Yeah, statutory background is exactly what it is, statutory background of the 1976 Copyright Act and how it applies here, and gives us no indication of what the Thomas Brothers motives are and what will they do when or if they reclaim the US Copyright back.
It just mentions 24. the chance for Disney to get first dibs of the copyright licensng from the Thomas Brothers before termination date *which passed according to them*, 25. how older works will not be under Thomas control, and 26. this reclaiming doesn't apply overseas but only to the US.
24. Congress anticipated that an author's exercise of his/her termination right would usually result in a new license by the author to the terminated grantee (such as TCFFC). To that end, Congress provided "the original grantee" with the exclusive opportunity to re-license an author's recaptured copyright "after the notice or termination has been served," but before "the effective date of the termination." Id. § 203(b)(4). The termination provisions thus reflect a deliberate balance of competing interests.
25. Under the termination provisions, prior "derivative works" "can continue to be" distributed as before. 17 U.S.C. § 203(b)(1). Plaintiffs' recovery of the U.S. copyright to their Screenplay therefore does not prevent Defendants or their licensees from continuing to exploit prior derivative works, including the original Predator film and TCFFC's five sequel films.
26. In addition, because the Copyright Act has no extra-territorial application, the foreign rights to Plaintiffs' Screenplay remains with TCFFC. As a result, after the effective date of Plaintiffs' termination, new derivative Predator works would simply require a license from Plaintiffs, thereby enabling the authors to fairly participate with others at a level reflective of their work's market value. Accordingly, Plaintiffs' exercise of their copyright termination right does not prevent the exploitation of the Predator franchise; it simply allows its original creators to, at long last, participate in the financial rewards of their creation, just as Congress intended. H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, at 124 (1976).