The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Jim and William Reid are suing Warner Music Group (WMG) for copyright infringement and declaratory relief.
The lawsuit has been filed due to the fact that Warner Music Group allegedly refuse to terminate its copyright ownership of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s early discography, including their debut album, Psychocandy, as reported by Pitchfork.
The lawyer representing the Reids issued a statement saying, “Our copyright law provides recording artists and songwriters with a valuable, once-in-a-lifetime chance to terminate old deals and regain their creative works after 35 years. This “second chance” has always been a part of our copyright law. In this case against WMG, the label has refused to acknowledge the validity of any of the Notices of Termination served by the Jesus and Mary Chain, and has completely disregarded band’s ownership rights.”
It continues, “Despite the law returning the U.S. rights to the band, WMG is continuing to exploit those recordings and thereby willfully infringing upon our clients’ copyrights. This behavior must stop. The legal issues in this suit are of paramount importance to the music industry.”
The lawsuit was filed on the 14th of June at a Federal Court in California, with Jim and William’s legal team are suing under Section 203 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows “authors to ask copyright holders to terminate grants of copyright ownership 35 years after a work’s publication”.
Under this section, the pair are reportedly asking for at least $2.6 million in damages.
The Reids first sort for WMG to relinquish the rights to their earlier music in 2019, for five albums in total including: Psychocandy, Darklands from 1987, the compilation Barbed Wire Kisses from 1988, Automatic from 1989, and last but not least, 1992’s Honey’s Dead.
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In December 2020, the legal representation for WMG stated that they would not be terminating their rights to the music, with their statement reading, “WMG is the owner of the copyrights throughout the world in each of the sound recordings comprising the Noticed Works, and the Notice is not effective to terminate WMG’s U.S. rights.”
While a number of their singles and EPs have met their termination dates, Psychocandy for example won’t do until 2022.
For more on this topic, follow the Classic Rock Observer.
