On October 19, 2026, the Supreme Court could not decide BMG Rights Management v. Vetter (No. 25-1391). Four justices sat out, leaving five, one short of a quorum. The Fifth Circuit's January 12, 2026 ruling therefore stands, and songwriter Cyril Vetter keeps worldwide ownership of "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)."
The four justices who stepped aside were Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Barrett and Jackson. According to Courthouse News, the recusals trace to their book deals with Penguin Random House, which shares an owner with BMG. Bloomberg Law reports the court affirmed the lower ruling without reaching the merits.
The case
Vetter signed away "Double Shot" in 1963 for one dollar. He later used the US termination right to take the song back. The dispute was over whether that reclaim covers only US rights or the rest of the world too. The Fifth Circuit said worldwide, and a publisher losing the song abroad is the outcome BMG and the major publishers fought. Music Business Worldwide reported that the majors joined BMG in the challenge and lost on a technicality, not on the argument.
What is settled and what is not
An evenly stalled or short-handed court sets no national rule. As Copyright Lately explains, the Fifth Circuit decision binds federal courts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Courts elsewhere can still reach a different answer, and the question may return to the Supreme Court in another case with a full bench.
Foreign collection societies and courts may also apply their own law. A US termination notice does not automatically make a society in another country pay the writer instead of the publisher, so a worldwide win on paper can still require separate claims abroad.
Who can use termination
US law lets a writer terminate a grant 35 years after a deal signed in 1978 or later. For older works the window is 56 years. Notices must be served in advance within set time limits, so the calendar matters.
That puts publishing deals signed in the early 1990s at or near their windows now. It is the period when scenes outside the major US markets, Puerto Rico's underground among them, were making their first records. Whether any individual writer qualifies depends on the signed contract and the date, and nothing in the ruling names anyone as eligible.
Two limits apply. Work-for-hire songs cannot be terminated, because the writer is not treated as the author. And the right belongs to the writer or statutory heirs, not to a company that acquired the catalog.
For now, the ruling is a strong signal in three states and an open question everywhere else.