Paul McCartney’s Lawsuit Could Be The Biggest In The Music Industry

Former Beatles member Paul McCartney just filed a suit in New York against Sony/ATV that could go down as one of the biggest in the music arena.

The songwriter is looking to leverage the termination provisions of the Copyright Act, and wants a declaratory judgment that states he will soon regain his copyright ownership share to a catalog of songs that he created as a member of The Beatles.

In his complaint, McCartney had transferred rights to songs co-authored by him and John Lennon between 1962 and 1971 to various music publishers.

Morrison & Foerster are the attorneys representing the singer who now expects to recover copyright interests as soon as Oct. 5, 2018.

“For years following service of the first Termination Notices, Defendants gave no indication to Paul McCartney that they contested the efficacy of Paul McCartney’s Termination Notices,” states the complaint. “Defendants’ affiliates did, however, oppose at least one other artist’s terminations of transfers under the terms of the 1976 Copyright Act.”

More than forty years ago, Congress increased the period that works are under copyright protection in the Copyright Act. it recognized authors who had signed over their rights to publishers and studios without much bargaining power, allowed such authors 35 years hence to reclaim rights in the latter stages of a copyright term.

Duran Duran had previously attempted to regain rights under the termination protocol outlined by U.S. copyright law but Sony won when an English court ruled that American termination law took a backseat to an interpretation of contracts under English law.

According to the justices in the Duran Duran case, the band’s contractual promise to not transfer its interest in copyrights foreclosed its ability to terminate a grant of rights as a transfer of reversionary interest from the song publisher to themselves.

McCartney’s complaint states that Sony has refused to provide confirmation of termination and has “thus attempted to reserve Defendants’ right to assert that once Paul McCartney’s terminations go into effect, Paul McCartney will have breached his contractual obligations to Defendants. Rather than provide clear assurances to Paul McCartney that Defendants will not challenge his exercise of his termination rights, Defendants are clearly reserving their rights pending the final outcome of the Duran Duran litigation in the U.K.”

Sony issued the following statement: “Sony/ATV has the highest respect for Sir Paul McCartney with whom we have enjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationship with respect to the treasured Lennon & McCartney song catalog.

We have collaborated closely with both Sir Paul and the late John Lennon’s Estate for decades to protect, preserve and promote the catalog’s long-term value. We are disappointed that they have filed this lawsuit which we believe is both unnecessary and premature.”