The composers of the University of Michigan’s iconic “Let’s Go Blue” marching band fight song are fighting back in litigation over a sync in the College Football video game series.
Albert Ahronheim and Joe Carl, who co-wrote “Let’s Go Blue” as Michigan students in the 1970s, were sued earlier this year by publishers Theodore Presser and Carl Fischer. The companies claim they’ve owned the song’s composition rights since 1978 and properly inked a College Football license with Electronic Arts (EA), only for Ahronheim and Carl to interfere and get the sync removed.
Ahronheim and Carl tell a different story in counterclaims filed on Tuesday (June 11), first obtained and reported by Billboard. The composers say they exercised their termination rights under copyright law years ago and now control the “Let’s Go Blue” publishing. In 2024, however, they allegedly learned that Presser and Fischer had illegally licensed the song to EA behind their backs “for a paltry sum of approximately $1,000.”
“This came as a surprise to [Ahronheim and Carl], as Fisher did not have authority to license the song in any capacity (and $1,000 was a shockingly low license fee),” reads the countersuit.
Now, the composers and publishers are each asking a judge to declare that they are the rightful owners of “Let’s Go Blue.” Each side is also seeking financial damages from the other for alleged wrongdoing.
Reps for the composers, publishers and EA did not immediately return requests for comment.
The dispute turns on the technicalities of the termination right — a provision of copyright law that allows authors to claw back their intellectual property decades after signing it away. Ahronheim and Carl claim they exercised their termination rights in 2013, and that Presser and Fischer accepted at the time that the “Let’s Go Blue” publishing had reverted.
The publishers, however, argue in their lawsuit that Ahronheim and Carl’s termination notice was invalid because they failed to make an official report to the U.S. Copyright Office before the 2013 effective date. Presser and Fischer say this means they retain ownership of “Let’s Go Blue” and are thus entitled to license out the song to EA and others.
This lawsuit is just one among many current court battles that are testing the limitations of termination rights. Salt-N-Pepa is locked in one such case, with Universal Music Group arguing that the rap duo can’t exercise the right because they didn’t actually sign their original record deal. Another major fight is questioning whether termination rights extend overseas. And earlier this month, a judge ruled that they couldn’t be invoked because a member of 2 Live Crew filed for bankruptcy.
