to serve
advance notice no later than 1987 or lose his right of termina-
tion. In 1983, the studio, recognizing Christopher’s existing
right to terminate the grant of rights to exploit the original
work, chose to renegotiate the pre-1978 agreements. Christo-
pher, in turn, chose to avoid the statutory formalities whereby
the rights would actually vest in him and then he would have
  6
    A.A. Milne passed away in 1956 after executing the first grant in 1930;
his widow passed away after executing the second grant together with the
executor of the Milne Trust in 1961.
                  CLASSIC MEDIA, INC. v. MEWBORN                  8545
to renegotiate with the studio. The new agreement revoked
those earlier transfers and re-granted to the studio the very
same rights. In return for Christopher’s agreement not to exer-
cise his termination rights, which would have invested in him
the copyright interests in all the works at issue, the deal
resulted in a net gain of hundreds of millions of dollars to
Christopher and the remaining heirs, landing the studio and
Christopher in the same place had he followed the formalities.
Milne, 430 F.3d at 1040-41.

   In concluding that the renegotiated deal was not an “agree-
ment to the contrary,” the court relied on the facts that the
new grant was more lucrative for the author’s heirs, that it
was freely and intelligently entered into by the parties and that
“[t]he beneficiaries of the