{"id":34193,"date":"2026-02-10T06:52:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/?p=34193"},"modified":"2026-02-10T06:52:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:52:32","slug":"it-was-wholly-inapplicable-chers-418000-legal-victory-over-sonnys-widow-reveals-the-one-1978-divorce-clause-that-federal-copyright-law-couldnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/?p=34193","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt Was Wholly Inapplicable.\u201d \u2014 Cher\u2019s $418,000 Legal Victory Over Sonny\u2019s Widow Reveals The One 1978 Divorce Clause That Federal Copyright Law Couldn\u2019t Touch."},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than six decades of surviving \u2014 and often rewriting \u2014 the rules of the entertainment industry, Cher has added another unlikely title to her r\u00e9sum\u00e9: legal trailblazer. In a landmark federal ruling handed down this week, the 79-year-old icon secured a decisive $418,000 victory over Mary Bono<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, settling a long-simmering dispute over royalties from her work with late ex-husband and musical partner Sonny Bono<\/span><\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the center of the case was not a song, but a sentence \u2014 one clause buried in a 1978 divorce settlement that proved powerful enough to withstand federal copyright law itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The conflict revolved around royalties from the legendary Sonny & Cher catalog, including era-defining hits like \u201cI Got You Babe\u201d<\/em> and \u201cThe Beat Goes On.\u201d<\/em> When Cher and Sonny finalized their divorce in 1978, they negotiated a clean and equal split: Cher would receive 50% of the royalties generated by the duo\u2019s recordings, indefinitely. That agreement stood unquestioned for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until it didn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2021, Mary Bono \u2014 acting as trustee of the Sonny Bono Collection Trust \u2014 attempted to invoke a provision of the U.S. Copyright Act that allows authors or their heirs to reclaim transferred copyrights after 35 years. Known as a \u201ctermination right,\u201d the law is often used by estates to renegotiate or reclaim valuable catalogs. Bono\u2019s legal team argued that this federal statute overrode Cher\u2019s divorce settlement, effectively nullifying her royalty share.<\/span><\/p>\n

The court disagreed \u2014 emphatically.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt<\/span><\/span><\/strong> ruled that the termination statute was \u201cwholly inapplicable\u201d to Cher\u2019s case. His reasoning was precise and consequential: Cher\u2019s royalty entitlement was not a \u201cgrant of copyright,\u201d but a contractual right negotiated during the dissolution of a marriage. Federal copyright law, he concluded, does not have the authority to undo private contractual obligations created under state law.<\/span><\/p>\n

That distinction changed everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a result of the ruling, the Sonny Bono Trust is now required to pay Cher more than $418,000 in royalties that had been withheld during the dispute \u2014 and to continue honoring the original 50\/50 split going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond the money, the decision sends shockwaves through the music industry. For decades, termination rights have been viewed as nearly untouchable tools for heirs seeking to reclaim control of lucrative catalogs. This ruling draws a firm boundary: federal copyright law does not automatically supersede divorce settlements or other private contracts, no matter how old they are.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Cher, the win feels almost poetic. A performer who has reinvented herself across genres, decades, and mediums \u2014 from folk-pop star to Oscar-winning actress to dance-pop pioneer \u2014 once again proved impossible to erase. Her 1978 paperwork outlasted trends, technologies, and even statutory law.<\/span><\/p>\n

And for the industry at large, the message is clear: some deals really do stand the test of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Cher herself might put it, the beat doesn\u2019t just go on \u2014 it\u2019s legally protected.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After more than six decades of surviving \u2014 and often rewriting \u2014 the rules of the entertainment industry, Cher has added another unlikely title to her r\u00e9sum\u00e9: legal trailblazer. In a landmark federal ruling handed down this week, the 79-year-old icon secured a decisive $418,000 victory over Mary Bono, settling a long-simmering dispute over royalties…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enews.topnewsource.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}