Village Person Involved in Landmark Copyright Suit

Wednesday, 17 August 2011 | by Pat's Picks

You probably know Victor Willis as the cop, or sometimes the naval officer, doing the YMCA on stage with the rest of the Village People. Well, nowadays he’s the plaintiff in a landmark copyright suit that could change the way the music industry works says the New York Times. Willis is trying to invoke his “termination rights,” a clause in the copyright law that returns the creative rights of a song to the artist or songwriter after 35 years. But two companies, which currently hold the rights to the Village People’s catalog, say because the band was a “concept group,” created by a music label, Willis was “employed as a writer for hire, and he therefore has no rights.”

Lawyers for the record labels say the case is completely different from those of Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Tom Petty, all of whom have sued for termination rights in recent years: “We hired this guy. He was an employee, we gave them the material and a studio to record in and controlled what was recorded, where, what hours and what they did.”

Here’s what Willis’s been up to recently: