Music Copyright

wheelie_haes

Hello, I am a songwriter and I was discharged from Bankruptcy last year and the Trustees are still claiming all my song writing royalties from PRS etc. Is this right? There was no Income Payment Order or anything like that. Just wondered if anybody has any knowledge on this.

Thanks.

JCS1

I think that for any songs written befor your BR, the OR will have the royalties indefinitely. Let me see what I can find.

debtinfo

Yep, this is it, longwinded but basically the rights to the work now belong to the trustee (presuming that they were created solely by you) and will remain the property of the trustee until the trustee decides to dispose of them

http://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/freedomofinformation/technical/TechnicalManual/Ch25-36/Chapter31/part10/part2/part_2.htm#31.10.100

wheelie_haes

I don't own the copyright so how can they be treated as an asset?

debtinfo

who owns the copyright then?

wheelie_haes

The Trustee is claiming my recordings are an asset, but the interesting part is I do not own any of my Copyright - very few songwriters do. Ownership of Copyright is assigned the moment you sign a Publishing and/or Recording Contract - which I did many years before the bankruptcy and it clearly states in those contracts I 'assign all my rights' to the Publisher.

So I clearly do not 'own' any copyright, my Publisher does and I can absolutely prove that; so by definition the Trustee surely cannot claim my recordings as an asset?
I am simply paid a royalty for my share of the recordings which to my understanding must be treated as 'Income', therefore requiring an Income Payment Order for them to claim it legitimately, which they never obtained. Have they made a mistake?

debtinfo

well if you have indeed actually sold the copyright then, yes it would not vest and the royalties would be classed as income.

It is also possible that the publisher may simply have been granted a licence with the author retaining the copyright, it is dificult to tell without seeing the documentation and/or being a specialist in that area.

what did you receive in return for transferring the copyright