Will Paul McCartney Get The Rights To His Beatles Songs Back? He's Already Working On It | Page 3 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Hello folks! 

Once again, until I know this place a bit better, I’ll keep putting this but, Sorry if this thread is elsewhere. If it is, feel free to move it or delete it.

On to the point.

I’ve just got back from France today and been greeted with the news that our mate Paul has finally won his bid for the ownership of The Beatles’ songs.

Now, this isn’t new news, It first started to appear around January, when he filed a lawsuit against Sony to reclaim some of his work. Here’s a little bit of history for the legal side of The Beatles:

1963: In March 1963, the Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me  was officially released, and Epstein sought a publisher for the songs written by all four members of the group. The company that resulted was called Northern Songs, majority-owned by publisher Dick James with Epstein, Lennon and McCartney, with the latter two songwriters owning 20 percent of the business each.

1965: Northern Songs became a public company, with Lennon and McCartney each owning a 15 percent stake and Harrison and Starr splitting a small percentage. (George then went on to write Only A Northern Song to express his dissatisfaction with the deal he got)

1969 (The year where it started to go downhill): (After relations between the Beatles and James deteriorated, James sold his stake in Northern Songs to ATV Music, owned by Lew Grade, and despite Lennon and McCartney’s attempts to offer a counter bid, ATV gained control of the catalog. Later that year, the duo sold their remaining shares to ATV, leaving them without a stake in the publishing of their own songs (they both controlled their own respective songwriting shares).

1985: ATV Music, having been acquired by Robert Holmes a Court, was put up for sale. Michael Jackson, who had famously been told about the value of publishing by McCartney during the sessions for their 1982 collaboration “Say, Say, Say,” purchased ATV’s 4,000-song catalog for $47.5 million, becoming the owner of the approximately 250 Lennon-McCartney songs. McCartney, to say the least, was not pleased.

1995: Amid reported financial issues, Jackson sold half of ATV to Sony for approximately $100 million, and together the two formed Sony/ATV Music Publishing, with Jackson and Sony each owning 50 percent of the company.

2006: With financial problems mounting and a potential bankruptcy appearing imminent, Sony negotiated a deal on Jackson’s behalf to reduce loan payments on his debts, and as part of the negotiations, retained an option to purchase 50 percent of Jackson’s 50 percent ownership in the future, which would give Sony 75 percent ownership of the catalog.

2009: Following Jackson’s sudden death, his share of the catalog came under the control of his estate, run by Jackson’s attorney John Branca and industry veteran John McClain.

2016: After announcing their intention to trigger their purchase option of Jackson’s stake in the company, Sony officially agreed to buy out the Jackson estate’s full 50 percent of Sony/ATV for $750 million, making Sony the sole owner of the Lennon-McCartney catalog as well as Sony/ATV’s 750,000 other songs.

According to the Copyright Act, songs written before 1978, like the entire Beatles catalog, revert back to the composers after 56 years.Pul’s songs, written with John would therefore start becoming available in 2018, and continue reverting annually through the anniversary of the Beatles’ dissolution in 2025.

If all goes to plan, Paul will finally be able to get his precious rights back, something he has wanted even when the band were still together.

BUT

That reversion back to McCartney is not assured, As the 80s band Duran Duran lost a similar suit against Sony in December.

Fingers crossed that Paul will get his right back, and if so, we are all free from the evil grasp of Sony. 

Thanks everyone!