The Songwriters Guild Files Amicus in First Copyright Termination Case within the Ninth Circuit

In July, 2011, Scorpio Music and Can’t Stop Productions filed for declaratory relief against Victor Willis who served Can’t Stop with a notice of termination of post-1977 copyright grants. Victor Willis was the lead singer of the 1970s disco group the Village People.

Scorpio based its argument on Section 203(a)(1) of Title 17, which provides that “[i]n the case of a grant executed by two of more authors of a joint work, termination of the grant may be effected by a majority of the authors who executed it.” Scorpio asserted that the works were written as joint works and because Willis alone does not constitute a majority of the authors he does not have the right to terminate.

The Song Writers Guild (SWG) claims that Scorpio is confusing the law and quoted the Goldstein treatise: “termination requires action by a majority of the authors who executed the grant and not merely a majority of the authors of the work.” Because an author can license the work without the approval of the other authors, a majority approval for termination is not always required.

Post-1977 copyright grants are just now becoming eligible for termination so there have not been any cases on this issue which have gone to court. SWG stressed the precedential importance of this decision and Congress’ intent to allow artists to recapture their rights. The purpose of this is that often artists would enter into grants long before the market value of the work was established and termination allowed the artists to regain their rights later in the work’s copyright life.

This case is pending before Judge Barry T. Moskowitz in the Southern District of California.

[Photo under Creative Common’s license by Sister72.; http://www.flickr.com/photos/sis/160577761/]

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