With Armstrong, Foster, Waller and Twain in mind, the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) and the Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) have joined the Authors Guild in asserting that congress intended copyright termination rights to apply internationally
New Orleans, June 20, 2025: SGA and SCL have joined with the Authors Guild and other authors’ rights groups in filing an amicus brief with the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals imploring that it affirm the GLOBAL application of copyright grant termination rights under the US Copyright Act. The brief points out that for generations, authors—especially music creators—have been the victims of threshold deals with music publishers that severely undervalue their works.
Songwriters and composers ranging from Louis Armstrong and Stephen Foster to Fats Waller and Mark Twain “sold” publishing rights in their compositions for pennies on the dollar to corporations, which refused to renegotiate deal terms even when it became clear that the eventual value of the song made the original assignment unconscionably unfair.
At the urging of the Songwriters Guild and others, Congress acted under the US Copyright Act of 1976 to give creators (other than authors for hire) rights to terminate grants of rights in works “arising under the Act”. For decades, publishers argued that this ambiguous wording limited such terminations to recapture of US rights only. The recent Louisiana federal district court ruling in Vetter v. Resnick, however, adopted the view that if Congress wanted to limit the revolutionary termination rights it finally granted to creators in 1976 solely to domestic effect, it would have said so far more clearly.
Billions of dollars in songwriter and composer royalties are at stake in the case, which is being carefully monitored by both creators and publishers around the world. The appeal is expected to be decided before the end of 2025, at which time the non-prevailing side will likely appeal for potential reconsideration by the United States Supreme Court. “The US and global creator communities intend to pursue victory in this case up to the highest court,” stated SGA president Rick Carnes. “With a marketplace so unfairly tilted in favor of corporate rather than creator interests, under conditions exactly the opposite of what the Founders contemplated in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, this fight will continue for as long as it takes.”
Carnes added that “Congress granted termination rights to authors and other creators to address this market unfairness on a global basis, not just at home, knowing that the arts are dependent on an international marketplace for establishing fair remuneration as the prime incentive for creativity. The district court emphatically got this right, and we intend to fight to ensure that decision is enshrined in both law and practice.”
The brief can be accessed here.
NOTE: The interview in the video above with the great American musical genius Pops Armstrong includes a lament about writing and selling the classic song “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” for fifty dollars, losing credit in the process as well as royalties he could never get back. Fats Waller was forced by poverty to do the same in regard to “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” and Twain assigned publishing rights to “Innocents Abroad” for virtually nothing. Stephen Foster, America’s first great composer, died on the New York Bowery with an estate of 37 cents in his pocket while his publisher retained his copyrights until they passed into the public domain years later. NOT cool.
Author: Charles J. Sanders
