Village People singer fights for ownership of Y.M.C.A. song lyrics.

Victor Willis, former lead singer of the Village People--and who, I assume, moonlights as a casual motorcycle cop on occasion--wants to own the rights to his share of the lyrics he wrote for "Y.M.C.A."

In essence, Willis wrote the songs while under the thumb of a big, bad record company. The record company owned the copyright for 35 years, per United States law. Now it's been 35 years since "Y.M.C.A." became a staple of low rent weddings and third rate bar mitzvahs, so Willis filed paperwork to get his ownership share back for writing parts of the song. It could be worth $120,000 a year in royalties for him.

Of course, the big, bad record company doesn't want to give it up--even if Willis is partly the author of the song. They wouldn't be a big, bad record company otherwise. They say Willis wrote the song while he was essentially a work-for-hire employee, that the group was a concept they created, so Willis's words are not...well, his own.

So, now the case goes to court, and should be critical in deciding copyright law over what right an author of song lyrics has over his work while working for a company.

But the one thing the Village People never have to fight for? Staying sexy in leather.