Paul McCartney has reached a settlement with Sony/ATV over a suit he brought to ensure he gets the rights to songs he wrote for the Beatles in the 1960s and '70s.
McCartney filed the suit in January as the copyright to his earliest songs was set to revert back to him in October 2018. U.S. copyright law states the rights to songs written before 1978 would revert back to the author 56 years after the songs were written, but McCartney was worried Sony/ATV would attempt to use a British statute to retain the copyright, as they had recently done with some of Duran Duran’s songs.
The terms of the settlement were confidential will not be disclosed, but it seems as though the rights will begin reverting to McCartney in 2018 when the 56 years have passed, Ultimate Classic Rock said.
McCartney lost the rights in 1985 when Michael Jackson paid more than $47 million for ATV, which owned the rights since 1967. Jackson sold half of his share to Sony 10 years later for $100 million, and his estate sold the other half to Sony for $750 million in 2016.
The agreement states the New York federal court will “enforce the terms of the parties’ Settlement Agreement, should a dispute arise.”
The suit was expected to be a landmark case that would decide whether a British statute could override an American one, but the settlement leaves the previous Duran Duran case standing alone without any further light being shed on what Sony might do in the future to hold onto song rights.