UK's New Creative Minister Gets Creative In Propping Up The Recording Industry
from the copyright-extensions... dept
Remember last year when the recording industry freaked out, realizing that parts of Europe had copyright laws that only lasted for 50 years, meaning that Elvis Presley songs were about to hit the public domain? Well, it seems they’ve finally found someone to take up the cause. John submits this story telling us that the new “minister for the UK’s creative industries” is proposing an increase in copyrights for pop music songs. Of course, the rationale is a bit bizarre: “The music industry is a risky business and finding talent and artists is expensive.” You know, there are lots of risky ventures out there, but most of them don’t have government officials trying to make sure they can squeeze more cash out of something they did fifty years ago. All this “minister of creative industries” is doing, is admitting that these industries have no clue how to actually be creative in figuring out new business models.
