Thousands of musicians have banded together to send a video message to Gordon Brown urging him to back an extension of their copyright protection.

Musicians who featured on classic hits from the 1960s risk losing their royalty payments, according to the 38,000 campaigners asking for an overhaul of copyright law.

Some have recorded with stars including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra.

The law currently protects composers' copyright for 70 years after their death, but performers' copyright runs out after 50 years from release.

The European Commission wants to extend that to 95 years, but musicians say the UK Government is not supportive enough.

Trombonist and session player Derek Wadsworth, who played with acts including The Small Faces and Tom Jones, said: "The standard of work of the British session musician has brought world wide accolades and created a massive input of revenue to this country."

He added: "Yet we seem to gain nothing but apathy and indifference. We operate without pension schemes, without sickness or maternity leave, without paid holidays or expense accounts, and a guaranteed minimum wage would be a wild fantasy.

"Now that the Government has the opportunity to show respect and support - or perhaps even a hint of gratitude - for our fine work, they choose to kick us in the teeth and oppose our extremely hard-fought quest for the right to gain equity with other artists. This is disgraceful."

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