Record Industry Braces for Artists? Battles Over Song RightsA little-noted provision in copyright law of the mid-1970s allows artists to regain control of their work after 35 years.
Since their release in 1978, hit albums like Bruce Springsteen?s ?Darkness on the Edge of Town,? Billy Joel?s ?52nd Street,? the Doobie Brothers? ?Minute by Minute,? Kenny Rogers?s ?Gambler? and Funkadelic?s ?One Nation Under a Groove? have generated tens of millions of dollars for record companies. But thanks to a little-noted provision in United States copyright law, those artists ? and thousands more ? now have the right to reclaim ownership of their recordings, potentially leaving the labels out in the cold.
When copyright law was revised in the mid-1970s, musicians, like creators of other works of art, were granted ?termination rights,? which allow them to regain control of their work after 35 years, so long as they apply at least two years in advance. Recordings from 1978 are the first to fall under the purview of the law, but in a matter of months, hits from 1979, like ?The Long Run? by the Eagles and ?Bad Girls? by Donna Summer, will be in the same situation ? and then, as the calendar advances, every other master recording once it reaches the 35-year mark.
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?This is a life-threatening change for them, the legal equivalent of Internet technology,? said Kenneth J. Abdo, a lawyer who leads a termination rights working group for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and has filed claims for some of his clients, who include Kool and the Gang. As a result the four major record companies ? Universal, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner ? have made it clear that they will not relinquish recordings they consider their property without a fight.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/arts/music/springsteen-and-others-soon-eligible-to-recover-song-rights.html
