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<b><i>Commentary:</b></i> As 2013 Approaches, Artist Termination Right Faces Record Labels' Work-For-Hire Argument

By Jay Rosenthal
February 28, 2008

It's time to start thinking about work for hire again. Technically, 2013 is the first year qualified recording artists may exercise the termination right that will result in reversion to them of the copyrights in their sound recordings from their record labels. The issue actually became timely 10 years earlier, in 2003. That was the first year a recording artist had the right to notify a record label of his or her intention to exercise the termination right.

Even the Copyright Office, sensing a new-found focus by recording artists on termination rights, recently called for public comment on proposed rule changes to the termination-right notification and filing process. There is no doubt about it: Whether referred to hyperbolically as a 'time bomb' or more benignly as a 'leak' in the record company's vaults, how the sound recording work-for-hire problem is resolved will have enormous financial and political impact on both record labels and recording artists.

Termination Right

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