It Takes a Village

Victor Willis is holding his arms in the air. In part he is celebrating. And in part he is dancing. You’d probably be more likely to recognize Willis if he were dressed in a police uniform and surrounded by the other members of the Village People. Willis spent years in court and now has finally managed to win back the rights to many of the songs he wrote, including YMCA and In the Navy. Thanks to a little known copyright law provision, musicians and other artists can “recover control of their creations after 35 years, even if they had originally signed away their rights.” From Willis: “I learned over the years that there are some awesome powers associated with copyright ownership. You can stop somebody from performing your music if you want to, and I might object to some usages.” We all might.