The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, October 19, left in place a ruling that lets songwriter Cyril Vetter reclaim worldwide rights to "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)," the rock and roll hit he co-wrote in 1962. The publishing arms of BMG, Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music had asked the justices to overturn it, Reuters reported.
The Court never reached the merits. Four justices did not take part, and the five who remained could not act on the case in the coming term. Under a federal statute covering that situation, the lower court's judgment was affirmed, with the same effect as a ruling by an equally divided Court.
A song, a 1963 contract and a termination notice
Vetter wrote the song with the late Donald Smith, who died in a plane crash in 1972. The Swingin' Medallions recorded the best known version in 1966. In 1963, the two writers transferred their copyrights to Windsong Music Publishers.
Federal copyright law gives creators a second chance at deals like that one. A termination provision lets authors take back rights they signed away, on the idea that a young writer has little bargaining power and cannot know what a work will be worth. For grants made before 1978, the transfer must be at least 56 years old, and the work cannot have been made for hire, according to the Maryland Daily Record.
Vetter sent his termination notice to Windsong in 2019, effective in 2022. Resnik Music Group bought Windsong later that year. In 2023, Vetter sued Resnik in federal court in Baton Rouge, alleging the company refused to give up its claim to the song outside the United States.
In 2025, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick ruled for Vetter and declared him the "sole owner of all right, title and interest throughout the world" of the reclaimed copyright, according to Reuters. The New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit affirmed in January. The four major publishers then acquired Resnik's interest and took the fight to Washington.
Why the labels say it matters
The publishers told the Court the ruling "unsettled 50 years of industry practice" and "sharply diverges from the statutory text and settled understandings." The fight is over whether a termination reaches only the American rights in a song or the rights everywhere else too. If it reaches the whole world, the labels argued, agreements worth billions of dollars are at risk.
Vetter's lawyers answered in their own filing that those concerns were overblown.
The justices who did not participate were Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson, CelebrityAccess reported. None gave a reason. The Court needs six justices for a quorum, and their absence left it without one.
A win without a rule
The outcome is a clear victory for one songwriter, but it does not settle the question for everyone else. Because the Supreme Court issued no opinion of its own, the result does not establish a nationwide rule, and how other courts will handle similar disputes remains unsettled, as Interspace Music noted.
Law360 put it bluntly in a headline, saying the ruling leaves worldwide rights in legal limbo. Publishers, catalog buyers and songwriters with old contracts may now face different results depending on where a dispute is filed.
Music rights fights rarely make the evening news, but they decide who gets paid when a song lives longer than anyone expected. For another story about a song with a second life, read how Kosha Dillz turned a track into a movie. It is the kind of case the Two Taps legal panel of Daniel Rosenberg, Michael Dye and Lloyd Golburgh takes apart on the show.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
