It looks as though Paul McCartney has gotten a substantial amount of his long-lost Beatles copyrights back. Fortune.com reported, “Paul McCartney has reached a confidential settlement of his lawsuit against Sony/ATV Music Publishing in which he sought to reclaim copyrights to songs by the Beatles. The accord disclosed on Thursday (June 29th) in filings with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ends McCartney’s preemptive effort to ensure that the copyrights, once owned by Michael Jackson, would go to him starting in October 2018. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos signed an order dismissing the case, but agreed to revisit it if a dispute arose.”
Back in January, McCartney snatched headlines when he struck an offensive blow against Sony/ATV in an attempt to regain his share of the publishing to the Beatles catalogue with John Lennon. Pitchfork.com reported at the time: “McCartney claims that he will reacquire the songs in 2018, but Sony has reportedly not confirmed that it will transfer the song copyrights without a legal dispute. The copyrights of the songs in question were once held by Michael Jackson before his estate sold its stake in Sony/ATV last year.”
McCartney was exercising the right to recoup the copyrights due to the termination provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act in which artists that had signed away their works could attempt to reverse the copyrights back to them.
