Back in the day I was one of the millions of "20 feet from stardom" guys. Never made it myself but I was in a few studios, did a few keyboard tracks, was on an album that went nowhere, etc. This brings back memories I had totally forgotten about. I remember people saying around 1970 all you can copyright is a basic sheet with the melody and that's it. The key takeaway in this article was everybody needed to re-register their stuff again on the day the law took effect in 1978. Meaning IMMEDIATELY.

Seriously this just rang a bell with me, I remember one guy talking about that and it was right around 1978. If some little schlep like me knew about this, you would think all the big timers would too. If they didn't and wind up losing because of this it's on them and they should sue their lawyers for dropping the ball. When you're a superstar dealing with millions of dollars your advisers are supposed to be on top of stuff like this, laws change all the time and I remember now there was lots of talk in the musical press about how the old law needed updating.

I'm a big of a geek and I will actually read court cases sometimes and I read this one including the background on the judge. I didn't know that judges in these cases including this one has a degree in music, is a classical player himself and is a historian. So he's pretty knowledgeable in his own right. He was also smart enough to switch to law and not depend on music for his lifetime income...

Unfortunately I understand that this kind of thing happens all the time and it's called good luck suing an attorney. Most musicians who make it come from very humble roots, have no idea about big finance and just have fun with their lives without a care in the world, just like many pro athletes. They fall into the trap of bad advice, getting ripped off by cheating managers and all that. I really hope this works out for them but if this is what the law says well, that's probably it then.

Sometimes judges can change what appears clear in the text by looking at what Congress was debating at the time the law was passed and try to rule based on the INTENT of Congress rather than specifically what the statute says. This is where all the arguments come from talking about "activist judges". That can be good or bad depending on who's ox is getting gored.

Bob

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