Salt N Pepa have again laid into Universal Music in a new interview about their ongoing legal dispute with the major over the termination right in US copyright law.
They don’t get into the nitty gritty of Universal's legal arguments for why they don't qualify for the termination right, instead insisting that that particular element of copyright law is meant to “protect the artist” and, well, “we are the artist”.
“When you're an artist, in the beginning, you sign a contract saying that the copyrights will revert back to you after 35 years”, Cheryl ‘Salt’ James told ‘Good Morning America’ earlier this week, adding, “we’ve done all the things legally to get our copyrights back, but they’re just refusing, so we had to sue them”.
“The record companies have been getting away with this for a lot of years and it’s time for us to fight for our rights”, she continued, while Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton chipped in, “it’s the law - that’s what it really boils down to”.
Whether James and Denton will ever have to present these arguments in court remains to be seen, an out-of-court settlement seems more likely. And the bad PR for Universal generated by interviews like this one possibly strengthens the duo’s negotiating position when it comes to agreeing that settlement.
The duo’s explanation of the US termination right in the ‘GMA’ interview is slightly simplified.
Basically, when a creator transfers ownership of their copyrights to a business partner, like a record label, they have a one-time opportunity to cancel that transfer after 35 years. There’s then a process to go through as the 35 years approaches in order to reclaim the rights.
James and Denton went through that process with Universal Music, which controls the copyrights in the early Salt N Pepa recordings, but the major has refused to recognise the termination. It explained its position in a court filing last month.
It insists that, back in the 1980s, James and Denton were employed on a ‘work for hire’ basis by producer Hurby Azor, which means his company owned the copyright in the Salt N Pepa recordings.
He then transferred ownership of the rights to another company, and said rights ultimately ended up with Universal-owned London Records.
But, crucially, James and Denton never transferred any rights to anyone - and certainly not to London Records - therefore there is no transfer to terminate. Which means James and Denton can’t have the Salt N Pepa recordings rights back.
However - as various US creator groups recently wrote in relation to another termination rights dispute - this bit of copyright law was added by US Congress to “protect creators from the consequences of early, unremunerative deals made when they had little bargaining power and no crystal ball to predict their future success”.
And given that objective, should major rightsholders be allowed to rely on complex legal technicalities to stop artists reclaiming their rights? The lawyers and academics are free to debate that question all they like, but Salt N Pepa obviously answer it with a resounding “no”.
“The law is to protect the artist”, James reiterated in this week’s interview, with Denton noting that - at the outset of their career - “We didn’t have that leverage. We didn’t have that knowledge. We didn’t have that control in the 80s”. And “to be held to a contract from 1985”, 40 years later, Denton, added, “it’s, like, ridiculous”.
Presumably aware that they are locked in a PR battle with Universal, as well as a legal battle, the duo were also keen to stress the practical impact of the litigation on their fans.
It “keeps us from re-releasing our music” and from “promoting it”, Denton noted, while James said, “Our fans don’t get to hear it, and they’re complaining, they’re like, where’s the music?”. Where indeed.