Writer's share question...PD!

[sethlit]

I'm currently submitting a bunch of cues/some songs to a library I'm working with. They do take Public Domain songs. My questions is...when I give them the writer's share info...do I hunt down the writer of the song in PD and put their name in? Or am I still the writer of the particular track? Little confused. Kind of a stupid (hopefully) easy question.

I'd rather be stupid then regretful.

Thanks!

Seth

[mikeymike2000]

Hey Seth,

I would wait to hear what others say but to me it sounds like you are the "arranger" only (and to some extent the "publisher") but the original composer is the "writer". This would be provided that you only arranged or tweaked the song without writing anything original to it.

When I register with BMI the PD section asks if it is music, music and lyrics, is the original music and lyric still used, is there anything original added (changing the melody and lyric to make more of a derivative work)etc.

So it seems like there may be a little more info needed to correctly answer a question like this.

Although, I am not the guy to answer it but maybe that helps point in the right direction. - This is for informational purposes only and shall not be deemed as legal advise.

[Rossmusic]

It would be impossible to hunt down the name of the writer for many public domain songs. If it's a matter of money, who should get the writer's portion apart from you? If it's a matter of properly crediting the song - perhaps because people may search for songs by that composer - that's a different story.

My personal take is when I use music in the public domain it's mine. Note that for the purpose of defending copyright, I'll have had to have made changes to it to make it sufficiently different from the original, but in terms of use it needn't be credited.

[sethlit]

Thanks for the input guys. I've been reading around for a couple of days and I still can't seem to find a definite answer. I'm going to send an email to the library and see what they have to say. I'll be sure to get back to the post and let you know. Thanks!

Seth

[mazz]

I recently registered a couple of PD Christmas songs with ASCAP. The instructions were to list "Traditional" as the author with 0% writer's share. If I remember correctly I listed myself as arranger.

I think as long as the library knows they are PD, you can put yourself down as the writer and they will handle the rest. When they register it with the PRO they will do the same as I did and the PRO will pay accordingly (arrangements of PD stuff pay a bit less than originals, I believe).

I don't think it's that big of a deal and you shouldn't be afraid to contact the library with this question. I would think they would be happy to answer since if you do it the way they like it to be done up front, it saves them work. It's always nice to be the guy that they like to work with!

Good luck!

[sethlit]

Quick update. Yup, Mazz you are right. This particular library checks on every public domain submission themselves (rightfully so!) and since they do the registering, they take care of it. Thanks for the input!

Seth