Europe recently extended its copyright laws from 50 years to 70 years after creation, but with the condition that the grandfathered material has to have been publicly released within the 50 years.
So Sony took a bunch of unreleased Bob Dylan music, studio sessions, published 100 CDs titled the "Bob Dylan Copyright Collection Volume", and sold them to a few stores in Europe, explicitly so that the material wouldn't fall into the public domain. Which give them 20 more years to use (and profit from) the material how they like.
Tell me again how is this "promoting the Progress of Science and useful Arts" and encouraging artists to create music?
By the way, don't worry that Sony will have do to the same shenanigans int eh US. We've managed to extend our copyright on musical works (since 1978) to 70 years after the death of the last surviving creator. This has, of course, produced more and much better profit music for the public.
(h/t +Wendy Cockcroft)
Reshared post from +glyn moody
#Sony Issues The 'Bob Dylan Copyright Collection Volume' Solely To Extend #Copyright On Dylan's Work – http://bit.ly/10c7sea bit blatant, no?
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Sony Issues The ‘Bob Dylan Copyright Collection Volume’ Solely To Extend Copyright On Dylan’s Work | Techdirt
It’s almost as if the major labels aren’t even trying to hide how they like to abuse the spirit of copyright law in order to keep things locked up as long as possible. Sony Music recently “issued” (a…
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And they wonder why piracy is a problem…
And you get sued for using more than two notes in succession that are similar to notes in another song that was already released.