FT against copyright extension

An editorial in the Financial Times speaks out very clearly against the planned extension by the EU parliament of copyright on recorded music from 50 to 95 years (via Hax):

Copyright extension is, in the main, just the well-known strategy of powerful companies: profit-grabbing through lobbying for state protection. That is bad enough. Worse is the chilling effect it can have on creativity: the industry is already on a legal crusade against the sampling of copyrighted material into new original work. This is like the Grimm brothers’ descendants suing Disney for using their fairy tales. The cultural industries are over-protected. If cultural works were less greedily hoarded, consumers would enjoy more variety – and artists would create more freely.

(Scandinavian readers: See blog post about Lawrence Lessig on this topic and more on internet policy).

UPDATE: The 95 years proposal is off the table, according to Dagens Nyheter. Instead an increase to 70 years will be voted on in the EU parliament on April 23rd as a compromise. Some MEPs will also propose not to increase at all, among them the Swede Christofer Fjellner.

UPDATE II: The majority in the EP voted for the 70 years proposal. The law must also be adopted by the EU Council.