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1. FRANK BRUNI Mark Wahlberg, Penance and Pardons

Robert Benson for The New York Times 2. ROSS DOUTHAT Victor Willis, the former lead singer of the Village People and the writer of some of the group’s most popular songs, in Mitt the Insurgent downtown San Diego. By LARRY ROHTER Published: September 10, 2013 3. City Ballet’s Fab Five (2015 Edition)

In the lucrative world of music copyright, it may be something of a FACEBOOK

watershed moment: on Friday, after six years of legal wrangling and TWITTER 4. THE MEDIA EQUATION decades after he wrote the lyrics to the hit song “YMCA,” Victor Willis Why the Oscars’ Omission of ‘Selma’ GOOGLE+ Matters will gain control of his share of the copyright to that song and others SAVE he wrote when he was the lead singer of the 1970s disco group the 5. CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK Career Planning for Teenage Girls Village People. EMAIL

SHARE Mr. Willis, who dressed as a 6. CORNER OFFICE Related PRINT Kristin Muhlner of NewBrand Analytics: policeman during the group’s heyday, The Upside of Being Replaceable For a Classic Motown Song About was able to recapture those songs, REPRINTS Money, Credit Is What He Wants thanks to a littleknown provision of 7. DAVID BROOKS (September 1, 2013) Support Our Students copyright legislation that went into Connect With effect in 1978. That law granted 8. Costume National and John Varvatos Us on Twitter musicians and songwriters what are Follow Reach for Rock ‘n’ Roll @nytimesarts for known as “termination rights,” arts and allowing them to recover control of their creations after 35 entertainment 9. PAUL KRUGMAN news. years, even if they had originally signed away their rights. Hating Good Government Arts Twitter List: Critics, Reporters and Editors It is possible, maybe even likely, that other artists who also 10. The Dark Side of ‘Broken Windows’ wrote or recorded songs in 1978 have, after invoking their Policing termination rights, quietly signed new deals with record labels and song publishing companies. But Mr. Willis Go to Your Recommendations » What’s This? | Don’t Show appears to be the first artist associated with a hit song from A sortable calendar of noteworthy that era to announce publicly that he has used his cultural events in the New York termination rights to regain control of his work. region, selected by Times critics. Go to Event Listings » “YMCA” is one of 33 songs whose copyright Mr. Willis was seeking to recover when he first went to court. Hits like “In the Navy” and “Go West” are part of that group, but another wellknown song whose lyrics Mr. Willis wrote, “Macho Man,” was excluded because it was written just before the 1978 law went into effect.

In a telephone interview from his home in Southern California, Mr. Willis said he has not yet decided how best to exploit the song catalog. “I’ve had lots of offers, from record and publishing companies, a lot of stuff, but I haven’t made up my mind how it’s going to be handled.”

He added, however, that he is thinking of prohibiting the Village People — the band still exists and is touring this month and next, though with largely different members — from singing any of his songs, at least in the United States. Under American law, copyright holders have a right to control the performance of a work at any “place open to the public or at a place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances are gathered.” This designation applies not only to concert Ads by Google what's this? halls, but also to arenas and ballparks like Yankee Stadium, where “YMCA” and other Arrangement Licensing Village People songs are perennial favorites. Custom Arrangement Licensing Publisher Direct Fast, 24/7 tresonamusic.com “I learned over the years that there are some awesome powers associated with copyright Whistleblower Attorneys ownership,” Mr. Willis said. “You can stop somebody from performing your music if you Witnessed illegal activity at work? want to, and I might object to some usages.” Free confidential consultation. www.civilrightsca.com Song publishing and record companies have consistently opposed artists’ efforts to invoke Free Copyright License termination rights, which have the potential to affect a company’s bottom line severely. Copyright License. All States. They argue that, in many cases, songs and recordings belong to them in perpetuity, rather Print, Save, Download. 100% Free! copyrightlicense.rocketlawyer.com than to the artists, because they are “works for hire,” created not by independent contractors but by artists who are, in essence, their employees.

That was initially one of the arguments invoked against Mr. Willis in Federal District Court in Los Angeles. “We hired this guy,” Stewart L. Levy, a lawyer for the companies that controlled the Village People song catalog, said last year. “He was an employee. We gave them the material and a studio to record in and controlled what was recorded, where, what hours and what they did.” Eventually, though, that argument was withdrawn. If the “work for hire” doctrine can’t be made to apply to a prefab group like the Village People, it stands little chance of surviving a test against other artists who emerged in the 1970s and who always had a much greater degree of autonomy, like Bruce Springsteen, the Eagles, Billy Joel and ParliamentFunkadelic.

That does not mean that the litigation over the Village People catalog is over, however. Though Mr. Willis’s songwriting partner Jacques Morali died in 1991, a third name, that of the French record producer Henri Belolo, appears as a cowriter on “YMCA” and other songs, and the distribution of songwriting credits and revenues is now in court.

“The termination is going to occur,” said Jonathan Ross, one of Mr. Willis’s lawyers. “What is in dispute is how much he is getting back, onehalf or onethird.”

In an email he sent from Europe, Mr. Levy challenged that interpretation. “Since an appeal of the court’s decision permitting such reversion has yet to be taken, it is far from certain that Mr. Willis will, at the end of the day, ever gain control over any share of the copyrights in the disputed songs.” As a result, he maintained, any “article on his recapture is, therefore, premature and misleading.”

Mr. Willis had declined interview requests during earlier stages of the dispute, but said he decided to speak out now so as to alert other artists, both established and emerging, to protect their copyrights. He said it was only because his wife is a lawyer that he became aware of his termination rights.

“I’m hoping that other artists will get a good lawyer and get back the works that a lot of us gave away when we were younger, before we knew what was going on,” he said. “When you’re young, you just want to get out there and aren’t really paying attention to what’s on paper. I never even read one contract they put in front of me, and that’s a big mistake.”

A version of this article appears in print on September 11, 2013, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Copyright Victory, 35 Years Later.

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