The legendary band "The Beatles" is perhaps the most famous in the world. She performed a large number of hits, which today many music lovers of the world listen with great love, millions of copies of discs with songs that were written more than fifty years ago are still released annually.
The Beatles have recorded a large number of various hits, there is no group, but her creative legacy is alive and dear in all respects. Despite the strictness of American laws regarding copyright and inheritance rights (redemption of inheritance shares), everything is very ambiguous with the claim to the hits of the Beatles.
The Beatles was founded in 1960, the Liverpool four lasted only 10 years, in 1970 they disbanded, having released 211 hit songs.
Michael Jackson and Sony
It is a well-known fact that in the mid-80s, the rights to publish the songs of the legendary group The Beatles were put up for auction. At that time, Michael Jackson became their copyright holder. He bought them for $ 50 million. Based on this, he received the right to own fifty percent of all profits from general sales. The rest of the profits went to the songwriters. In 1995, Michael Jackson decided to sell half of his rights to the well-known Sony company. Thus, at the time of his death, he was the owner of only a quarter of all income from sales.
Statute of limitations
If we consider the copyrights of all members of the Beatles, it should be noted that they belonged to them only for 50 years. After this period, all musical works became national property.
It became known that in 2012 the ownership of the group's debut hit, which is known to all music lovers under the name Love me do, expired. It was written in 1962.
Three years ago, the European Union Commission, which deals with the rights to musical works, decided to extend the period of validity of the rights of the band members for 20 years. The claim for the extension of the rights was filed by the International Federation of the Recording Industry. Based on it, the term should have been extended by 45 years. However, the European Union decided otherwise.
Paul McCartney
Last year it became known that legendary member of The Beatles, Paul McCartney, has every chance of obtaining the rights to the songs that are now the property of the late Michael Jackson. America's Copyright Act states that authors of music written before 1976 can become copyright holders again after 56 years. Thus, Paul McCartney may regain the rights to publish the 1962 songs in 2018.
