Under Sec. 304(a) of the 1976 Copyright Act, works registered in the U.S. Copyright Office before Jan. 1, 1978, retained their initial 28-year copyright term.
Second Circuit Interprets 'Executed By the Author' In Copyright Act's §203 Grant Termination Provision
Composers of pre-1978 works often assigned both the initial and renewal copyright terms in their works when signing songwriter agreements with music publishers. But what happens when a grant of the copyright renewal term of a pre-1978 work has been made post-1977?

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