FEEL THE CHILL

Duran Duran Lose High Court Battle Over U.S. Song Rights

For some of their most popular songs, like "Rio."

British new-wave icons Duran Duran lost a high court battle Friday to reclaim the U.S. rights to some of their most popular hits. The band had argued that stateside copyright laws allowed for a reversion of the songs’ copyrights to go back to the band, but lawyers for Gloucester Place Music Ltd., part of EMI Music Publishing, argued that English contract law said otherwise. The judge ultimately ruled for Gloucester Place, effectively keeping the U.S. copyrights to Duran Duran’s first three albums—Duran Duran, Rio and Seven and the Ragged Tiger—along with their 1985 Bond film theme song “A View to a Kill,” in the possession of the British company.