3 Count: Boyle-ing Over

This is daily column on Plagiarism Today where the site brings you three of the days biggest, most important copyright and plagiarism news links. If you want to offer your feedback on the column, use the contact form or just follow me on Twitter at @plagiarismtoday.

1: EU assembly backs 70-year copyright for musicians

First off today, the EU assembly has passed a copyright extension that would increase the length of the copyright on musical works from 50 years to 70 years. Though this is a large increase, it falls far short of the 95 years that was originally proposed and that exists in the United States.

The extension also has a clause that ensures session musicians, those who help record in the studio, will receive at least 20 percent of the benefit from the extension.

The bill was a compromise over a the previous extension, which was defeated in the EU legislature.

2: Congress takes on file-sharing, again

he Oversight and Government Reform Committee is reopening an investigation into file sharing, though not for the reason most people probably would think. The House committee is looking into file sharing firms regarding the security risks that the software may bring to home users, namely through the inadvertent sharing of personal information.

The committee had opened up an investigation on the topic in 2007 and ordered file sharing companies to institute safety standards. Though the companies, in particular Lime Group, the company that distributes LimeWire, claims to have implemented all of those standards, the committee is not satisfied and is opening up the investigation again.

There is suspicion that this an attempt to outlaw file sharing applications for a reason other than copyright issues even though they are the real concerns.

3: ITV, YouTube and Simon Cowell miss out on Susan Boyle windfall

Finally today, in a story borrowed from PT’s sister site CopyrightFail.com, ITV, the company that holds the right to Britain’s Got Talent, and YouTube have been unable to reach a licensing deal so the over 100 million views of the Susan Boyle video has not generated any revenue for either company.

At this time, no advertising is being shown on YouTube next to the video and neither company is seeing a profit from all of these views.

Just another sign of the times…

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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