Bit Parts

Copyright termination rights have been a hot button issue in the music industry in the past several years, with 2013 being the first year under 17 U.S.C. '203 that authors could recapture copyrights for assignments they made for works created after 1977. A dispute between the rock band Blondie and the group's former manager Peter Leeds has raised the issue of a manager's commission rights when artists terminate those copyright assignments. Leeds managed Blondie when the band began having big hits in the latter half of the 1970s with Chrysalis Music. But Leeds and Blondie parted ways under a May 1979 written agreement. The agreement gave Leeds post-term commissions from “gross earnings” on Blondie's existing agreements in effect before Feb. 9, 1985, and to music created by the group members by that date. BMG Rights Management (BMG) later became the successor-in-interest to Blondie's music publishing agreements with Chrysalis. In December 2012, instead of exercising its copyright recapture rights, the band sold those rights to BMG for $1.3 million, which Leeds then claimed he had a right to commission. Blondie argued the statutory recapture rights didn't fall within the band's 1979 separation agreement with Leeds. In deciding Leeds' motion for summary judgment, Justice Anil C. Singh of the New York Supreme Court, New York County, first noted in part: “Leeds' interpretation that the payment for recapture rights falls within the broad definition of gross earnings is reasonable. The examples given in paragraph 3 [of the 1978 Leeds/Blondie agreement] of the types of income sources are by way of example and state, 'Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, it is understood that you are entitled to a commission on all of our earnings derived from records and tapes, writing and composing musical compositions, music publishing, personal appearances, television, radio commercials, merchandising and endorsements.'” But Justice Singh then emphasized: “Conspicuously absent from the Termination Agreement is a specific commission rate that would apply to the sale of statutory recapture rights.” Denying Leeds' summary judgment motion, Judge Singh concluded that the Leeds/Blondie agreement, “when read as a whole is ambiguous ' [T]his Court finds that there are genuine issue of material fact'.” Leeds v. Harry, 157749/13.

Grant of Exclusive Right to Use Four Seasons Band Member's “Biography” for Jersey Boys Also Transferred Copyright in His Autobiography Manuscript