Lee-ford Tritt, ‘The Curious Case of the James Brown Estate’, 92 George Washington Law Review 753 (2024). In ‘The Curious Case of the James Brown Estate’, Lee-ford Tritt explores how certain provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976 can upend an artist’s estate plan. Professor Tritt makes a persuasive case for legal reform and documents a messy disconnect between the fields of copyright law and estates law. This disconnect is particularly unfortunate because the havoc-wreaking provisions of the Copyright Act were enacted to help ensure that artists are fairly compensated for their creations. Congress could not have intended a loss of testamentary freedom – and in some cases, prolonged and expensive estate litigation – to be the price artists pay for this protection … (more)
[Sarah Waldeck, JOTWELL, 10 June 2025]
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