Avoiding the Copyright War of 2013

Issues: Editorial

For all the cultural cache and tabloid-mystique of the record industry, the business boils down to one task: management of assets. Sound recording masters are key, and yet the ownership of this vital asset will soon be challenged.

Beginning in 2013, the Copyright Act will allow authors to regain ownership of copyrights transferred to others 35 years after those transfers took place.

This means that regardless of what agreement a recording artist originally struck with his record label, after 35 years he could potentially regain ownership of his sound recordings - creating a windfall for artists and depriving record labels of the important revenue that catalogue recordings generate. More