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Examining the 'Harmless Errors' Provision for Copyright Termination Notices
Record labels fear the ticking clock that will allow recording artists to terminate post-1977 sound-recording assignments beginning in 2013. That's because '203 of the U.S. Copyright Act provides for a grantor's recapture of assigned copyrights during a five-year period beginning 35 years after publication or 40 years from the assigning of a work. The termination right applies beyond sound-recording copyrights. Pre-1978 copyright assignments may be recaptured under 17 U.S.C. '304(c) during a five-year period that begins 56 years after the copyright in an assigned work was initially procured.
Provision 'Little Utilized'
The termination notice requirements for ”304(c) and 203 are set forth in the Code of Federal Regulations at 37 C.F.R. '201.10. But despite the brouhaha over the looming 2013 sound-recording termination trigger, U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson recently noted in a case involving '304(c) that up to now “the termination provisions in the 1976 Copyright Act have been little utilized by authors or their heirs and, consequently, little explored by the courts.” Larson's comment came from a case in the Central District of California that has concerned, among other things, termination notices sent by heirs of a co-creator of the Superman character and is, according to Judge Larson, “the first time the harmless errors rule [of 37 C.F.R. '201.10(e)] has been actually interpreted by any court in a context even approaching that found in the current case.” Siegel v. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., CV-04-8400-SGL. As a result, Larson's ruling on the issue may well offer what little judicial guidance exists as to what may constitute “harmless errors” in drafting copyright termination notices, especially regarding assignments of multiple copyrights.
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