Thread by @MarkJKings

1. A brief bit about copyright termination rights. Specifically, when can you terminate and get your copyrights back?
15 tweets.

2. We say that 35 years after you’ve assigned a copyright, you can terminate the assignment and get your copyrights back. Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that.

3. First of all, the right applies where the “execution of the grant” (the assignment) was on or after 1978. If it was before that, a different set of rules and a different time frame (56 years) applies.

4. Under 17 U.S.C. § 203 of the Copyright Act, the author or their airs can terminate 35 years after the “execution of the grant” – or –

5. If the grant covers the right of “publication”, it’s 35 years from the publication date or 40 years from the execution of the grant, whichever comes first.

6. If you assigned rights to a work before it was released to the public to someone who did release it, then the grant probably covered the “right of publication.”

7. The date of “publication” can be tricky. But in most scenarios the 35 year date from execution is going to be your reference point.

8. Pay attention: the effective termination can be any date within a five-year period from that 35 years.

9. You can serve your notice as much as ten years before the effective date. But you can’t serve it any later than two years before that effective date.

10. So here’s the math. 35 + 5 = 40. 40 – 2 = 38. You must serve that notice within 38 years of the date of the assignment. You can serve as early as 25 years after the assignment, but it wouldn’t be effective for another ten years.

11. What if you don’t know the precise date you assigned your copyright? Good thing there’s a long window. But you can’t miss it.

12. Authors Alliance created this nifty calculator to help you determine your time frame to terminate. It’s helpful, but it’s still a little tricky. You might not know the answers to some of these questions.
rightsback.org

13. You might not understand, for instance, when your work was “published” and whether your assignment included the right of publication.

14. You might know if your work was a work for hire, which makes it ineligible for termination.

That's a legal conclusion. And there's room to claim something isn't a work for hire even when the party who currently owns your copyrights says it is.

15. One nice thing about termination rights however, is that have a long window to exercise the right. Although there are strategic disadvantages to notifying too early, you shouldn’t wait until the end of that period. You’ll need time to figure out how it do it right.