In 9 Years Paul McCartney Gets Beatles Songs Back Despite Michael Jackson?
Despite the false rumor that Michael Jackson was giving Paul McCartney back his Beatles songs in Jacksons will, Paul McCartney may regain control of his songs after all.
Billboard Magazine reports that Paul McCartney may get back some of his Beatles songs in the next decade. A U.S. Copyright Act lets songwriters regain copyrights after 56 years. So, Paul McCartney could begin regaining control over songs he wrote in 1962 in the year 2018. Then, over the next 8 years, additional McCartney-penned songs may go back under his control. Nice retirement money!
The copyright act has different rules if the songwriter dies. Some of John Lennons song rights were up for grabs as early as 1990. Its been reported that Lennons heir, Yoko Ono, struck a deal with publisher Sony/ATV so they would retain Lennons portion of the song publishing. That would have been ironic if Yoko had gained control over the Lennon and McCartney copyrights before Paul.
The Beatles original publishing company, Northern Songs, was set up by Brian Epstein and publisher Dick James along with the Beatles. Epstein, James, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr each had some shares in the publishing company. McCartney said that the four Beatles signed all the contracts Epstein presented to them without reading them first. John says they had complete faith in him when he was running us. To them, Epstein was the expert.
After Epsteins death in 1967, John and Paul failed at renegotiating their publishing deal with Dick James. Early in 1969, Dick James abruptly sold his majority shares in Northern Songs to Britains Associated TeleVision (ATV). He gave the Beatles no notice, and no opportunity to buy the shares.
Unfortunately, Lennon and McCartney were still legally bound by their Northern Songs publishing agreement to continue writing songs until 1973. Unhappy with their deal, they wanted out of their songwriting obligation, and out of the Beatles. The simplest way out was to give in and sell their song shares to ATV. Lennon and McCartney sold their Northern Songs stock in October 1969 for £3.5 million.
So, Lennon and McCartney lost control over the Beatles/Northern Songs copyrights to ATV Music. ATV was later sold to billionaire Robert Holmes a Court. Then in 1985, Michael Jackson outbid Paul McCartney and bought ATV and the Beatles publishing rights for $47.5 million. In the need for some cash, Micheal Jackson later sold half the rights to Sony and formed Sony/ATV.
It was rumored early this year that Jackson had put McCartney in his will and was giving his old friend back the Beatles songs. No one could imagine when that story was reported in the British press that Jackson would be dead within the year. Unfortunately the story proved to be false. Jackson did not include Paul McCartney in his will.
Micheal Jackson reportedly had debts totaling $500 million when he died, so its unclear if his half-ownership of the Beatles song catalog will go to pay off some of his debtors. Stay tuned, the McCartney and Jackson saga continues...
- Beatles Geek Pete
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