Copyright Termination
Beverly Hills Copyright Termination Lawyer
Trustees of estates, financial advisors and estate planning professionals should seek the advice of a copyright lawyer when representing estates that include royalty income from any copyrighted work such as music, books, film and television. At the Hodgson Law Group in Beverly Hills, California, copyright attorney Cheryl Hodgson Page advises clients in copyright renewal claims and the recapture of copyrights through termination.
Opportunity to recapture copyrights
The full impact of the provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act are now be realized, and has created a new window of opportunity during which the estate or owner of a copyrighted work can recapture all rights in the work 35 years after the date of the grant, even if the contract specifies the transfer was in perpetuity! The only exception is works made for hire. The risk is that the rights to recapture will be lost if the deadlines are missed, or the strict statutory notice requirements are not followed carefully.
Recapture of royalty producing assets such as songs or books that are still selling and generating income can often double the amount of income the estate or author will receive in the future!
There are four ways to recapture copyrights that were assigned or transferred away:
1. If an author did not grant renewal rights on pre-1978 works, the author gets them back.
2. If the author dies before the renewal on pre-1978 works vests, the family gets them back.
3. If the works were written before 1978 and neither 1) nor 2) apply, then the author can still terminate the assignment and get back his or her work for the last 39 years of copyright. The author can give notice up to 10 years in advance and even sell back those rights to a publisher or retain the work for direct exploitation by the estate or the author.
4. If an author signed away a work after 1977, the author can terminate those contracts either 35 years from the date the song was published or 40 years from the date of the contract, whichever is later.
Did you know?
• If your works were first published in 1978, 1979 or 1980 and you signed a publishing contract in 1978, 1979 or 1980, you may be able to terminate that publishing contract and get back the copyrights in eight to 10 years. However, you can send a notice to that effect now and even sell back the rights to your publisher and get the money now. In effect, there can be a recapture in eight to 10 years or a renegotiation now.
• The right to terminate copyright transfers is inherited by an author’s spouse and children, regardless of what the will might say, unless you send the notices during your lifetime. If the notices are sent, the author can then designate who will get those copyrights under his or her will.
• Even under the old statutory scheme of two terms of copyright, there may be the right to recapture rights by an estate if the author died prior to the vesting of the renewal term 28 years following the registration/publication of the work. More specifically, 2005 was the last year you needed to renew a United States copyright.
• If a loved one wrote a copyrighted work that was registered or published before 1978 and sold or transferred it to another person or company, but died before 28 years from registration/publication of that song had elapsed, the heirs or estate automatically owns the U.S. renewal copyrights and almost all the money earned from the work after the renewal term vests.
• Even though it is automatic, most third parties who had the work for the first 28 year don’t offer to give back these copyrights. One must often request them back!
• If an author wrote a work such as a song, a book, or a play before 1978 and signed a publishing contract that didn’t say the author was also transferring the renewal in it, the author sold only the first 28 years of the copyright. The author owns the renewal terms and all income generated after the first 28 years.
We would love to have you as part of our dream team of clients. Contact Beverly Hills copyright termination lawyer Cheryl Hodgson to set up an appointment.
