In our previous posts in our Music Law 101 series, we have covered the basics of copyright law, including the scope of copyright protection, copyright ownership, the exclusive rights of copyright, the duration of copyright...more
On October 11, 2018, the President signed the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (H.R. 1551). After years of calls for reform to music licensing by virtually all interests in the music industry, the MMA...more
As we have previously discussed, the owner of the copyright in a work has certain exclusive rights in that work. Anyone who violates the exclusive rights of the copyright owner is an infringer of that copyright.
To...more
As we have previously discussed, a copyright is first owned by its author (whether individually or on a “work made for hire” basis). Like with any other property, the author can transfer ownership of a copyright (in whole or...more
Once a copyright is created, protection generally lasts for 70 years after the death of the author and in some cases 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation. That’s a long time! After that time, the copyright...more
1/30/2019
/ Authors ,
Copyright ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Licensing Fees ,
Music ,
Music Industry ,
Music Publishing ,
Public Domain ,
Royalties ,
Song Lyrics ,
The Copyright Act
So you’ve already written and recorded a song and determined who owns it, but now what can you as an owner do with it? What rights in the song do you have, that no one else does?
The owner of the copyright in a work has...more
Last week, Brooks Pierce participated in CD Baby’s DIY Musician Conference in Nashville. We hosted legal clinics, served as mentors, gave out free copies of our Musician’s Legal Handbook, and presented a legal workshop on...more
After your band has written and recorded a song, who actually owns the song? This simple question does not necessarily have a simple answer.
Originally published on the ReverbNation Blog....more
We are pleased to introduce a new blog series. Music Law 101 will be a recurring bi-weekly series consisting of posts covering a wide variety of legal topics relevant to artists, musicians, songwriters, producers, and others...more
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the ASCAP and BMI antitrust consent decrees do not prohibit “fractional licensing” of songs. Fractional licensing means that if there are non-ASCAP or non-BMI...more
On September 18, 2017, songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler filed a lawsuit against Taylor Swift in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Hall and Butler are the co-authors of the 2000...more
On September 12, 2017, the publisher of the legendary song “More Bounce to the Ounce” filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against music producer Mark Ronson. The suit alleges that Ronson’s hit song “Uptown Funk,” which has...more
Frank “Knuckles” Walker, a musician and percussionist best known as a former member of the band The Roots, recently filed a lawsuit against his former band members and others.
A copy of the complaint is available here....more
On October 27, 2016, North Carolina songwriter Timothy Arnett sued the legendary country star Alan Jackson in the Eastern District of North Carolina for alleged copyright infringement. Arnett claimed that Jackson’s song...more
Ed Sheeran has had plenty of court troubles recently. After reportedly reaching a settlement over his song “Photograph” earlier this year, he was recently sued (a second time) for his song “Thinking Out Loud.”...more
8/8/2017
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Hague Convention ,
Lanham Act ,
Marvin Gaye ,
Music ,
Music Industry ,
Pharrell Williams ,
Service of Process ,
UK
On July 20, US Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced the Transparency in Music Licensing Ownership Act. The legislation would create a database of music copyright ownership and licensing information. ...more
Earlier this year, a songwriter sued the members of U2, claiming that the U2 song, “The Fly” from the 1991 album “Achtung Baby,” infringed the songwriter’s 1989 song “Nae Slappin.”
The plaintiff songwriter, Paul Rose,...more
On Thursday, the United States filed its brief (link is external)in its appeal of a decision by the district court for the Southern District of New York (link is external), which rejected the US Department of Justice’s...more
The U.S. Copyright Office has announced a new electronic filing system for registering websites, apps, and other online platforms for “safe harbor” protection from copyright infringement liability. The new system becomes...more