Lawsuit Filed Over ‘Hawaii Five-O’ Theme

CBS is hit with a copyright infringement charge by the deceased composer’s family.

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Here’s a little item about a lawsuit last week regarding the theme song to “Hawaii Five-0.” Excerpt:

CBS was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit from the children of the late Morton Stevens, a prolific, Emmy-award winning film and television score composer whose work includes the trumpet-and-drums opening to the CBS crime procedural.

Stevens died in 1991, which, according to a complaint filed in California federal court, was about six years before the renewal copyright term for the Hawaii Five-0 theme commenced.

That’s important because under copyright law, for works created before 1978, when an author dies before the original term of a copyright grant expires, rights revert to the heirs.

Notwithstanding this quirk of copyright law, CBS is said to have filed a renewal registration for the theme in 1997. The lawsuit says that CBS didn’t have the right to do this. …

The original series ran on CBS from 1968 to 1980. The reboot began in 2010 and is still running.

Hawaii Five-0 McGarrett

Book ’em, bradduh.

www.cbs.com

 

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