Somewhere along the lines of creative flow I was easily convinced when "Art" falls from the tips of your fingerprints it belongs to the maker. he or she that was willing to share with the world.
Performers with their producers have fought endlessly to protect what little is left. Like baseball cards the universe keeps delivering babies vowing to become Rock Stars. Each one delivered is a little weaker therefore mountains of talent are beginning to look like stone rubble from a collapsed relic.
I've been involved in many verbal disputes fed by ITunes fans demanding new rules of ownership based on what happens after the purchase. While collecting 45's and albums in the 1970's...if I didn't want the music anymore I gave it away.
It was mine to do so right?
Not really.
It kills me to fall witness to flea market and antique store boxes packed with tossed out vibrations. The physical site stings but the true pain is knowing the people involved with creating the music are getting nothing.
And it doesn't end there. Classic Rock Magazine reports that if you'd like to own a first pressing of the Beatles‘ ‘Love Me Do,’ but don’t have thousands of dollars in the bank? Good news: Thanks to European copyright law, the Fab Four’s first single is now part of the public domain, meaning anyone can issue new copies for sale.
As VVN Music reports, a number of labels have already been quick to take advantage of the copyright’s expiry, with two companies — Digital Remasterings and Pristine Classical — leading the charge. Digital Remasterings has apparently included ‘Love Me Do’ (and its b-side, ‘P.S. I Love You’) on a new compilation of early Beatles cuts, including the perennially reissued Hamburg Star Club live performances, while Pristine Classical is said to be releasing its own version of the single as a protest of sorts.
As detailed in the VVN Music report, European copyright limits are shorter than those in the States, where intense lobbying by media companies has increased American copyright length repeatedly over the last several decades (it currently stands at 95 years). But it appears that the European Union is following America’s lead; the law “may be changed before the end of this year, moving the threshold to 70 years” — good news for anyone who makes a living from royalties, but a setback for labels like Pristine Classical, whose catalog consists entirely of recordings in the public domain.
It’s a fascinating fight for copyright scholars — and for Beatles fans, well, it’s something of an opportunity to purchase more memorabilia.
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