‘Give Artists a Fairer Share’: Songwriter Urges SCOTUS to Let Landmark Copyright Ruling Stand
Categoria: Musica
The major labels say the Supreme Court must overturn a ruling that will spark "chaos," but the guy who won it says such dire warnings are overblown.
Por Billboard | 15/09/2026
The songwriter who won a landmark ruling on copyright termination is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject efforts by major music companies to overturn it, telling the justices there is no “emergency” and that publishers are “doing just fine.” The majors asked the high court this summer to tackle and reverse the first-ever ruling that came down in January, which said musicians can use termination to regain not just American songs but also overseas rights. They called the decision “profoundly wrong” and warned it will cause “chaos” for the music business. But in their first brief to the justices on Monday (Sept. 14), attorneys for Cyril Vetter, the songwriter who won that ruling, say the music firms are “breathlessly” painting doomsday scenarios that are unlikely to happen. “Petitioners try to depict this case as some sort of copyright emergency that cannot await further [litigation],” Vetter’s attorneys write in the brief, obtained and first reported by Billboard . “But publishers are doing just fine and will continue to thrive even if some of them have slightly less bargaining power with which to deprive authors of a fair return when their works become wildly successful.” The new brief — filed by Vetter’s longtime attorneys Tim Kappel and Loren Wells as well as veteran Supreme Court litigator Joshua Rosenkranz and his firm Orrick — argues that music companies are just afraid of actually competing over the real value of music. “Petitioners openly resist a rule that makes publishers negotiate on an open market to re-up deals,” Vetter’s attorneys write. “Publishers can afford to negotiate with more artists about whether to give artists a fairer share of the fruits of their artistic brilliance.” Attorneys for the music companies did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday (Sept. 15). Termination is a legal provision that gives creators a chance to recapture their rights decades after they sold them away. But it has only ever applied to U.S. copyrights 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 ruling for Vetter overturned that longstanding approach. Siding with him in his quest to win back ownership of his 1963 rock classic “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)” from a small publisher, a federal appeals court ruled that a terminating author should win back all of their rights, including those in foreign markets. The ruling was hailed by musicians and their advocates as a “game-changer” and “a massive win for the principle of fairness.” But it has been decried by publishers, labels and investors, who stand to lose countless foreign revenue streams they’d expected to collect for decades. In an unusual legal procedure , a group of major music companies (Universal Music Group, War