Dispute Over Famous Rock 'n Roll Rights Reminds Copyright Owners to Reserve Their Rights or Lose Them

"Be my, be my baby" is how the Ronettes' chart-busting 1967 rock 'n roll hit began. "It's my baby" was the group's lead singer and founder's, Ronnie Greenfield's, refrain 35 years later when Philles Records claimed ownership rights as producer to "Be My Baby" and dozens of other Ronettes songs. As so often happens, resolution of the dispute was reduced to a legal question the contractual reach of the rights transfer provision in an agreement between a creator of music and a producer. While the result in this case does not create new law, it does exemplify a rule that bears repeating in these days of warp speed technological change - reserve it or lose it.

Giving Up the Baby with the Bathwater

It all started in the early '60s after Ronnie, her sister and cousin formed the Ronettes music group and began their rise to stardom. A sine qua non to success in the music industry was to have their music produced, recorded and then marketed to the listening audience. Those tasks required then, as they do now, the assistance of a producer. As was and remains the industry practice, Ronnie and the Ronettes found and signed a personal service contract with Philles Records, Inc. (Philles), founded by the legendary, now on bail, Phil Spector.

The two-page agreement commonly used in those days by music producers required the Ronettes to record exclusively with Philles and, as germane to the present dispute, also provided that the recordings and reproductions would be Philles' property and that Philles "shall have the right to make . . . reproductions . . . by any method now or hereafter known, and to sell and deal in the same . . . ." Telescoping to 1987, the Ronettes' 1963 hit tune "By My Baby" became a hit once more as one of the cuts in the box office movie hit "Dirty Dancing." The song again hit the big time as a result of Philles' having licensed the right to use the song with the movie - known in the music industry as the synchronization right. Receiving no royalties from this and other similar but lesser known uses of Ronettes' songs, Ronnie and the Ronettes filed a breach of contract suit in New York State court against Philles and its successors in interest.

Unlike the warp speed of technological advances, however, the Ronettes case proceeded snail-like through the New York judicial system, resulting in a final decision 15 years later, on October 19, 2002. As the New York Court of Appeals stated in Greenfield v. Philles Records, Inc., 780 N.E....