Cash from Chaos: Sound Recording Authorship, Section 203 Recapture Rights and a New Wave of Termination

The thesis of this Article is that under an exclusive recording agreement entered into in the United States between a record label and recording artist on or after January 1, 1978, any key member of recording artist that signed the recording contract is a bona fide author of a sound recording for purposes of claiming standing in order to effectuate a termination of transfer of grant under Section 203 of the 1976 Copyright Act. Part I will summarize the history of sound recordings as copyrightable subject matter. Part II will examine record industry custom and practice as it relates to the relationship between recording artists and record labels under exclusive recording agreements. Part III will examine what occurs in a typical recording session for the purpose of offering indicia of who is making substantive creative decisions that affect the final sound recording. Part IV will explore different theories of who may reasonably articulate a claim of authorship credit in a sound recording. Part V will present a nuanced, reasonable and practical solution to the issue of determining who has standing as an author of a sound recording for purposes of terminating a grant of transfer under Section 203 of the 1976 Copyright Act