A legitimate form of copyright?

[hwoodum]

Maybe those of you with legal and copyright knowledge can inform me about the accuracy of this. A musician friend of mine said that he posts all of his new songs on SoundClick or in some kind of video on YouTube as soon as he finishes them. He does this instead of "legally" copyrighting them through the Library of Congress. He says that because they are time stamped once they are uploaded to these sites, they are copyrighted. Would this hold up if a situation ever presented itself?

Thanks for your input.

Cheers!

[Casey H]

My understanding is that in U.S. courts, the only proof of authorship that has even held up is an actual Copyright filed with the US Library of Congress. Nothing else meets the standard in a court of law. That being said, the internet and the ability to upload music to websites is a fairly recent thing as history goes. So, there may have not been any legal precedents yet.

MHO is if you really are concerned about protecting your work, do it right and file with the US LOC. You can submit as many songs as you want as a collection for a single fee. So you can batch them up and submit. Keep in mind that people stealing your work is not at all a common occurance.

Good luck!
Casey

[t4mh]

My understanding is that in U.S. courts, the only proof of authorship that has even held up is an actual Copyright filed with the US Library of Congress. Nothing else meets the standard in a court of law. That being said, the internet and the ability to upload music to websites is a fairly recent thing as history goes. So, there may have not been any legal precedents yet.

MHO is if you really are concerned about protecting your work, do it right and file with the US LOC. You can submit as many songs as you want as a collection for a single fee. So you can batch them up and submit. Keep in mind that people stealing your work is not at all a common occurance.

Good luck!
Casey

+1 to this. There may be other ways but the LOC is the only place that "guarantees" authorship.

Good Luck!
Keith

[simonparker]

Hi there -

You have a copyright once you have a "fixed form" of your product (i.e. recorded song). The library of congress allows you to REGISTER YOUR CLAIM OF OWNERSHIP/CREATOR on such a song. Most copyright protections, however, are inherent in this "fixed form" on such date and registration of the song through the library of congress does not generate the actual copyright. The issue then becomes according to your question, posting on YouTube/Soundclick with a supposed time stamp. Theoretically, I can see this providing a date you have a fixed form song. However, this does not lend to proof of ownership or claims thereof, which the Library of Congress provides. For example, I could take a tune such as the Beatles' "Love Me Do" and post on YouTube, it doesn't mean that I am the copyright owner or creater of the song. The copyright registration of "Love Me Do" would provide good proof of such, and also proof that I am not the owner or creator of the song. So I think your friend has a problem with just mere posting of a song.

The other issue with mere posting is that you do lose some protections within copyright (although rarely needed). For example, posting an original song on YouTube could create a view that the song is published. Under copyright law, if you fail to register a published song within a certain time frame (I believe it to be 90 days), you lose out certain copyright protections (i.e. the ability to collect legal fees from someone who infringes on your copyright).

So I think in theory, your friend probably has generated proof of a fixed product, but really hasn't provided fully proof of ownership. With the proliferation of illegal downloading and songwriters who write 100s of songs over the course of their careers, it is probably not worth a whole lot to spend the high cost fees to register every song with the library of congress. However, I don't think it would be the most prudent approach to think posting a completed song on YouTube with a time stamp will give you a bulletproof registration of copyright.

[hwoodum]

Thanks everyone for some really good information. Sounds like the LOC is the best way to guarantee legal protection. I really don't expect anyone take my music without permission with all the popular material that's already out there, but I still think it's a good idea to protect my work.

Thanks again for your input!