US copyright law contains a termination-of-transfer right: 35 years after signing a contract, a creator can void it and reclaim the copyright, no matter what the contract says.
Creators are taught that copyright is their property and a treasure to guard. But property rights are alienable — sell your house and you do not get to move back in when you change your mind.
Copyright is not a shield, it is a bargaining chip
Over fifty years copyright has grown longer, broader and more heavily penalised. And the result? Labels, studios and publishers are richer than ever, while the people who make the work are poorer than ever.
The reason is not in the statute, it is in bargaining power: five publishers, four studios, three labels. Every extra right you win is just one more right you hand over.
A labour right nobody advertises
The 1976 Copyright Act slipped in an exception: 35 years after signing, you can file paperwork with the Copyright Office and take the copyright back — whatever the contract says.
The original version was harsher on the bosses: it was meant to kick in automatically after 20 years. A recording-industry lobbyist got it changed to 35 years with an application, and later collected a seven-figure salary from the labels.
It has rescued plenty. The Baby-Sitters Club, Stephen King's early novels, George Clinton's entire catalogue — all clawed money back from companies that ripped them off at the start.
This year it is Ultima's turn
Richard Garriott sold the rights to his Ultima games to Electronic Arts in 1992. EA killed the series in 2000 and left it dormant for over two decades.
Now Garriott has taken the rights back. He plans to reissue the old games and is thinking about new ones. On a podcast he said the process was astonishingly easy.
Put plainly: termination of transfer is not intellectual property, it is a labour right. It exists precisely because it is not a property right. It is the last door an employee can leave open in a contract.
Why it matters
Creators are told to protect themselves through copyright, yet the more copyright expands, the less of the money reaches them. Termination of transfer separates finishing the work from selling it off, so one bad deal signed at 25 does not cost you the rest of your life.
Curated from high-quality sources, with concise summaries and key takeaways.
