McCartney Times

It seems like just yesterday, all of Sony’s troubles seemed so far away. That was until legendary musician, Paul McCartney, filed a federal lawsuit last week against Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC (“Sony”), seeking a declaratory judgment that he will not be in breach of contract next year when he begins reclaiming U.S. copyright ownership interests in various songs he authored and co-authored for The Beatles between 1962 and 1970.The case stems from Section 304(c) of the Copyright Act of 1976, which created a non-waiveable claw-back right for authors to reclaim their ownership interests in any works assigned by them prior to January 1, 1978. Under that section, an author may reclaim their copyright ownership interest by serving a termination notice on the rightsholder between 56 and 61 years after the copyright registered. For the songs that McCartney wrote for The Beatles’ first studio album in 1962, and which Sony currently owns (after purchasing the copyrights from Michael Jackson’s estate last year for $750 million), that means 2018 is the first year McCartney can begin clawing-back his ownership interests.This seemingly odd claw-back right is the result of changes to the Copyright Act in 1976 that enlarged the duration of copyright protection, which Congress recognized would create a corresponding windfall to all then-current copyright assignees prior to the Act’s effective date on Jan. 1, 1978. In the 1960s and early 1970s, when McCartney wrote songs for The Beatles, his U.S. copyright interests fell under the Copyright Act of 1909. The 1909 Act only provided protection to the rightsholder for an initial period of 28 years, but also granted a renewal option for another 28 years, for a total of 56 years of protection. The 1909 Act was repealed in 1976 and replaced with the current Copyright Act of 1976, which changed the duration of copyright protection for all copyrights that were valid as of Jan, 1, 1978, to the life of the author (or last surviving author) plus 50 years. The Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act of 1998 increased that duration by another 20 years.

Source: Copyright Ownership (That’s What McCartney Wants)