Copyright Extension Season

The New York Times‘s Allan Kozinn
writes:

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and there’s
a nip in the air—no question about it, European Copyright Extension
season is upon us.

Since 2012, when the European Union passed a revised copyright law,
extending the copyright on recordings from 50 years to 70—but only
if the recording was published during its first 50 years—record
companies have been exploring their vaults for potentially
marketable material in danger of losing its copyright protection if
it is not released.

That first year, Motown released a series of albums packed with
outtakes by some of its major acts, and Sony released a
limited-edition collection of 1962 outtakes by Bob Dylan, with the
surprisingly frank title, “The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol.
I.” In 2013, Sony released a second Dylan set, devoted to
previously unreleased 1963 recordings. Similar recordings by the
Beatles and the Beach Boys followed.

For collectors, these sets are a boon, and they are becoming
increasingly plentiful as the 50th anniversary of each year of the
1960s rolls around, moving deeper into the rock era. Record labels,
however, have complied with the publication requirement
reluctantly, releasing the sets in small quantities, or making them
available only as digital downloads.

Over at TechDirt, Mike Masnick
points out that the digital downloads are at least widely
available for people to purchase. The CDs and LPs, on the other
hand, are “released” in such tiny runs—only 100 copies of
The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol. I were
shipped—that it may be misleading to call them releases at all. If
anything, they exist to prevent the wider releases that
the recordings would likely get if they were in the public
domain.

That said, the music is likely to find its way to fans anyway.
“Sony has told European retailers that it will release a nine-LP
set of 1964 recordings by Mr. Dylan, possibly as early as next
week,” Kozinn reports. “Only 1,000 copies will be available, but if
past years are any guide, collectors who obtain copies are likely
to make copies available online before the year is out.”