Orrick Secures U.S. Supreme Court Victory Preserving Artists' Right to Reclaim Worldwide Rights In Their Works

An Orrick team led by Josh Rosenkranz and Farheena Rasheed secured a key win when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a Fifth Circuit ruling for songwriter Cyril Vetter, which held that artists can use U.S. copyright termination rights to reclaim worldwide rights in their work, not just U.S. rights, after granting worldwide rights to a publisher.

• Federal copyright law lets songwriters and other artists take back rights to works they signed away, generally 35 to 40 years after the original deal.
• Vetter, who co-wrote the 1960s hit "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)," exercised his termination rights in 2019, yet the music publishers argued that he could take back only the U.S. rights and that they kept the rights everywhere else in the world.
• The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana agreed with Vetter, granting summary judgment, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed.
• BMG Rights Management LLC and other major music publishers later took over the original publisher's interest and asked the Supreme Court to reverse, but the Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit's ruling after noting that it lacked a quorum.

Josh said of the affirmance: "Publishers have been systematically cheating artists for decades. Congress passed a law to ensure that a songwriter who signed away a hit song for a pittance decades ago is not forever locked out of the income their music earns, while record labels continue enjoying a windfall. When that original deal signs away worldwide rights, Congress intended that second chance to restore artists' worldwide rights, not just some sliver of the original deal. We are delighted that the Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit's decision upholding artists' rights to take back their works. This outcome is a tribute to the courage and commitment of Cyril Vetter and of Tim Kappel of Wells Kappel, who won this case in the lower courts, and we are proud to have stood with them. We'll continue fighting for artists outside the Fifth Circuit to have the same rights."

In addition to Josh, the Orrick team representing Vetter included Nicole Ries Fox, Lauren Weber and Lauren Shepard.

The case is BMG Rights Management LLC v. Vetter, No. 25-1391.