Lil' Joe Records, Inc. v. Christopher Won, Jr., et al
- Case Type:
- Consumer
- Case Status:
- Reversed and Remanded
- Citation:
- 24-13978 (11th Circuit, Jun 02,2026) Published
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- A performing artist's right to terminate an assignment of a copyright under Section 203(a) of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 203(a)), even though the right is inalienable by agreement, is property of the artist's bankruptcy estate. Consequently, an artist who filed a Chapter 7 petition but failed to disclose the termination right cannot exercise the termination right because the right was still property of the bankruptcy estate in a long-closed case.
The court did not address whether the artist's Chapter 7 bankruptcy case could be reopened to administer the right.
- Procedural context:
- Three of the four members of 2 Live Crew signed and delivered a notice that they were exercising 2 Live Crew's right to terminate a grant of copyright interests to the holder of the grant. The holder sued those members, arguing that one of the members could not terminate the grant because he had failed to schedule or otherwise disclose the termination interest in his Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, so that the termination interest remained with the bankruptcy estate. Following a trial, the district court, relying on the jury's findings, concluded that the former Chapter 7 debtor's termination was valid.
The holder of the copyright interests appealed.
- Facts:
- The defendant, Mark Ross, was a member of the semi-notorious rap group 2 Live Crew. 2 Live Crew recorded five albums between 1986 and 1989. Under federal copyright law (the "Copyright Act"), each member of the group held a 1/4 undivided interest in 2 Live Crew's copyrights. (This would not be true if the copyrights had been specifically allocated to one or more members of the group.)
Subject to certain requirements not relevant here, Section 203 of the Copyright Act allows the artist to terminate a grant of the copyright interest 35 years after the grant was made.
While still recording, 2 Live Crew granted their sound recording copyright interests in all master tapes of the group's recordings to Luke Records, Inc. In 1995, Luke Records filed a Chapter 11 petition and, in its proceedings, sold the copyright to Lil' Joe Records, Inc.
Mark Ross filed a Chapter 7 petition in 2000, 24 years before he could first exercise the right to terminate the grant of 2 Live Crew's copyright. Ross failed to schedule or otherwise disclose his right as a member of 2 Live Crew to vote his interest to terminate the grant of the copyright now held by Lil' Joe Records.
In 2024, Ross and two of the other members of 2 Live Crew, following the requirements of the Copyright Act, gave Lil' Joe Records notice that they were terminating the grant of the copyright. Lil' Joe Records sued, seeking a declaratory judgment that the termination notice was ineffective because only half, not a majority, of 2 Live Crew's members signed the termination notice. This argument rested on the legal theory that, under 11 U.S.C. § 544(a), Ross's termination right remained property of his Chapter 7 bankruptcy estate.
- Judge(s):
- JILL PRYOR, LUCK, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges
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