Music Copyright War Looming

quarterbuck writes with this excerpt from the NY Times: "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. ... 'We believe the termination right doesn’t apply to most sound recordings,' said Steven Marks, general counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America, a lobbying group in Washington that represents the interests of record labels. As the record companies see it, the master recordings belong to them in perpetuity, rather than to the artists who wrote and recorded the songs, because, the labels argue, the records are 'works for hire,' compilations created not by independent performers but by musicians who are, in essence, their employees."

Comments

OK fine, they were employees

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, fine. They were employees. You did file all the IRS paperwork required for an employee, didn't you? No? Hello, RIAA this is the IRS. We'd like to review some matters with you...

Re:It depends on contracts

[AlamedaStone]

Fun part is that in Germany, such an argument would bring immediate retribution by the state - since, if they're actually employees, the companies have to copay for such things like pensions or health insurance.

Thus they'd leverage huge fines against the companies making that argument since we all know that musicians rarely see a significant dime out of their contracts - which is the reason why they're doing tours where they also sell t-shirts to make money.

You Germans are so backwards. Here in America, it is every citizen's right not to have a pension or healthcare.