Paul McCartney Suing Sony For The Rights To Beatles Songs

Lost the rights in 1985


Article heading image for Paul McCartney Suing Sony For The Rights To Beatles Songs

Former Beatle Paul McCartney sued Sony's music publishing arm on Wednesday in federal court in New York, seeking to reclaim copyrights to 267 Beatles songs that pop star Michael Jackson acquired two decades before his death.

Jackson famously outbid McCartney for publishing rights to the songs in 1985, paying $US47.5 million ($A62.9 million) to obtain the collection as part of a much larger trove of some 4,000 pop music tunes from Australian businessman Robert Holmes a Court.

The Beatles songs and rest of the ATV collection were then rolled into a joint venture Jackson formed in 1995 with his Sony-based label, creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which grew into the world's biggest song publisher.

His estate sold off its stake in Sony/ATV, including the Beatles collection, to Sony Corp for $US750 million ($A994 million) in 2016, seven years after Jackson's fatal 2009 drug overdose from the powerful anaesthetic propfol.

According to his lawsuit, McCartney put Sony/ATV Music Publishing on notice as early as October 2008 that he wished to reclaim rights to the dozens of songs he co-wrote with the late John Lennon, from September 1962 to June 1971.

The suit claims Sony/ATV has so far failed to acknowledge the composer's rights to terminate copyright transfers of that music, including such hits as "All You Need is Love" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand," under the US Copyright Act.

"Because the earliest of Paul McCartney's terminations will take effect in 2018, a judicial declaration is necessary and appropriate at this time so that Paul McCartney can rely on quiet, unclouded title to his rights," the suit said.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing called the lawsuit "unnecessary and premature" in an emailed statement.

"Sony/ATV has the highest respect for Sir Paul McCartney, with whom we have enjoyed a long and mutually rewarding relationship with respect to the treasured Lennon & McCartney song catalog," Sony/ATV said.

-- AAP

 

27 February 2017

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AAP




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