The EU - still lagging behind!

Yesterday the Parliament's Culture & Education Committee debated the issue of copyright, and in particular, how copyright laws relate to the work of the many session musicians who receive no royalty payments. Also being discussed is the length of period of copyright, and this is particularly important as so much of the music recorded in the mid - late 1950s is now falling out of copyright.

As I have previously noted, the US is way ahead of Europe on this issue, having already extended the copyright period.Sadly, as we have handed so many areas of our national governance to the EU, we are now reliant on Brussels to protect the interests of our performing artists. This is appalling: Great Britain led the world in the area of popular culture in the 50s and 60s, and it is our musicians who have the most to lose. I fully support the idea of extending copyright, and I will be pleased to see session musicians properly rewarded for their talents in the future. But isn't it a shame that we couldn't have done this before, on our own initiative, without having to wait for a green light from the European Commission?

Our membership of the EU and our reliance on its political institutions is hampering our progress, and this is just one clear example of how British worker's interests are not being satisfactorily addressed. If we can take back control of our own laws from Brussels, then we can regain our position as a world leader in both culture and economics.