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Has anyone ever seen anything like this:
3 (a) In consideration of our payment to you of the sum of £1 (one pound) (the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged) on account of the royalties and fees hereinafter specified and of our agreement to pay to you such royalties and fees you hereby irrevocably assign and transfer to us with full title guarantee all of the copyright and all related, similar and other rights (including, without limitation, any rental and lending rights) in and to the Compositions (whether now known or hereafter arising) to hold the same unto us absolutely throughout the Territory (as hereinafter defined) for the full period of copyright and all renewals, revivals, reversions and extensions thereof (and thereafter, in so far as possible in perpetuity) including any renewal copyright or other such rights as may hereafter be conferred or created by law or international arrangement or convention in any part of the Territory whether by way of new or additional rights not now comprised in copyright or by way of extension of then or now existing rights.
I find this to be completely bizarre and the way I read it, they are saying “we are taking control of your copyrights in exchange for 1 pound”
The Publisher said after I asked “what is this?”
Thanks for the email, this is paragraph giving us the right of copyright within a non-exclusive contract to do what we can to get the best and most profitable placements for both parties. The whole agreement is based around a non-exclusive agreement in which you can get out of whenever you like, with the appropriate notice.I’d be interested in others’ thoughts on this.
It seems pretty straight forward to me:
“you hereby irrevocably assign and transfer to us…all of the copyright”
Certainly not a non-exclusive deal which usually read
“nothing contained herein shall be deemed to convey… any interest, including copyright”.
I’ve seen this type of thing before. A non-exclusive library tries to make a contract by editing an exclusive one they got from somewhere else. This reads all wrong for a non-exclusive contract (IMH non-legal O). You would have to review this with a qualified entertainment attorney and go back to the library with requested changes. That is, if it’s worth it to you. Also, ask them if they are open to some contract wording changes based on your consultation with a music attorney before you bother. If they are not open to changes, no point in incurring legal fees.