Paul McCartney suing Sony to regain rights to Beatles songs

In what could become one of the most important legal battles in the music industry this decade, he is looking to leverage the termination provisions of the Copyright Act. According to McCartney’s complaint, he transferred rights to songs co-authored by him and John Lennon between 1962 and 1971 to various music publishers. It’s well known that in the 1980s, after getting advice from McCartney himself that the big money in music was tied to rights in song compositions, Michael Jackson bought songs including Yesterday, Hey Jude and Let It Be. Jackson then entered a joint venture with Sony/ATV, and last year, his estate sold the late pop singer’s remaining interest to Sony. … By filing this suit now, McCartney clearly is looking to have an American court rather than a U.K. one rule in the dispute. By doing so, the complaint hints that he will soon be bringing arguments that in the U.S., the statutory termination right supersedes any contractual right.