I came across a pretty good article in the Hollywood Reporter. I urge you to read it for yourself. If not, I’ll summarize it for you.
A federal judge has given Victor Willis (Village People singer) a huge win in a copyright case. Willis notified the copyright owners of his group’s songs, ( including the hit single”Y.M.C.A.”) that he intended to terminate the copyright granted to them. The laws that enable him to do this are called Copyright Act amendments which went into effect in 1978.
Those laws dictate that artists who had created works at the early stage of their careers but handed their rights over without much bargaining power should be the beneficiaries of the latter portions of the newly extended term. It meant that songwriters could terminate copyright grants to publishers and record labels 35 years later. The stipulations were that they need to send their termination notices not fewer than two or more than 10 years from the intended termination date. The result is that 2013 is the first year in which musicians can effect a termination notice.
Read the entire article at the HollywoodReporter.com
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