Add Victor Willis court victory

THE STORY SO FAR: The termination rights provision was included in a revision of copyright law that went into effect in 1978, the N.Y. Times reports, meaning that recording artists and songwriters can in 2013 begin to regain ownership of work whose control they signed away early in their careers, when they had little bargaining power. As a result, artists like Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, the Eagles and other big names from the 1970s will soon be eligible to reclaim ownership of recordings that have sold millions of copies and made millions of dollars for song publishers and the four major record companies. “This is the first case that’s interpreting the statute that deals with termination rights,” said Brian Caplan, Willis’s lawyer, said in a telephone interview. “The significance of the ruling is that one author who gives a grant to a publishing company has the right to recapture the copyright interest he created 35 years ago regardless of what other co-authors do or don’t do, and that the author gets back that which he created regardless of the income stream he agreed to over 35 years ago.” (5/9a)