[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

And those before 1978? Can they get reclaimed? And what about all those creators whose work has been adjudged to be "work for hire". Do they get anything?

This was introduced in the 1976 law, hence the 1978 cutoff date. Prior to that law being passed, contracts for transfers of copyright had no expectation of being terminated, and were not negotiated with that in mind.

If you bought a classic car from someone, and next year Congress passes a law stating "ownership of a car can be reverted to the original owner after 15 years," it would be profoundly unfair to make that law retroactive. You bought the car with the expectation that the transfer of ownership was permanent, not that the car could be taken away from you at a future date. However, if you buy it after that law was passed, it's caveat emptor.

Thus, anyone who was on the receiving end of a transfer of copyright (i.e. the publishers) was essentially informed that the content creator could reclaim the copyright after 35 years, and should have negotiated accordingly.

Further, you cannot waive your right to terminate the transfer in advance. A publisher cannot include language in the contract that overrides your ability to reclaim the copyright.

If it's work for hire, then you never owned the copyright, and have no grounds to terminate the transfer.

Originally Posted by RSE

And note: 1978 + 35 = 2013. Any bet that MPAA/RIAA might want to ...ahem...extend the 35 year reclaim?

The RIAA already tried, and failed, to change the law to exclude sound recordings.

There are no subsequent indications of anyone trying to change the law.

The law has already been tested in courts. Pre-1978 recordings basically cannot be terminated (Bob Marley case). However, partial rights can be terminated without requiring co-authors to also file for termination. Thus in May, a federal court upheld that 1 of the 3 co-authors of "YMCA" could terminate his transfer, without requiring the other co-authors to also file.

There is a chance record companies will claim that sound recordings were "works for hire," but this is highly unlikely to work in most cases. No one is going to believe Bruce Springsteen was an employee of Columbia Records.

Originally Posted by RSE

In other works, if you have negotiation power, you will get residuals - maybe.

Filing for the termination of transfer of copyright gives the content creator that negotiation power. They can maintain the status quo; they can demand a change to the contracts; or they can reclaim their initial copyright and self-publish it.

So as I said earlier: This is a clear example of how copyright law is not constructed in favor of the middle man. If anything, this part of the law is decidedly tilted in favor of the content creator, not the middle man.