Universal Music Group Fire Class Action Could Come Down to One Thing: Who Owns the Masters?

The plaintiffs assert that UMG breached its responsibility to protect the tapes lost -- which held as many as 500,000 songs, according to an investigation in The New York Times Magazine, although a UMG archivist said the damage was "overstated." But most recording contracts don't explicitly mention that responsibility, and there's a legal distinction between the physical recordings and the intellectual property they contain. Standard contracts give labels ownership of physical recordings, so UMG will presumably claim the property damaged was its own. (UMG declined to comment.) The lawsuit says these acts expect to reclaim the rights to their recordings under the reversion provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act -- which is not a settled issue, as major labels maintain the recordings are works for hire -- but the law says nothing about physical property.

There could be other legal arguments -- including claims on lost earnings for material that no longer exists in high-definition form. These could be valid claims, says the attorney, but they are "arguments for which there is no precedent that I'm aware."

This article originally appeared in the June 29 issue of Billboard.