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Paul McCartney's Suit over Songs' Recapture Rights

By Stan Soocher and Scott Graham

Paul McCartney has long wanted to reclaim ownership of his share of the copyrights to “Love Me Do,” “Ticket to Ride” and numerous other Beatles hits he co-wrote with John Lennon. McCartney now relies on the provision of the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §304(c), that allows some copyright assignments by authors such as himself to be terminated 56 years after a copyright was secured.

But the unfavorable December 2016 decision by a British judge in a copyright termination dispute involving the 1980's hitmakers Duran Duran raised some doubts — at least in the minds of Sony/ATV Music Publishing and its counsel — about whether the U.S. copyright law rights can supersede valid contracts assigning away musical rights and also prevent Paul McCartney from exercising his termination rights. Gloucester Place Music Ltd. v. Le Bon, [2016] EWHC 3091 (Ch).

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