Copyrights when there's cowriters

[Guest]

I have some songs that I wrote with an X-band member who moved back to Norway where he is from. I'd like to register some of the songs we cowrote........does he have to be involved? I know that he will get his royalties as a cowriter but can I go ahead and copyright them on my own?

Ben Coil

[simonparker]

The short answer I'd give you is you should talk to an attorney. In absence an attorney, you can get the legal jargon for your question at http://www.copyright.gov

My answer is as follows and is based on my experience and is not to be interpreted as legal advice. You create a copyright when you have a fixed form of the song. It doesn't matter whether you or your co-writer is a foreigner from a US perspective, you still get the inherent right to a copyright. Filling out the form (registering with the Library of Congress) only documents your claim to a copyright on a specific date. Your protections under copyright law were already inherent upon the creation of the song in fixed form. You can lose some of these protections should you fail to file within 90 days if these songs are legally published.

Now there's an issue of you only being one of the two authors. For registration purposes, I would put you and the other writer's name as co-authors, with you being the administrator. Keep in mind that under copyright law, just because you've filed as the adminstrator of the copyright, you do not have the legal ability to transfer full ownership to a third party without your other writer's permission.

Hope this helps

[suzdoyle]

It is always a good idea, for clarity's sake, to have a collaboration agreement with any cowriters that clearly states who the administrator of the copyright will be. Otherwise, you might have people duplicating things (such as registering copyright or handling licensing), which would make it difficult for those wanting to use the music as well as for the co-writers.

If your co-writer agrees to let you be the administrator, you can draw up a short agreement stating so, and then you could handle the copyright. However, you would still have the responsibility for keeping the cowriter informed about any matters related to use of the song.

Hope this helps!
Suz