Copyright Ownership, spanning all of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, or a part of those rights, can be transferred. The transfer, however, generally must be made in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or the owner’s authorized agent.
If this sounds familiar, perhaps it is because recently, several big-name artists such as Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, Shakira, Neil Young, and others have “sold the rights” to their music. These are great examples of copyright owners transferring all or part of their rights to another entity. The new owners gain the right to all or part of the profits from the artist’s works, while the artists get an upfront, lump payment, typically in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
