A record company is taking ’70s folk singer Janis Ian to court over the copyright to her hit “At Seventeen” and other live recordings made decades ago at a Greenwich Village nightclub.
Bottom Line Record Company says it owns the copyright to the master recordings and other unreleased music that Ian performed at the since-closed Bottom Line in 1980 and 1991, the new Manhattan federal-court lawsuit says.
The label says Ian signed a 1998 agreement approving use of the master recordings that were featured on two CDs. But shortly after the albums were released, Ian allegedly changed her tune and claimed the CDs contained “unauthorized recordings” and accused the Bottom Line of “intentional copyright infringements,” the lawsuit says.
The record company now wants a court to uphold its ownership of the copyright and let it sell the CDs freely.
“I didn’t know anything at all about that,” Ian said of the lawsuit when reached by phone.