Supreme Court Won’t Overturn Landmark Music Copyright Termination Ruling
Categoria: Musica
The justices used a rare maneuver to uphold a ruling for songwriter Cyril Vetter that major music companies have warned will cause "chaos" for the industry.
Por Billboard | 19/10/2026
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (Oct. 19) refused to overturn a landmark ruling that extended copyright termination globally, rejecting an appeal by major labels that warnted it would cause “chaos” for the music business. The justices affirmed a novel decision, won in January by Cyril Vetter over his 1963 rock classic “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love),” that said artists can use termination to regain not only American copyrights, but also overseas rights to the same songs. That ruling undid decades of industry precedent. Related ‘We’ve Been Told We’re Crazy’: Lawyers in Landmark Copyright Case Aren’t Backing Down Diddy Moved From New Jersey Prison to Similar Facility in Pennsylvania Weezer to Receive Legend of Live Award at 2026 Billboard Live Music Summit The earlier ruling was hailed as a “game-changer” for musicians, but seen as dangerously incorrect by publishers, labels and investors that own catalogs. In June, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and BMG urged the Supreme Court to overturn it. In an order Monday, the high court used a rare maneuver to refuse that request. Four of the nine justices did not participate, and the remaining justices said the case could not be resolved in the coming term, meaning the ruling should be upheld. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson did not participate in the case, though it was unclear why. Such an order leaves in place Vetter’s landmark win, but it does not make it the law of the land. Other appeals courts, including those covering New York and Los Angeles, are not bound to rule the same way. If they decide the issue differently, it would create a so-called circuit split that could make it more likely for the Supreme Court to review the issue again in the future. Termination is a federal provision that gives creators a chance to recapture their copyrights decades after they sold them away. But it has only ever applied to U.S. rights and had no effect in foreign countries. Under that approach, publishers continue to control overseas rights even after termination, an arrangement that gives them perpetual revenue in a globalized streaming era, veto power over cross-border projects and key leverage in deal re-negotiations. In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected that longstanding precedent. Siding with Vetter, the appeals court said Congress had written the termination statute with the goal of correcting “unequal bargaining power,” and thus clearly did not intend for authors to win back “only half of the apple” when they invoke the law. Though the major labels were not initially involved in the case, they used an unusual business deal to seek Supreme Court review, buying out the small publisher who owned Vetter’s music solely for the purposes of filing such a case. And in their petition to the court in June, they urged the justices to overturn a “headscratching” and “startling”