Despite the false rumor that Michael Jackson was giving Paul McCartney back his Beatles songs in Jackson’s will, Paul McCartney may regain control of his songs after all.
Billboard Magazine reports that Paul McCartney may get back some of his Beatles songs in the next decade. A U.S. Copyright Act lets songwriters regain copyrights after 56 years. So, Paul McCartney could begin regaining control over songs he wrote in 1962 in the year 2018. Then, over the next 8 years, additional McCartney-penned songs may go back under his control. Nice retirement money!
The copyright act has different rules if the songwriter dies. Some of John Lennon’s song rights were up for grabs as early as 1990. It’s been reported that Lennon’s heir, Yoko Ono, struck a deal with publisher Sony/ATV so they would retain Lennon’s portion of the song publishing. That would have been Read the rest of this entry