Almost all is familiar with the song "Imagine", the best-selling single of the former member of the Beatles, the late famous singer John Lennon. The US National Music Publishers Association announced in an industry event in New York on June 14 that the widow of John Lennon, Yoko Ono, co-owned the copyright for this song. Since the first release of the song in 1971, it has been late for 46 years.
According to reports of BBC, extracts of an interview with Lennon was broadcast in the event ceremony. In the interview Lennon said that "a lot of it ['Imagine'], the lyrics and the concept, came from Yoko... Those days, I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution."
Sean Ono Lennon, Yoko Ono and John Lennon's son, accompanied his mother to the ceremony. After they both heard the announcement, they were greatly surprised. "It may have been the happiest day of mine and [my] mother's life," Sean Lennon said.
Because Yoko Ono has become the co-owner of the copyright for "Imagine", the duration of the copyright for "Imagine" is bound to be extended. However, because Yoko Ono is already a beneficiary of John Lennon's estate, the impact should not be too significant.
The so-called joint work, according to Article 8 of the Copyright Act (Taiwan), "is a work that has been completed by two or more persons where the creation of each person cannot be separately exploited." As a result, the essential components of a joint work is that it must be completed by two or more persons; the authors must have a joint relationship during the creation; the creation must be in a single form, and the creation of each person cannot be separated and individually exploited.
The situation of joint copyright is different from that of the general copyright. The duration of the economic right for the work is 50 years of after the death of the last living author. Where an author of a joint work abandons its share of the ownership of the work or dies with no successor, the joint work does not become public property, but should be apportioned among the other joint authors in proportion to their respective shares. And, the exercise of the economic right for the joint work, in accordance with the stipulations in Article 40 of the Copyright Act (Taiwan), in principle should be agreed by all economic right-holder of the joint work.
As such, in this case, because the lyrics were co-authored by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, they are joint copyright owners. After the death of John Lennon, the joint copyright owner Yoko Ono would obtain the copyright, and the duration of the right would as a result be extended.
The norms of joint work and other copyrights are partially different. If you have any relevant questions on copyright, please consult with the professional team of HWG.
