European copyright protection is expiring on a collector's trove of 1950's jazz, opera and early rock 'n' roll albums, forcing major American record companies to consider deals with bootleg labels and demand new customs barriers.
***
Copyright protection lasts only 50 years in European Union countries, compared with 95 years in the United States, even if the recordings were originally made and released in America. So recordings made in the early- to mid-1950's - by figures like Maria Callas, Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald - are entering the public domain in Europe, opening the way for any European recording company to release albums that had been owned exclusively by particular labels.
``The public sees icons like Mickey Mouse and thinks that the companies must by now have made their money,'' [Neil Turkewitz, the executive vice president international of the Recording Industry Association of America] said. But, he added, 9 out of 10 sound recordings lose money. ``Very few materials wind up generating the revenues that sustain an entire system,'' he said. ``The amount of money put back into production by the record companies is enormous. It's extremely risk-intensive.''
