COPY WRITE / Information needed

[jay10music]

HI GUY'S..........I really need to know about Copy Write..1) do u copy write your instrumental songs when u finish them?2) do u poor man copy write till u get a deal offered ?3) r u sending songs to Washington ?? PLEASE GIVE INFO ON THESE QUESTIONS.....Jay-man....

[aimusic]

Hey J My Friend,1) As far as I know, you can only copyright it once it's published (or proof of it with a Publisher???) or sumin to that effect... it's almost a catch 22 situation...2) Poor man's method don't work.3) I'm sending mine to the Queen.Take CareB

[heinsite]

no, that's not how i get it ai man--you already have a copyright, and yep the poor man's way will work, just seal it up words, music, whatever in a cd and send it to yourself and don't open it.but yes, get online and print form PA or you can also use the "short" form PA, and send the puppy in with a cd--don't think you have lyrics, so that aint a problem, if you do, send them too.you can also do it online i hear, but i'm not good at that.the whole thing will cost you i THINK 40 bucks per form, so i'd send in ALL you have that you are happy with, as a Collection of songs by "runner" (real name, you'll see) and list the names one by one, and the list them the same on the cd.now this is how I DO IT, if somebody says i'm nuts, tell me--and my understanding is as long as it is SENT, you have no worries, as the copyright office will take about 6 months to send you an official certificate of copyright (i have about 30 tunes now "official")hope that helps some. go online and look up copywrite office, and you';lll find the government site.the best,warren

[zoom]

Poor man's copyright will get you so far, IMO.... and I don't think it's really all that important for the submission part of the taxi world anyway.But when it comes to getting forwards, you'll probably want to visit the copyright office online and check it out as Warren said. No, you do not have to have it published for it to work. And yes, it can be all done online with mp3s.http://www.copyright.gov/There's all sorts of info there bud. I'm no lawyer, so I think I should just shut up about it for the most part.... though there are two kinds of forms... one is for copyrighting the recording (the song as you played it), and one is for copyrighting the performance (meaning if someone wants to try to recreate it). Just make sure you know which is which and how they can affect you.I'm really just now wrapping my head around it -- so if someone else has suggestions here please let us all in!

[allends]

Aug 29, 2008, 8:48am, heinsite wrote:...so i'd send in ALL you have that you are happy with, as a Collection of songs by "runner" (real name, you'll see) and list the names one by one, and the list them the same on the cd.Hey J-Man,Warren's advice is good: List everything you got on the proper form and give a name to your "collection". I called my first collection ".....Volume 1". Copyrighting a collection is the quick & money-saving way to get the protection you need. I'm not looking at the form right now, but I believe you won't run into complications if you wrote and performed all the tracks yourself. You'll have to check out the facts if this isn't the case.Although it is true that the artist automatically owns the rights to their work, the "poor man's copyright" doesn't give you the easy remedies in court that the official copyright method does.-Al

[rld]

Taken directly from the Gov. site...Quote:I’ve heard about a “poor man’s copyright.” What is it?The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

[Casey H]

In the US, the "poor man's" copyright where you mail a copy to yourself will not hold up in the event of a real law suit. I'm told that in other countries like the UK, it's acceptable standard practice (but check with someone who lives there).Filing copyrights with the US copyright office is recommended. As mentioned, you can save a lot of money by copyrighting a group of songs as one collection-- you only pay one fee. Bear in mind, that the professionals listening to your music really aren't out to steal your material. However, it's good to be safe.If you have an actual master recording you are pitching for film/TV, you can use the SR form to copyright music, lyrics, and sound recording all at once. The same thing goes- you can do a collection for one fee. However, in any collection, the writers have to be the same for each track in the collection. So if you have a bunch of tracks with different co-writers, you do need separate forms and fees.HTH Casey

[crystallions]

I would recommend looking into filing for copyright online. It's $35 to file for copyright online and $45 to do it via snail mail so the savings over time will be pretty large.

[cameron]

I have been copyrighting my songs whenever I posted them on line, but a few weeks ago I was in Nashville and attended one of the BMI Songwriter's Workshops taught by Jason Blume. He made a point of saying that just about the only people who copyright unpublished works are amateurs, and he said in his 20+ years in the business he has never heard of a song being stolen.If you decide to do it anyway, the on-line method is simpler (much like posting a song to your Taxi page), cheaper and faster. For the one I did on-line I got the copyright certificate back within a month whereas the ones I sent in the old fashioned way-- about five months ago-- I still don't have back.Cameron

[davekershaw]

Quote: I'm told that in other countries like the UK, it's acceptable standard practice (but check with someone who lives there).I doubt it would hold up in court here either Casey.Trouble is, we don't have a copyright office like the US,so a lot of people do still use the poor man's method, in the hope that it will offer some kind of protection.It would be easy to mail yourself a bunch of unsealed envelopes, and then insert discs and seal them at any point in the future. A court, I believe, would pull that method to pieces.And while professionals listening to your music might not be out to steal it, posting it online opens it up to anyone, in any country, to pick and choose what they want to copy; even if it's just part of the melody.It is a difficult issue for amateurs.And Brad, one of my songs: "Knees up at the Palace" didn't get past the Royal screeners, so I wouldn't bother with ER. Dave.