On Friday I had the privilege of speaking at the AIPLA Spring Meeting in Los Angeles on the subject of pre-1972 sound recordings and the current series of lawsuits brought by the successors of the Turtles against Sirius XM regarding royalties over pre-1972 sound recordings.  Copyright law in the United States is almost exclusively governed by the federal Copyright Act, which preempts equivalent state laws.   As originally drafted, however, federal copyright law did not extend copyright protection to sound recordings, leaving those works to be regulated by the states.  Congress amended the copyright law in 1972 to add federal protection for sound recordings, but it granted this protection on a prospective basis only.  Sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972 thus remain subject to state law. A series of lawsuits brought by Flo & Eddie, Inc. (“Flo & Eddie”), the entity that owns the copyrights for sound recordings created by the 1960s rock group the Turtles, is upending rules thought long established regarding performance rights of pre-1972 sound recordings under state law. Continue reading »