Sunday, August 21, 2011

Tom Waits trying to regain copyright of earlier work

Several news sources suggest Tom Waits is one of the artists trying to reclaim ownership of recordings made in the seventies.

Thanks to the so-called 'termination right', as determined by a revision of the US copyright laws which went in effect in 1978, from 2013 on, artists in the US will be able to regain copyrights on recordings put out 35 years beforehand, as long as they have applied two years in advance.

Tom Waits albums from that era are The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), Nighthawks at the Diner (1975), Small Change (1976), Foreign Affairs (1977) and Blue Valentine (1978).

Other musicians reported tring to regain control of their copyrights are Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen.

Further reading: NY Times, BBC News, Poll Star.


3 comments:

joseph kees said...

what an odd situation. it must feel creepy not to own songs you wrote, especially 4 or 5 records. that's got to feel horrible.

HarryFabian said...

@joseph It's the copyright of those specific recordings at stake, not the publishing rights of those songs.

Still, what an odd situation to be in.

joseph kees said...

I"m aware that it's a copyright issue.

still, what an odd situation for Tom--creepy even . . .