The 21 Sep 2002 Billboard has a good story on copyright (taking the
labels' side). It starts on the front cover. Basically sound recordings
in Europe have a 50 year copyright limit and Sinatra, Elvis, etc, are
nearing that.

The perspective is interesting to understand, and it probably reflects
the movie industry pretty well. The back catalog is woefully refered to
as "effectively depreciating assets" and there are calls to "harmonize"
copyright "at the highest international level" (which would be US, at
95 years).

And as for public domain users? One record executive "blasts" this
quote "People who are issuing out-of-copyright material should be
marginalized as much as possible." The same exec (Roger Armstrong
of Ace Records) says "There is a widely held perception [by politicians]
that the record industry is full of thieves and they deserve everything
they get." That's Billboard's addition in the [braces]. I think they are
willfully neglecting the non-politicians who feel that way.