Publication Date
Spring 4-15-2025
Presentation Length
15 minutes
College
College of Law
Department
Entertainment Industry Studies
Student Level
Graduate
SPARK Category
Scholarship
Faculty Advisor
Kristi Arth
WELL Core Type
Intellectual Wellness
SPARK Session
Wednesday, Apr. 16, 20225, 11:45am-12:45pm.
Presentation Type
Talk/Oral
Summary
Waite And See: The Problem With Class Action Litigation to Enforce Copyright Termination Rights is piece of legal scholarship written by Belmont College of Law’s Justice Slone. The article explores the various challenges that artists face when trying to exercise their rights of copyright termination. Copyright termination is a mechanism that was introduced as part of the Copyright Act of 1976 and allows authors who have transferred ownership of their copyrighted works to third parties to reclaim that ownership after 35 years. Often times, at the time that an artist is making a transfer of ownership, they have vastly inferior leverage against the corporate conglomerate that are major record labels. The termination right was meant to give artists a “second bite at the apple” for their copyrighted works with a backdrop of commercial success bolstering their bargaining power. The termination right, however, is rife with technicalities and procedural defects that have rendered its intended benefit of leveling the playing field inert.
This paper explores the challenges that these defects impose on artists, using the ongoing lawsuit Waite v. UMG as a case illustration to demonstrate the various legal tactics and loopholes being exploited by major labels in court. Early on in the era of copyright terminations, class litigation emerged as a potentially viable means of artists enforcing their termination rights against the labels who refused to recognize their purported recaptures. Sadly, the structure of copyright law and the hurdles it created for class litigation has proven that it this is an untenable strategy. In light of this, Waite And See argues that the time has come for Congress to step in and overhaul the termination right portions of the Copyright Act to fulfil its promise of leveling the playing field.
Recommended Citation
Slone, Justice, "Waite and See: The Problem With Class Action Litigation To Enforce Copyright Termination Rights" (2025). SPARK Symposium Presentations. 491.
https://repository.belmont.edu/spark_presentations/491
