The Brits had no problem with prohibiting Elvis, Sinatra, and others (estates or individuals) from extending THEIR own copyrights.
The Beatles should’ve been hung by the same rope. Or else the extensions should’ve been permitted for the pre-British Invasion pop stars.
It’s the double standard I don’t like.
And the Beatles and Cliff Richard were behind it.
Oh poor them.
It was a 2011 European not solely British ruling that raised it from 50 to 70 yrs, composers already have copyright over their music until 70 years after their deaths, so The Beatles, who wrote their own songs, were already safe from copyright expiry. It was artists who made their names with songs written by others, such as Sir Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones, and Elvis and Sinatra who were threatened with a steady decline in their earnings. The law affects recordings made on or after Jan 1st 1963.
So actually major British pop stars of the 50’s like Cliff Richard have already and will continue to lose out on massive hits from the mid 50’s to 1963.
Frankly I detect you are trying to make this a British vs American issue, when it isn’t.