Vetter v. Resnik — Fifth Circuit Holds U.S. Copyright Termination Recaptures Worldwide Rights

Background

The case concerns the worldwide ownership of copyright in a body of works whose original assignments the U.S. author terminated under 17 U.S.C. § 203 (or recaptured via the renewal-rights doctrine for pre-1978 works). The assignee — whose rights had been terminated as to the United States — argued that it retained foreign rights, because U.S. statutory termination by its own terms operates only on the U.S. copyright. The author argued that termination recaptures the entire copyright interest, worldwide.

This was not a question without precedent. For decades, the consensus among treatise writers (including Nimmer and Goldstein) and a substantial number of district-court decisions has been that copyright is territorial: a U.S. author can terminate her U.S. rights, but the foreign-territory copyrights, although originating from a single creative act, are governed by foreign law and are not affected by U.S. statutory termination.

The Court’s Holding

The Fifth Circuit affirmed for the author. It held that U.S. statutory termination of an assignment recaptures the worldwide copyright interest in the work, not merely the U.S. rights. The court adopted what it called a “single copyright” theory: a copyright “arises” in the country of origin (here, the United States) and is merely “recognized” in other Berne Convention jurisdictions. Because the original grant flowed from a U.S. copyright, the § 203 termination of that grant terminates it in its entirety, including the foreign-rights component the assignee had been exploiting.

The court grounded its reading in the statutory text — specifically the phrase “rights covered by [§ 203] revert,” with no geographic limitation. It rejected the territoriality argument as a gloss not present in the statute, and rejected contrary district-court decisions and treatise authority as inconsistent with the language Congress chose. The court emphasized that § 203 was enacted to protect authors from “unremunerative transfers” and that limiting termination to U.S. rights would substantially undermine that remedial purpose.

Key Takeaways

• This decision opens a significant fault line. The Fifth Circuit’s “single copyright” / worldwide-recapture rule is in tension with treatise authority and with how district courts in other circuits have treated the issue.
• Authors who have terminated U.S. assignments (or are about to) now have a strong appellate decision to cite in any global rights dispute — in particular for music publishing catalogs, literary estates, and film/TV rights where the foreign exploitation streams are substantial.
• Assignees and licensees with international portfolios should review whether their U.S. grants have been or could be terminated, and what the global financial exposure looks like under Vetter‘s theory.
• Expect a circuit split. This is a question other circuits will reach and may decide differently, particularly the Second and Ninth Circuits which see the bulk of music-publishing and entertainment termination disputes.

Why It Matters

The decision is genuinely consequential for the music, publishing, and film industries. Modern copyright catalogs derive a meaningful share of their value from foreign exploitation. If termination is global, an assignee that buys a U.S. publisher’s rights inherits a much narrower runway: the U.S. clock to termination ticks down, and when it expires the foreign-territory revenue stream goes with it. That changes valuations, deal structures, and how foreign sub-licensees underwrite acquisitions.

The opinion is also conceptually important. The territoriality principle has been a foundational assumption of international copyright since the Berne Convention was negotiated. The Fifth Circuit’s “single copyright” framing treats foreign copyright as a recognition phenomenon rather than a separate domestic property right. Whether other circuits adopt that framing — and whether the Supreme Court eventually weighs in — will shape transnational copyright practice for a generation. In the meantime, parties to assignments and termination notices in the Fifth Circuit should plan around Vetter; parties elsewhere should anticipate it.