The Supreme Court on Monday basically said it won’t step in to overturn a big ruling that lets musicians take back not just their U.S. copyrights, but the foreign rights too—years after they sold them away. That decision, from a lower court, stands for now.
The justices used an unusual move to turn down an appeal from Universal, Sony, Warner, and BMG. Four of them sat it out, and the rest said they couldn’t get to the case this term. So the earlier win for songwriter Cyril Vetter over his 1963 song “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)” stays in place.
That lower-court decision flipped the longtime industry assumption. For decades, when artists used the termination process to reclaim their work, they only got the U.S. rights back. Publishers kept the overseas rights forever. The appeals court said that setup didn’t match what Congress intended—the law was supposed to fix the uneven power between artists and companies, not hand artists “only half of the apple.”
Because the Supreme Court didn’t actually rule on the substance, the decision only applies in the states covered by that one appeals court. Courts in places like New York and Los Angeles could still go the other way. If they do, the Supreme Court might end up having to settle it later.
Termination has always been limited to American rights, which let publishers hold onto foreign revenue even after an artist got the U.S. copyright back. The labels said expanding it globally would upend deals and money flows in the streaming age.