EU Copyright law recommendation.

In case anyone is interested, the Gower Report "Review of intellectual property" has recommended the copyright laws "be amended to allow for an exception for creative transformative or derivative works".

"If this exception were to be made..... it raises the prospect of artists being able to sample or rework other artists' work without their permission." One of the solicitors (on enforcement) claims that such activity would only be allowed where the 'transformative' use did not compromise the commercial interests of the original creator or offend their artistic integrity.

Quoted from Computer Music, Feb 2007.

Keep your eye on this if you have commercial concerns. It is not EU law yet but....I have yet to investigate how it affects performing rights...presumably it doesn't.

Yeah, I've heard about some rather difficult cases related to sampling/reworking where the litigation involved essentially descended into arguing about whether or not the musical content of one piece was sufficiently similar to another in terms of melody, rhythm etc.

It would seem logical to relax the law with a view to making matters clearer for the courts, but as you say, that might also prove detrimental to artists/composers.