I was leafing through the SMU Law School alumni magazine when I came upon this photograph of the school's first online computer research terminal from Lexis. This is the exact machine we learned to do legal research on in my first year of law school. It took hours. No wonder I preferred to use the books. I still do, although I have to admit online legal research has become a lot easier.
Late last year, it was announced that Bob Dylan had sold his catalog (including the writer's share of income) to Universal Music Publishing Group for approximately $300 million, one of the highlights in the recent frenzy of catalog acquisitions. Shortly thereafter, on January 20, 2021, Claudia Levy, the widow of songwriter/psychoanalyst/theater director Jacques Levy, filed suit against Dylan and Universal for breach of contract, alleging that the Levy estate was somehow due some part of the proceeds that Dylan received from the sale because of the fact that Levy co-wrote ten songs with Dylan, including the majority of the songs on Desire ("Isis" is a personal favorite).
None of that is surprising; contractual disputes occur all the time. What intrigued me is that Dylan's co-writing arrangement with Levy was a "work made for hire" agreement where Dylan not only owned Levy's share of the copyright, but that for copyright purposes, Levy was Dylan's employee – with no ability to ever recapture his share of the copyright. Even more surprising is the fact that the contract specified that Levy would receive only 35 percent of the writer’s share of income from the songs, rather than the traditional 50/50 co-writer's share.
The complaint goes on to list a litany of complaints against Dylan and his associates, but I remain most fascinated by the whole work-made-for-hire concept. It seems so foreign to any traditional notion of co-writing – although the history of the music business is full of examples of artists and performers making "unique" deals with their collaborators – this one is fairly new to me. Oddly, Dylan's Motion to Dismiss the claim, which was filed in March, refers to the work-made-for-hire arrangement as "standard." Maybe these deals made more sense back in 1975. I wonder if he had a similar arrangement with Sam Shepard? I will say that I agree with Dylan's attorneys that the complaint is without merit – the contract clearly gave Dylan the right to assign the copyrights and the deal doesn’t disturb Levy’s continued income stream. It doesn't look as if the court has ruled on the. Motion yet.
Anyway, happy birthday, Bob. We're lucky to be living in the same time as you.
I have neglected my little blog for a while now. It looks like I only posted seven times in 2020. It's not like I had anything else going on.
Seriously, this was not intentional. I have several things I really want to delve into and hope to get them up soon.
However, I did want to mention how cool it is that Bruce Springsteen has his own radio show, From His House To Yours on Sirius XM. I have been a fan of Springsteen's since before he was the Boss, and I have known since the first time I saw the E Street Band live that he has excellent taste in covers. So I was thrilled to find out that last November, he played Jeffrey Foskett's version of "Cool and Gone," written by my compadres Bill Lloyd and David Surface (originally recorded by Bill on his Standing on the Shoulders of Giants album).
Then on March 11, 2021, Bruce opened the show with the great Bobby Sutliff and his song "Kings of Flannel" followed a little later by Bobby and Tim Lee's band The Windbreakers doing "Girl from Washington," a song I've had stuck in my head since the first time I heard it. This was followed a little later by Webb Wilder and his recording "Battle of the Bands".
How cool is that? I count all of these guys as clients and friends, and there is something really significant about their music getting acknowledgement from the Boss. These are all great songs and great artists. Check them out.
