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Ray Charles, his children and the copyright fight
Friday 19th October 2012 | Mary-Cate
A battle is currently being fought over the royalty rights attached to the defining tunes of Ray Charles’. Songs such as ‘A Fool for You’, ‘Mary Ann’ and ‘I Got a Woman’ generate huge revenue through royalties each year for the Ray Charles Foundation. In his will Charles made it clear that this is where he wanted the money to go and his kids aren’t happy!
Earlier in the year Charles’ seven children claimed that the record company, not the Foundation, owned the songs. They did this to try and terminate the rights of the Foundation to royalties. The judge found that if that was the case then it should be the record company suing unless the songs were not made in the course of Charles’ employment by the record company (or in other words not “made for hire”).
In the case currently before the LA Court the Foundation is arguing that the songs weren’t made in the course of employment. Charles’ children are standing by their claim that the record company owns the songs and therefore the Foundation doesn’t have the legal standing to pursue them. However, the foundation is the legal beneficiary - so shouldn’t this give them the right to pursue the case?
The case is ongoing and raises interesting and new questions about the ability of artists to terminate rights. Billboard.biz reports that if the judge finds that the Foundation does have standing and allows the case to go on, it would set a precedent for other royalty recipients, like record producers, to challenge termination notices.
Although this case concerns US law, copyright issues are plaguing the international music community of late. Artists such as Bob Dylan and Tom Waits have attempted to file termination notices with their labels/music publishers and don’t even get me started on the ISP’/filing sharing litigation!
By Mary-Cate Byrne
