It is interesting in context that in the bankruptcy of an individual who acquired a copyright by an assignment prior to the 10th December 1986, as a result of S 60 of the Bankruptcy Act 1914, which reversed the 1907 case of Re Grant Richards, a trustee in bankruptcy may not assign the copyright or grant licences under it without paying the author any contractual royalties or share. This was confirmed by the 1919 case of Barker -v- Stickney.

I have frequently submitted to relevant bureaucrats that this rule should be extended to company liquidations (note for US readers, in the UK, only an individual may be made bankrupt, companies are liquidated). In stead the rule was truncated by the Insolvency Act 1986.

Of course, an assignment may be made conditional on payment of royalties (note to US readers, there is no UK rule equivalent to those of US Chapter 11 "bankruptcies" that prevents licences being terminated for non-payment where a company is in the UK equivalents to US chapter 11)) but artists often either do not have the muscle or quality of advice, to get proper terms put into assignments.

None of these things would have availed Nic Jones as he was not the producer (who is the first owner of copyright in) the sound recordings. That could have been achieved by the company engaging Nic as producer and him managing the sound production (employing the actual producer for the purpose) but that would have needed HUGE financial muscle to negotiate.

What Leader should have done to protect its artists (which I assume it would have wished) was to put the copyrights in sound recordings immediately on their making into another company that did not trade and so could not run up debts or be liquidated, which in turn licensed Leader (without warranties) to make and sell recordings etc.