Musicians, record industry may soon fight over song rights
(CBS) The record industry has been hemorrhaging cash over the past decade and a change in copyright law may make that hemorrhage worse. At the same time, musicians may have a leg up. Enacted in the 1970s, the law will soon give musicians rights to songs recorded in 1978.
This is all a little inside baseball - and a longer explanation is available at The New York Times - but the gist is: Artists get "termination rights" that will give them "control of their work after 35 years." The first year to which these rights apply is 1978. So any artist who put out a record that year could soon control the rights to it. For example, Bob Dylan could get control of the "Street-Legal" recording, which came out in 1978 on Columbia.
There are some provisions and rules that don't guarantee automatic rights - for one, an artist must apply for the copyright two years before the 35-year mark - but termination rights mean lots of recording artists may own a copyright they've never before owned. (And the law applies to subsequent years, so 1979 will be the next battleground. Then 1980. And you get the idea.)
The New York Times reports Dylan has filed for "qualifying songs," as have Bryan Adams, Tom Petty and others. The paper reports the Recording Industry Association of America doesn't think the law applies to sound recordings. Get ready for some court battles.