“Only the McCartney half of the Lennon/McCartney songs are eligible for termination, and only for the USA”, a source told Billboard. In 2009, Yoko Ono agreed to a deal with Sony/ATV giving the company ownership of John Lennon’s half for the life of the copyright (70 years after the death of McCartney).
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Per the US Copyright Act of 1976, songwriters can recapture shares of their songs from publishers after a period of 56 years if the songs were written before 1976. During The Beatles, ownership of the songs went straight to Northern Songs – a company founded by the band’s manager Brian Epstein.
Now, in order to recapture those rights, McCartney first had to file a termination of publishing notice with the U.S. Copyright Office two to ten years before that 56-year mark, which Billboard confirmed that he indeed recently did.
Now, McCartney will only be able to regain the rights to his compositions, meaning that all of the McCartney/Lennon songs will have to be parsed.
Asked whether Sony overpaid for Sony/ATV given the coming reversion, the insider said no – half of the Lennon-McCartney publishing for the world excluding the U.S.is not chump change by any measure.
Nearly 20 year later, Michael Jackson bought the ATV catalogue – which by that time also included songs by Little Richard, the Pointer Sisters, Pat Benatar and The Pretenders – for $41.5m (£28.8m), permanently souring his friendship with Sir Paul. Not to mention that many of these Beatles songs will not even be available until 2025.
“More than 30 years after Michael Jackson purchased the publishing rights to the Beatles” catalog, Paul McCartney is looking to reclaim them. Once the rights have reverted, McCartney could negotiate a new deal with Sony/ATV, or with another publisher, or keep the copyrights for himself and hire a rights administrator.
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Lennon and McCartney ended up with a 15% share, while James and his partner Charles Silver took 37.5% between them as the company’s chairmen.
