Attorney: Flo & Eddie Should Ask For Political Help

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Attorney Helene Freeman, who recently served as co-counsel in Led Zeppelin’s major US court victory over the rights to “Stairway to Heaven” spoke to Radio Ink about Tuesday’s New York Court of Appeals ruling in the Flo & Eddie/SiriusXM case. She says this will probably spell the death knell for efforts to secure performance rights for pre-1972 sound recordings in the courts under existing law. Here’s where she thinks this issue should go…

Freeman says this battle will now shift to Congress, where an effort to amend the Copyright Law is ongoing. “Attention should also shift to state legislatures, which can pass their own legislation to protect the rights of owners of pre-1972 that are not protected by federal law.”

Appeals are also being heard on this issue in California and Florida. Freeman tells Radio Ink she believes this is the death knell for Flo & Eddie because New York is highly influential on the scope of common law copyright. “Its refusal to find a performance right in prior decisions on which Flo & Eddie has pressed its case, as well, is likely to be considered persuasive in Florida. While California might still reach a different result under its statute, other states are not likely to find a right in their common law that New York does not recognize.”

Freeman says Flo & Eddie could press the New York legislature to enact protection for the owners of sound recordings. “The New York legislature might be receptive to an appeal from recording artists and record companies, and the opinions in the Court of Appeals affords a road map for doing so.”

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