Looks like we’ve got a lawsuit on our hands. Dwight Yoakam is suing his old record label, Warner Music.
According to Taste of Country, the lawsuit was filed on Monday, February 8. It claims that Warner Music has refused Yoakam the right to reclaim copyrights to some of his songs.
The Copyright Act has a section that says after 35 years authors can cancel their copyright grants and get back the rights to their work. Dwight’s debut album was released in 1986, which is right on that 35 year mark.
In the lawsuit, Warner Music subsidiary Rhino is called out for refusing to “definitively acknowledge that he has reclaimed the rights to certain works — specifically, his recordings of “Honky Tonk Man” and “Miner’s Prayer.”
