The Copyright Act provides the owner of a copyright with the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, and perform the copyrighted work and allows the owner to transfer those rights to others. Aspiring artists, musicians, writers, and other authors often license or transfer their rights to others before knowing whether their work will be successful. In some cases—particularly those in which the work becomes very successful after the transfer—an author may wish to capitalize on that success by reclaiming her exclusive rights to the work. The Act permits authors to do so under certain circumstances, providing authors with an opportunity to renegotiate the prior transfer or monetize works that have greatly increased in value in the ensuing years. We report here on recent decisions that address the termination right, Horror Inc. v. Miller, 15 F.4th 232 (2d Cir. 2021); Waite v. UMG Recordings, 450 F. Supp. 3d 430 (S.D.N.Y. 2020), and on a recent copyright-termination case involving the just released "Top Gun: Maverick" movie, Yonay v. Paramount Pictures, No. 2:22-cv-03846 (C.D. Cal. June 6, 2022).

The Copyright Act

Under the Copyright Act, the owner of a copyright to a work has, among other rights, the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display a work and to prepare derivative works. 17 U.S.C. §106. Ownership of a copyright "vests initially in the author or authors of the work," except that, in the case of a work for hire, "the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author" and "owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright." 17 U.S.C. §201(a), (b). A "work made for hire" includes "a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment." 17 U.S.C. §101.

Section 203 of the Copyright Act provides that "[i]n the case of any work other than a work made for hire," the grant of a transfer or license or of any right under a copyright "executed by the author on or after January 1, 1978" may be terminated by the author or the author's heirs between 35 and 40 years after the execution of the grant and that "[u]pon the effective date of termination," the granted rights revert to the author or the author's heirs. 17 U.S.C. §203 (a), (b).