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Louisiana Federal Court Delivers Ruling on Worldwide Rights in 1960s Party-Rock Song Copyright
"Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)," a hit record for the Swingin' Medallions in the 1960s, became an enduring party-rocker from that era. Today, rights in the "Double Shot" musical composition are at the center of litigation in Louisiana federal district court. The case involves the hotly debated issue of whether the U.S. Copyright Act's assignment-termination and renewal-term rights provisions apply to authors' grants of foreign rights in their copyrights.
"Double Shot" was co-written by Cyril Vetter and Don Smith in 1962. The songwriters assigned the worldwide, exclusive copyright interests to Windsong Music in 1963 for the life of the copyright, including a "contingent assignment of all renewal period rights." Windsong registered the song with the U.S. Copyright Office in 1966. A that time, the Copyright Act provided works with an initial and a renewal term of 28-years each.
Smith passed away in 1972. When the copyright renewal term kicked in in the 1990s, Smith's heirs were entitled to ownership of his copyright share of "Double Shot." However, because Vetter was still alive, under copyright law his renewal-term interest remained with Windsong. But in 1996, Vetter bought Smith's renewal interest from his family.
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