[4] On February 29, Japan formally announced to the Dispute Settlement Body that they accepted the European Community's request to join the consultations with the United States.
[5] On May 24, 1996, the European Community filed another request for consultation to the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body, under the pretense Japanese copyright law did not provide a sufficiently long period of protection for foreign producers and performers.
The European Community claimed that Japan should expand their protection to a fifty-year period, starting January 1, 1946[6] to comply with the WTO standards on intellectual property.
[10] Charlene Barshefsky, the United States Trade Representative who negotiated the consultations, described the outcome as a victory for the protection and profitability of iconic American music: "We sought – and will now obtain – protection for U.S. sound recordings from one of the most vibrant and popular periods in the history of American music – from the swing music of Duke Ellington, the bebop jazz of John Coltrane, the rock and roll of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and the Sixties sounds of Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys and Otis Redding.
"[11] Subsequently, on June 4, 1997, the European Community ended the dispute settlement proceedings for case DS42 after concluding the revisions made in response to DS28 had sufficiently solved the issues of protecting existing, copyrighted sound recordings.