Lester Chambers, The Main Ingredient, the Original Drifters, The Coasters, have won a reversal of Judge Rakoff's decison to dismiss the case in the Federal Appeals Court. In a David vs Goliath like case, recording artists from the past have finally won one.

Rhythm and blues artists who recorded albums dating back to the 1950s won a court battle on Thursday when an appeals court reinstated a copyright suit against major record companies over digitized works sold on the Internet or downloaded from Web sites.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a lower court ruling that had thrown out the case filed by members of The Chambers Brothers, The Coasters, The Original Drifters and The Main Ingredient, who are represented by Feldman and Rifkin, more commonly known as Leflaw.

At issue is whether or not record labels automatically assume rights that did not exist at the time contracts were negotiated. A recent Supreme Court decision in the Tasini vs. NYT affirmed that these rights are not automatically assumed when they are developed, if the "right" did not exist at the time the contract was signed, and that the creator retains those rights to their work. The potential impact on "catalog" artists is tremendous.

The major labels have been licensing music From The Chambers Brothers, The Coasters, The Original Drifters and The Main Ingredient to services that provide digital downloads and streaming. This amounts to the same thing as selling the Brooklyn Bridge, if you are not New York City.

The oral arguments on which the decision was based:
REAL MEDIA:
clip 1 | clip 2| clip 3
MP3:
clip 1 | clip 2 | clip 3

Links:
NEWS.Com
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