Duran Duran furious after losing legal battle over U.S. rights

Pop icons Duran Duran have lost their legal battle to reclaim the U.S. rights to some of their biggest hits.
Members of the group were fighting to regain the American copyright to songs from their first three albums from publishers at Gloucester Place Music, now owned by Sony/ATV in the U.S.
They argued that under U.S. law the rights to the songs should revert to them after 35 years, compared to the 70 years during which publishers own the rights to songs in the U.K.
On Friday (02Dec16), a judge at London’s High Court ruled in favour of Gloucester Place Music, whose lawyers argued that English contract law overrode the U.S. law, angering members of the band who believe they should regain ownership of the copyright to songs including Girls on Film, Rio and A View to a Kill.
“We issued termination notices for our copyrights in the U.S. believing it simply a formality,” frontman Simon Le Bon told WENN in a statement. “After all, it’s the law in America. SonyATV has earned a tremendous amount of money from us over the years.
“Working to find a way to do us out of our rights feels like the ugly and old-fashioned face of imperialist, corporate greed. I thought the acceptability of this type of treatment of artists was long gone – but it seems I was wrong.”
Founding member and keyboardist Rhodes said: “We signed a publishing agreement as unsuspecting teenagers… when just starting out and when we knew no better… This (ruling) gives wealthy publishing companies carte blanche to take advantage of the songwriters who built their fortune over many years, and strips songwriters of their right to rebalance this reward.
“If left untested, this judgment sets a very bad precedent for all songwriters of our era and so we are deciding how properly to proceed,” he added.
Le Bon added, “SonyATV’s conduct has left a bitter taste with us for sure, and I know that other artists in similar positions will be as outraged and saddened as we are. We are hopeful this judgment will not be allowed to stand.”
As well as Le Bon and Rhodes, the band’s bass guitarist John Taylor and former drummer Andy Taylor were involved in the case.