On August 20, 2018, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that basic digital remastering of pre-1972 sound recordings created a new sound recording copyright. The lower court ruling presented two problematic consequences, namely that by continually remastering a sound recording, the owner could in effect create a perpetual copyright and frustrate an artist’s right to terminate the work under the Copyright Act. Nova Southeastern University's Copyright Officer, Stephen Carlisle, J.D., examines the new ruling, and discusses what creative aspects must be present in the updated sound recording, now that the “old wine in new bottles” approach has been rejected.
