Copyright extensions are bad for innovation, bad for the economy and bad for our culture. The only people they are good for are those who collect the royalties and according to research that’s far more likely to be record labels and already-rich stars than it is to be struggling musicians. Using the EU's own data, Martin Kretschmer, a professor at Bournemouth University, found that the bottom 80 per cent of artists would be £50 a year better off with a copyright extension to 95 years. While £50 is better than nothing, it's not enough to offset the overall damage of copyright extensions, which are essentially a disincentive to create new work.