Paul McCartney has launched a lawsuit against Sony Corp's music publishing arm in a federal court in New York, seeking to get back the copyright to 267 Beatles songs that pop star Michael Jackson acquired two decades before his death.
McCartney's suit is over what is known as copyright termination: the right of creators under the US 1976 copyright act to reclaim ownership of their works from publishers after a specific length of time has passed.
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Paul McCartney sues for music rights
Paul McCartney has launched a lawsuit against Sony Corp's music publishing arm, seeking to get back the copyright to 267 Beatles songs that pop star Michael Jackson acquired two decades before his death.
In McCartney's suit, filed in US District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, lawyers for the singer detailed the steps they have taken over the past nine years to reclaim McCartney's piece of the copyrights in dozens of Beatles songs he wrote with John Lennon, including Love Me Do, I Want to Hold Your Hand and All You Need Is Love.
That process involved filing numerous legal notices, which, the suit says, should be enough to guarantee that Sony/ATV would return the rights to McCartney, starting in October 2018.
Michael Jackson purchased the rights to the Beatles songs in 1985 and 10 years later he formed Sony/ATV as a joint venture with Sony.
Jackson famously outbid McCartney for publishing rights to the songs in 1985, paying $US47.5 million to obtain the collection as part of a much larger trove of some 4000 pop music tunes from Australian businessman Robert Holmes a Court.
The Beatles songs and rest of the ATV collection were then rolled into a joint venture Jackson formed in 1995 with his Sony-based label, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which grew into the world's biggest song publisher.
Jackson's estate sold off its stake in Sony/ATV, including the Beatles collection, to Sony Corp for $US750 million in 2016, seven years after the singer's fatal 2009 drug overdose from the powerful anesthetic propfol.
According to Rolling Stone, McCartney's lawyers are citing that the rights to works made before 1976 must be returned to their owners 56 years after the original copyright, which will be next year given that Lennon and McCartney's original copyright goes back to 1962.
Sony/ATV currently holds copyrights to the works, which were jointly composed by McCartney and John Lennon between September 1962 and June 1971.
"Because the earliest of Paul McCartney's terminations will take effect in 2018, a judicial declaration is necessary and appropriate at this time so that Paul McCartney can rely on quiet, unclouded title to his rights," the suit said.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing called the lawsuit "unnecessary and premature" in an emailed statement.
"Sony/ATV has the highest respect for Sir Paul McCartney with whom we have enjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationship with respect to the treasured Lennon & McCartney song catalogue," Sony/ATV said.
"We are disappointed that they have filed this lawsuit, which we believe is both unnecessary and premature."
The lawsuit said Sony/ATV attempted to stall talks with McCartney until the conclusion of a lawsuit involving similar claims by British pop band Duran Duran that was playing out in an English court. Duran Duran lost the legal battle to a Sony/ATV subsidiary in December.
"Rather than provide clear assurances to Paul McCartney that defendants will not challenge his exercise of his termination rights, defendants are clearly reserving their rights pending the final outcome of the Duran Duran litigation," McCartney's lawsuit said.
The suit is seeking a declaration from the court that McCartney can reclaim his copyright interests in the songs, as well as lawyers fees.
– Reuters, The New York Times