Opinion ID: 2680058
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ownership History of the Masters

Text: In July 1975, Clinton, through his production company, Thang, Inc., entered into a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records in which Clinton agreed to make master recordings of his performances with the group Funkadelic (“the Masters”). Clinton had previously entered into a valid and binding agreement with Thang to render his services as a recording artist solely and exclusively for Thang. The recording contract between Thang and Warner Bros. provided that Warner Bros.: shall own in perpetuity throughout the world all right, title and interest in and to all the HENDRICKS & LEWIS PLLC V. CLINTON 5 results and proceeds of [Thang’s] and [Clinton’s] services and performances hereunder, including the sole and exclusive ownership of any and all masters . . . , the copyrights therein throughout the universe, and the right to extend or renew such copyrights, and [Thang] and [Clinton] acknowledge that they shall at no time have any right, title or interest in the foregoing. The agreement further provided that Thang: acknowledges and agrees that [Warner Bros.] is and shall be the owner of all rights of copyright in records embodying the results and proceeds of [Clinton’s] services . . . , including the exclusive right to copyright same as “sound recordings” in the name of [Warner Bros.] to renew and extend such copyrights (it being agreed that for this purpose [Thang] and [Clinton] are deemed [Warner Bros.’s] employees for hire) and to exercise all rights of the copyright/proprietor thereunder. To the extent, if any that [Thang] or [Clinton] may be deemed an “author” of such “sound recordings”, [Thang] and [Clinton] further grant to [Warner Bros.] a power of attorney, irrevocable and coupled with an interest for [Thang] and [Clinton] and in [Thang] and/or [Clinton’s] name, to apply for and obtain and on obtaining same, to assign to [Warner Bros.], all such renewal copyrights. 6 HENDRICKS & LEWIS PLLC V. CLINTON Clinton signed a substantially similar agreement with Warner Bros. in May 1979. Under these agreements, the Masters at issue in this appeal—“Hardcore Jollies,” “One Nation Under a Groove,” “Uncle Jam Wants You,” and “The Electric Spanking of War Babies”—were created, and Warner Bros. registered the copyrights in those recordings as “works made for hire” in its name as author. In August 1982, to resolve a separate dispute involving Clinton, Warner Bros., and other parties, Clinton and Warner Bros. entered into a settlement agreement under which Warner Bros. agreed to “relinquish its ownership of the Clinton Masters” at issue in this appeal, if or when Clinton entered into an agreement with a third party to distribute and sell records produced from the Masters. Clinton’s ownership of the Masters was eventually confirmed through litigation in 2005 when the Central District of California issued an order that Clinton “is the sole owner of [the Masters] and has been the sole owner of the Masters since 1993.” Clinton subsequently sued third parties for copyright infringement of the Masters.