A copyright time bomb has been quietly ticking away for the music and publishing industry for nearly 30 years -- and may soon explode into a plethora of legal disputes over ownership rights, intellectual property litigators say.
The Copyright Act of 1976 gave artists, songwriters and authors a new right: the power to recapture control of works sold early in their careers before the value became known.
That recapture process allows an author, after 35 to 40 years, to terminate any transfer of interest in his or her copyright assigned to publishers for works created since 1978. Congress wanted authors to be able to reclaim control of their creations and negotiate better royalty deals for popular works.
But the law also imposes complex notice requirements for authors to advise the current rights holder that they plan to reclaim their rights. In 2003, authors began entering that notice window for rights that would be reclaimed in 2013.
"It is not easy to reclaim rights and that was on purpose," said William Patry, a copyright and intellectual property specialist with the New York office of Thelen Reid & Priest. "The industry didn't want [termination rights] at all."
"I think you will see a flood of litigation with prominent works" in the next few years, said Walter R. Thompson, a Nashville, Tenn., copyright attorney who represents the widow of singer-songwriter Roger Miller, singer Kris Kristofferson and the heirs of singer Waylon Jennings.