The Beatles will lose their copyrights over the next ten years?

Question

any comments?
Also Elvis and a host of others.

Additional Details

M. Jackson owns the Beatles publishing for about half of their stuff. They still get royalties which they will soon lose.
Copyright for songs is NOT renewable, when it runs out, it runs out.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Last thing I remember reading was that Jackson had actually sold most of his share a while ago. Trust me, I think McCartney is keeping very close watch over it.....

edit*

Here's what I saw:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_So…


As for copyrights not being renewable, how cool would it be if The Beatles set yet another precedent & musical "1st" if that law was changed starting w/. them? :)

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Apparently it might change soon

Answer 2

Yea, Micheal Jackson already owns the Beatles so they arent losin jack.

Answer 3

No.

Answer 4

yes cos copyrights only exist for 50 years then they can be re-registered i think.

Answer 5

I don't think that's correct anymore.

I read that music copyrights in the US last 95 years from the publish date:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:Z4t…


In the UK it is 50 years but there is a proposal to also extend all previous and new copyrights to 95 years starting in 2008:
http://www.copyright.mediarights.co.uk/

Answer 6

What's it matter? They'll all be dead in 10 years anyway

Answer 7

Wacko Jack and Sony jointly own Northern Songs, which holds most of the copyrights for the Beatles' material (much more than half). McCartney owns "Love Me Do" and "PS I Love You", Harrison's estate own Harrisongs, which has the copyright for all of George's later Beatle works (from about 1968 onwards), and Ringo owns Startling Music, which has "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden". The four Beatles (and/or estates) jointly own "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" (from the "Anthology" albums).

As for losing the copyright, I found this information from the site listed below:

"Congress amended the law to provide that all works originally copyrighted between 1964 and 1977 will be extended for an additional 67 years automatically - no registration form needs to be filed in order to renew them."

Kinda blows a hole in the 'losing copyright over the next ten years' idea.

Source(s):

http://www.bmi.com/career/entry/533748