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COPYRIGHT OWNERSHIP/INEFFECTIVE TRANSFER
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a declaratory ruling that singer Barbara Mason owns the song copyright to her 1965 hit recording “Yes, I'm Ready.” Mason v. Jamie Music Publishing Co. (JMP), 05 Civ. 9922(BSJ)(JCF). Mason was 17 years old when she wrote the song. A Philadelphia Orphan's Court had appointed a guardian for Mason and directed the guardian to execute management, recording and songwriter agreements on her behalf. The songwriter agreement with Stilran Music & Dandelion Music (i.e., JMP) stated that Mason assigned to the publishers the rights in songs that she previously wrote that were listed on a Schedule B, but Schedule B wasn't filed with the Orphan's Court. The publishers federally registered the copyright in 1965 with themselves as claimants; Mason filed a renewal copyright in 1993 listing herself as copyright owner. In 2007, she signed an agreement to sell her copyright interest to Embassy Music Corp.
In ruling for Mason, U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones found that the 1965 songwriter's agreement with the missing Schedule B failed to meet the writing requirement of 17 U.S.C. '204(a) for transfer of ownership of a copyright. According to the district judge: “The [c]ourt finds that Defendants' extrinsic evidence does not constitute a written assignment of Mason's copyright ownership, either by itself or when considered in conjunction with the Songwriter's Agreement. The Parties' correspondence and the royalty checks and statements establish that Mason and JMP were engaged in a business relationship and that JMP exploited the Composition and paid Mason royalties as a result.” (For example, in a 1984 letter to JMP President Harold Lipsius regarding a third-party use of “Yes, I'm Ready,” Mason had praised the JMP executive for “looking into this matter which concerns both of us.”)
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