Once the termination takes effect, does that mean that the studios will no longer be able to distribute these movies? The answer is no. Once the termination takes place, all the rights that were transferred revert back to the authorĪs you can see from the snapshot of the Copyright Office records, King sent out termination notices for these stories back in August 2016, making the termination effective as of September 1, 2018. The requirements are very specific (and are spelled out in Section 203 of the Copyright Act) but the basic requirements are that the author must send a notice two years before the termination will take place and that the termination must occur within five years of the end of the 35 year period. In 1998, when Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act (which extended the length of the copyright term 20 years), it also added a provision allowing authors to terminate any transfers of copyright they had entered into after 35 years had passed for works first published after 1978. The termination notices were mailed on August 31, 2016, and will be effective as of September 1, 2018.Ī little background. Stephen King has quietly filed notices that he intends to terminate the transfer of his licenses for the movies, The Dead Zone, Cujo, Creepshow, Children of the Corn, Cat’s Eye, and Firestarter. Here’s an interesting story if you are as big a fan of Stephen King as I am.
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