Re: S.505 Signed

On 10/30/98, Robert A. Kreiss <kreiss[_at_]odo.law.udayton.edu> wrote:
>
> One thing is curious to me as I read the new amendments. This deals
> with "who" can exercise termination rights. The existing law allows
> the widow or widower, children, or grandchildren to exercise the
> rights. The amendments add a section saying that if all of these
> people are dead, then "the author's executor, administrator, personal
> representative, or trusteee shall own the author's entire termination
> interest."
>
> In short, as I read it, if the spouse, children, and grandchildren
> are dead, then the termination rights leave the blood family (great
> grandchildren, etc) and go to a stranger, who can exercise
> termination rights and become the copyright owner.
>
> Three strange things:
>
> One, isn't it strange to put copyright ownership into the hands of
> a non-relative? What was the policy rationale for that?
>
> Two, what if the executor, administrator, personal representative,
> and trustee are all dead? Who gets the right then? Does it just
> evaporate?
>
> Three, isn't it quite likely that in many cases all of these people
> will be dead? Consider a 50 year old author who wrote a novel in
> 1930, assigned the copyrights that year, and died in 1935. What are
> the chances that the author's executor, etc. might still be alive in
> 1998? If the chances are good that these folks are all dead, then
> doesn't that make the termination rights kind of hollow? Was this
> intended by Congress to act this way?
 

This is the section I was referring to in my earlier post to this list. I am glad someone else is interested in this! I do wonder where this change came from and why. And did the termination right evaporate before the amendment when there was no living spouse, child or grandchild? Why has it now been enlarged to give non-relatives a grab at a transferred copyright? Does anyone know where this came from?

Amy Cohen
Professor of Law
Western New England College
Springfield, MA 01119

413-782-1430
acohen[_at_]law.wnec.edu Received on Sun Nov 01 1998 - 15:14:27 GMT