this is so depressing: Britain is considering extending its copyright term for recordings from 50 years to 95 years ? including both existing recordings and recordings in the future. (Remember, we increased our copyright term to ?harmonize? with the Europeans; now the Europeans are increasing their copyright terms to ?harmonize? with the US. Will this cycle end? Of course not.) [...]
Meanwhile, as a demonstration of the value of the public domain, if you?re not in the US, you can get access to this fantastic collection of 1500 LPs of classical music, in the public domain in Europe, but not in the US, digitized and made available by the EuropeanArchive. Don?t count on access to this anytime soon, United States: Nothing published will enter the public domain in the US through the expiration of a copyright term until 2019.
