Breaking Beatles News!
Paul McCartney’s lawsuit against Sony has been settled, and his Beatles songs are his again!
As The Guardian reports:
“Paul McCartney has reached a settlement over copyright to the Beatles catalogue, avoiding a legal battle that could have had wide ramifications for the music business.
McCartney filed a lawsuit in January in a US court to secure rights from Sony ATV music publishing following a British judicial ruling that shook up the industry.
Michael Jacobs, a lawyer for McCartney, late last week informed a judge that the two sides “have resolved this matter by entering into a confidential settlement agreement”.
Jacobs asked Edgardo Ramos, a federal judge in New York, to dismiss the lawsuit. Representatives declined further comment.
The case revolves around the US Copyright Act of 1976 which aimed to strengthen the hand of songwriters – whose relationship with music publishers, who hold rights and distribute royalties, has been notoriously rocky.
Under the act, songwriters could reclaim copyright from music publishers 35 years after they gave them away – or 56 years for songs from before 1978.”
The Beatles wrote and recorded the greatest music ever, but they didn’t own it afterwards!
Here is the original story of the lawsuit from The Hollywood Reporter:
“Paul McCartney has filed suit in New York against Sony/ATV and is looking to get a declaratory judgment that states he will soon regain his copyright ownership share to a treasured catalog of songs created as a member of The Beatles.
According to McCartney’s complaint, he transferred rights to songs co-authored by him and John Lennon between 1962 and 1971 to various music publishers.”
Yes, as they note, John and Paul “transferred rights” to various companies, and when they were bought by someone else, they lost the rights to the music they created!
The craziest part of the music business is how ownership of the music publishing is where all the money is…and this is where the story got weird in the 80’s between Paul McCartney and his friend, Michael Jackson..
In the late 70’s and early 80’s, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson teamed up on several songs, including the mega-hit “Say Say Say”.
Two of those songs were included on the album “Pipes Of Peace” – one of McCartney’s more polarizing efforts…see it here:
https://johnrieber.com/2016/09/17/pipes-of-peace-paul-mccartneys-rap-ringos-drumming-misunderstood-classic-or-tug-leftovers/
McCartney and Michael Jackson were friends making music, but little did McCartney know that Jackson was negotiating to take ownership of The Beatles musical catalog!
Here is how The Hollywood Reporter explains it.
“It’s well known that in the 1980s, after getting advice from McCartney himself that the big money in music was tied to rights in song compositions, Michael Jackson bought songs including “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be.” Jackson then entered a joint venture with Sony/ATV, and last year, his estate sold the late pop singer’s remaining interest to Sony.
The lawsuit notes that McCartney has been serving and recording termination notices for nearly a decade.”
So Jackson bought the rights to The Beatles catalog of songs, and McCartney has been trying to get them back ever since..imagine writing all of the incredible songs that McCartney did over the years, and he doesn’t own them!
This legal battle is now over, bravo to Macca for prevailing!
If you find the legal battles of the Beatles interesting, here is an amazing story:
This fascinating book looks at the legal battle over the music of The Beatles…read all about it here:
https://johnrieber.com/2012/03/19/beatle-eagle-big-battles-best-music-books-pt-1/
The music of The Beatles is, of course, priceless, and a recent documentary looked at their first trip to America:
Director Ron Howard uncovered amazing never-befpre-seen footage of the Fab Four in the first day of “Beatlemania” – see the trailer to this amazing documentary here:
https://johnrieber.com/2016/09/06/the-beatles-first-us-tour-new-movie-the-fab-fours-segregation-battle-ron-howards-fascinating-new-beatles-documentary/
The music of The Beatles has stood the test of time, including this masterpiece now fifty years old:
It’s almost unbelievable to have an album that is virtually flawless – with iconic music that lives on fifty years later…see it here:
https://johnrieber.com/2016/08/06/the-beatles-revolutionary-revolver-50-years-ago-maccas-greatest-writing-john-lennons-near-death-yellow-submarine/
Good luck to Paul McCarntey as he fights to regain the rights to his amazing music!
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johnrieber 
Reblogged this on johnrieber and commented:
Paul’s lawsuit was settled!
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A lesson to all recording artists to make sure they read the ‘small print’. He must be passionate about it, because as others have said, he sure doesn’t need the money!
Best wishes, Pete.
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Absolutely Pete. The music business is so devious, someone writes music and gives up ownership to the person who distributes it!
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I recently watched an interview where Dolly Parton made a point of owning her own music. In 1976 Elvis Presley fell in love with a song she’d written and asked if he could record it. The date was set and everything agreed to. Elvis was coming to town to record one of her songs as she was just taking off in the music business. Last minute she got a call and was asked by his management of the little details and that Elvis owns the publishing to everything he records. Dolly told them that unfortunately she retains publishing rights on all her songs. She wouldn’t budge and understood that they were good at business and wouldn’t either. Elvis didn’t record the song. Dolly Parton retained ownership. The song was you guessed it I Will Always Love You. Sixteen years later it made her a shit ton of money when Whitney Houston did it for The Bodyguard.
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That’s a great anecdote – and Artists have routinely been taken advantage of when licensing their music to others….Dolly is a smart one!
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Interesting read as always! You are my go to source for all things Beatles! 🙂 He deserves to own his creative property. I heard him on NPR once and he mentioned that he didn’t receive proper credit for songs jointly written with John simply because Lennon came before McCartney on the labels and so McCartney sometimes was propped. Even then it bothered him but he only fought for those where he had actually written the song alone.. (like Hey Jude, I believe)
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should have said, McCarney’s name was ‘dropped’ not ‘propped’ but hopefully you got the idea! (big fingers, small tablet!)
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I got the idea! He asked Yoko Ono once if he could switch the credits on “Yesterday” since it is his signature song – and she said “NO”
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rather unreasonable wasn’t she!
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I sure hope he wins. Not that he needs more royalty money. At 660 million a year, he’s not hurting. Of course, he wrote the songs. He should “own” them. I initially thought, gee, after a couple decades they’d be part of the public domain, the magic number being 70. But that’s after Paul dies.
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Paul does not make 660 million a year.,
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You are right. Sorry. He is worth that much.
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I understood what you meant. He’s certainly not doing it for the money as for the legacy – and to allow his family to have a role in how this music is used for generations to come…it still takes me aback to see a Beatles song used on an ad that has NOTHING to do with the tone, style or intention of the music.
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I don’t begrudge him his money; I would love to see some philanthropy. He has to protect his legacy.
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