than a separate collecting society for each of the counties. Authors and composers will be able to choose from any of the EU's collecting societies for representation throughout the EU.

Each of the 24 collecting societies has 120 days to revise their cross-border agreements.

Earlier this month, a number of artists appealed to the EU not to enforce multi-territorial licensing. From their statement: "If […] the Societies are required to ‘compete’ with one another across national boundaries on price, the whole system will collapse. Major rights holders will withdraw their repertoires and either place them with an agency […] or they will look towards direct licensing themselves.”