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Article: Embattled record companies facing new threat as copyrights expire outside United States
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- January 14, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightProvided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Dateline: BRUSSELS, Belgium
Used to battling pirated copies of hit records and live performances,
major record companies are mobilizing to head off what they see as
a new threat to their bottom line: perfectly legal copies of classic
recordings that are soon to lose copyright protection outside the
United States.
Records made in the 1950s, from Maria Callas's landmark "Tosca" to
Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel," will be entering the public domain
in countries including Canada, Japan and those in the European Union,
where the copyrights expire after 50 years.
That's the minimum period under world trade rules for performers and
producers of sound ...