SONGWRITERS RETAIN GLOBAL TERMINATION RIGHTS AFTER SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO STEP IN!

A bid by the major music publishers to undo a landmark songwriter-rights ruling has failed, though the court never weighed the legal arguments.

On October 19, the US Supreme Court let stand a Fifth Circuit decision holding that when songwriters terminate an old copyright grant they get back their rights not only in the United States but worldwide. The challenge came from Universal's Capitol CMG, Sony's Essential Music Publishing, Warner-Tamerlane, and BMG Rights Management.

The result came down to arithmetic. Justices Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Barrett, and Jackson sat out the petition without giving reasons, leaving five justices, one short of the six needed to act. Under Federal law, the lower court's judgment was then affirmed by default. The practical impact is real but limited. The Fifth Circuit's reading is binding in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Because there was no ruling on the merits, it sets no national precedent, and courts elsewhere could still disagree. Enforcement abroad is another open question, since foreign courts and collecting societies may apply their own ownership rules.

By way of background, the 1976 Copyright Act provides for the termination of copyright transfers. It entitles content creators to reclaim their copyrights - regardless of any contract stating otherwise –after certain time periods. Generally speaking, for copyright grants made on or after January 1, 1978 (the effective date of the 1976 Copyright Act) the termination period is 35 years under Section 203 of the Copyright Act. For pre-1978 works Section 304(c) of the Copyright Act, says that a copyright owner (or his or her heirs) can terminate all grants, licenses or transfers of beginning on the 56th year after that assignment was made. Termination may be exercised anytime during a 5 year period beginning at the end of either the 35 year or 56 year period from the execution of the grant (as applicable) or, if the pre-1978 grant concerns the right of publication of the work, then the period begins on the sooner of 35 years after publication or 40 years after execution of the grant. Although there are certain formalities which must be complied with to effectuate transfer, this essentially means that many recording artists and songwriters are entitled to start exercising their right of termination - and it has led to disputes and litigation. 

This latest dispute before the Supreme Court centers on "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)," written in 1962 by Cyril Vetter and Donald Smith. Vetter terminated the 1963 assignment in 2019, then sued in 2023 to be declared the song's sole owner worldwide. The district court agreed in January 2025, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed in January 2026. The publishers had warned that the ruling upends decades of industry practice and puts billions of dollars of existing deals in doubt. Vetter's lawyers countered that the statute exists to protect authors who signed away their work before its value was known.

With the question unresolved nationally, expect publishers and other relevant copyright claimant parties to watch for the next case that could reach a different circuit. For now, this is a small, albeit significant, victory for authors and songwriters with respect to copyright terminations and reversions of rights under the US Copyright Act - and a correct holding in my opinion, hopefully opening the floodgates for more courts to follow suit.

Wallace Collins is an entertainment lawyer and intellectual property attorney with 35+ years' experience. He was a songwriter and teenage recording artist for Epic Records before receiving his law degree from Fordham Law School. www.wallacecollins.com