Two owners of a copyright....

What is the name of your state? Florida



1) I wrote a song with 2 other guys.

2) We copyright the song

3) The other two guys sign a recording contract with a record company( I’ll call “Red Records”)
Red Records now own the share the two guy had in the copyright.

4) I never sign with Red Records. I did not like the way they did business.
So I held on to my interest, sign up with BMI so I could get performance royalties.
BMI did pay me those.

5) Red Records sell 3 million copies of the song. I ask Red Records to pay me my royalties.
They never did and before I could file suite, they give me the impression they went out of business ( move, phone disconnect, no mailing address....) The owner did not go out of business, but sold the Red Records label and assets to a friend.

6) Years go by (9) and one day I find out the “Red Records label still active. The new owner(the friend) doing business with the song , sales and license under the “Red Records” label.

7) I go to Red Records and tell them they owe me royalties. For the 3 million copies the label sold and other license they did. The new owner of “Red Records” told me... We don’t owe you
royalties on the 3 million copies, the old owner owe you. As new owners of “Red Records” we owe
you a few thousand.... I said that BS....

?????????????????????????????????

I’m going to sue....

1) What law or code do this fall under? THIS IS NOT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
Red Records got to be co-owner of the copyright from the recording contract (the two guys I wrote the song with)

2) How libel is the new owners still using the “Red Records” label to sale and collect money off the song?

3) Can I sue in a state court?

The royalties if pay on the 3 million and other license is 100's of thousand to a million plus.

Thanks in advance for advice......

1) What law or code do this fall under? THIS IS NOT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
Red Records got to be co-owner of the copyright from the recording contract (the two guys I wrote the song with)

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Well, it depends. Do you know what the nature of the contract between Red Records and the other guys was? Did Red Records actually purchase their share of the copyright, or did they take a license (exclusive or nonexclusive)? If Red Records did purchase their share of the copyright, was the transfer of ownership recorded with the copyright office? You mentioned that you copyrighted the song -- did you copyright it through the U.S. copyright office?

All of these questions are important in order to figure out WHO to sue, and for what.

2) How libel is the new owners still using the “Red Records” label to sale and collect money off the song?

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The liability of the new owners will depend on how they obtained ownership of Red Records -- chances are, though, they will retain any liability.

3) Can I sue in a state court?

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Yes -- but, if there is a basis for the case to be heard in federal court, the defendant has the option of "removing" the case to federal court if they want.

The royalties if pay on the 3 million and other license is 100's of thousand to a million plus.

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Then where is your lawyer in all of this?

One last thing,

you noted that:

Years go by

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How many years? This may have a significant impact on what you can collect, if anything.