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Royalty Reduction for English-Titled Songs Is Ruled Contract Breach

By Stan Soocher

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York decided that, in paying reduced royalties for English-titled instrumental versions of songs, Universal breached subpublishing agreements that Brazilian songwriters Antonio Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes entered into with Universal's predecessors-in-interest. Jobim v. Songs of Universal Inc., 05 Civ. 3527(PAC).

Jobim and de Moraes originally signed subpublishing agreements between 1962 and 1973 with Leeds Music Corp., Duchess Music Corp. and MCA Music Holland. (Both Jobim and de Moraes are now deceased.) The subpublishing agreements covered songs that Jobim and de Moraes wrote individually, as well as collaborations like “The Girl from Ipanema” and “How Insensitive.” The agreements gave the music publishers the right to create English-language versions of the compositions. Thus, Norman Gimbel was retained in 1963 to write English lyrics for four of the songs (including “Ipanema” and “Insensitive”) in exchange for a right to song royalties. To resolve subsequent royalty disputes, Gimbel entered into additional agreements with Universal in 1995 and 1999.

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