Oh the poor poor RIAA. How I don’t feel sorry for them at all. If problems with “piracy” and slowing music sales (according to them) wasn’t bad enough, now they have another issue to fight. It turns out the big labels may start losing rights to songs recorded since 1978. Giving the artists themselves the chance to regain ownership of the music they created.
Of course the RIAA law dogs are primed to put up a fight. The New York Times has an interesting article about the whole thing.
When copyright law was revised in the mid-1970s, musicians, like creators of other works of art, were granted “termination rights,” which allow them to regain control of their work after 35 years, so long as they apply at least two years in advance. Recordings from 1978 are the first to fall under the purview of the law, but in a matter of months, hits from 1979, like “The Long Run” by the Eagles and “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer, will be in the same situation — and then, as the calendar advances, every other master recording once it reaches the 35-year mark.