Majors and BMG lose Supreme Court bid over worldwide songwriter rights
Songwriters kept a broad right to take back their old songs around the world after the US Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge from the major music companies and BMG on 19 October.
The challenge ended without a ruling on the substance of the case. Four of the nine justices sat it out, which left the court short of the six justices it needs to act. Music Business Worldwide
The five remaining justices concluded the case could not be heard and decided in the court’s next term. Under federal law, that meant the lower court’s ruling was upheld automatically.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson took no part in the consideration or decision of the petition. BMG’s parent company Bertelsmann also owns Penguin Random House, which has published books by all four of the recusing justices.
The same four justices, plus Justice Samuel Alito, also stepped aside from a separate copyright case involving author Ta-Nehisi Coates in which Bertelsmann was named as a defendant.
The ruling that now stands came in January from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the federal appeals court for Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. It remains binding on federal courts in those three states. Because the Supreme Court did not rule on the merits, it does not set a nationwide precedent.
At issue are termination rights, the US rule that lets creators reclaim copyrights after a set period. For works from before 1978, songwriters can reclaim rights after 56 years. For later works, the wait is 35 years. Before the Fifth Circuit decision, the industry had broadly treated those US rights as covering only the US.
The case centres on ‘Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)’, written in 1962 by Cyril Vetter and Donald Smith. In 1963, Vetter and Smith assigned their rights to Windsong Music Publishers in exchange for one dollar.
Vetter served a termination notice in 2019. It took effect on 3 May 2022. In the meantime, Robert Resnik’s Resnik Music Group bought Windsong in 2019, and Resnik continued to claim a 25% stake in the song. Vetter sued Resnik in Louisiana federal court in 2023, asking to be declared the song’s sole owner worldwide.
BMG and the major companies had asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Fifth Circuit’s worldwide reading. They told the court it would cause chaos, in arguments reported in June. Music Business Worldwide Industry groups also weighed in through friend-of-the-court filings, including the global recorded-music organisation IFPI.
For songwriters and the companies that hold their old contracts, this means the fight is paused rather than finished. A songwriter in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi can rely on the worldwide reclaim rule. Elsewhere in the US, other courts could reach a different conclusion until the Supreme Court decides a future case in full.
