Pavane,

I don't see how such a contract (ie the rights being guarded against future actions) could be binding. The rights have already been lost. If I understand the laws correctly, the original rights no longer exist legally, once they have been transferred to another owner.

The rights regarding the masters are a different matter. One of the fuzzy areas in the CM case is that no one knows what Bulmer actually has in his possession, and what he doesn't, or what rights are his, and what aren't. Or even, what copyrights he originally owned, and what copyrights were transferred to him through his purchase of liquidated assets.

Because he was acting as a liquidator, a recording company, and a distributor, it isn't clear to me (based on all accounts I've read) what of Nic's back catalogue was originally owned by Bulmer/CM, who the original owner of Nic's copyrights were, and what might have been transferred forward to a new company.

You'd spend a lot on solicitors, who in the end might tell you there was no feasible way to get masters or recording or performing rights for any of Nic's material, because of the laws governing what Bulmer does and doesn't have to disclose about what he has and owns.