The Jesus and Mary Channel filed a copyright infringement action against Warner Music, “based on WMG’s refusal to allow JAMC to terminate copyrights 35 years after the original release of JAMC’s albums”, including their 1985 debut album, Psychocandy. The lawsuit seeks “damages for willful copyright infringement in the amount of $2.55 million.”
This lawsuit involves Section 203 of the Copyright Act 1976, also known as the “35 Year Act”. It “allows recording artists to terminate the rights grants they have given to record labels, 35 years after the works are published, and restores ownership of U.S. copyright in sound recordings to artists who have recorded”. This is what allowed Gang of Four recovers the rights to its first tracks and releasing it as a box set on Matador earlier this year.
The lawsuit claims that Warner Music has so far “willfully and willfully” refused to comply with JAMC’s notice of termination with respect to their five albums for the label – Psychocandy1987 dark landsthe 1988 compilation Barbed wire kisses1989 Automatiqueand 1992 Honey is dead — as well as a few singles. Some of them, like their first singles and Psychocandypassed their termination dates in January.
In December 2020, an attorney for the Warner Rhino label responded, “WMG is the worldwide copyright owner of each of the sound recordings comprising the notified works, and the notice is not effective in terminating the American rights to WMG”, claiming that William Reid, Jim Reid and former JAMC bassist Douglas Hart had agreed that “[WMG predecessor] WEA was the “creator” of the Notified Works and the primary owner of the copyright in the Notified Works” upon signing with WEA. “As a result, you never owned any copyright in the recordings that you could terminate.”
In a statement, JAMC’s attorney Evan S. Cohen said: “Our copyright law gives recording artists and songwriters a unique and valuable chance to terminate old agreements and reclaim their creative works after 35 years. That ‘second chance’ still has is part of our copyright law In this case against WMG, the label refused to recognize the validity of one of the termination notices served by The Jesus and Married Chain, and completely ignored group ownership rights. Despite the law returning the US rights to the group, WMG continues to exploit these recordings and thus deliberately infringes the copyrights of our customers. This behavior must stop. The legal issues in this lawsuit are of paramount importance to the music industry.
You can read the whole trial here.
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