The songwriter and composer organizations Music Creators North America (MCNA), the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) and the Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) are overjoyed by the decision rendered this evening in the Vetter litigation by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that termination rights for creators and their heirs under the US Copyright Act have international application.
According to SGA outside counsel and MCNA advisor Charles J. Sanders:
The members of the Music Creators North America (MCNA) coalition, led by songwriter/composers Rick Carnes of SGA, Ashley Irwin of SCL, Eddie Schwartz of MCNA and Canadian music creator Greg Johnston, are ecstatic over the decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Vetter case that US termination rights applicable to copyright assignments are global in effect. As creators have long maintained (some for over four decades), such provisions were never meant to be limited to the recapture of US rights only. The MCNA member groups congratulate attorney Tim Kappel of New Orleans and all who worked with him on this case for finally proving the point at the federal appellate level. While the decision is still being reviewed by our groups, it appears to represent an enormous victory for the American and global creator community, and a crucial, judicial recognition of Congressional intent that the US Copyright Act is primarily a statute meant to protect the rights of creators first and foremost.”
More to follow directly from individual MCNA member groups and you can download the case document here.
