Our Man In Havana

A British judge has flown to Cuba to hear evidence from elderly musicians and the relatives of dead composers for a copyright dispute over music from the Buena Vista Social Club album and film.

Judge John Lindsay had been hearing the case – which involves rival claims from U.S. and Cuban publishing companies – at London’s High Court, but a video link to Havana broke down and lawyers for the Cuban side argued it would be too difficult and too expensive to bring frail, elderly musicians to the U.K.

Although Judge Lindsay has no jurisdiction in Cuba, he’s been given dispensation to visit the country as a “special examiner” and is hearing testimony at an impromptu tribunal set up in an old colonial mansion that is now a museum in the Havana neighbourhood of Vedado.

The hearing concerns a test case of 14 songs, all written by composers who’ve since died, with lawyers for the Cuban side saying their heirs could benefit from royalty payments.

After being overlooked since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, interest in Cuban music surged around the world when U.S. guitarist Ry Cooder brought several musicians together to make the Buena Vista Social Club album in 1997. Film director Wim Wenders followed up two years later with a documentary film of the same name.

U.S.-based publisher Peer International claims that its copyright to the songs, dating back to the 1930s, was unlawfully taken over by the Cuban government that came to power after that 1959 revolution.

It is suing a Cuban firm, Termidor Music Publishers, which sought to register itself in Britain as the owner of the songs’ copyrights.

Publisher Editora Musical de Cuba, which licensed rights to the music to Termidor, argues the original contracts are void because they were “unconscionable bargains” and have no legal standing.

Peter Prescott, a British lawyer acting for the Cubans, said in papers filed at court that many of the composers received only “a few pesos and maybe a drink of rum” for their work.

— John Gammon