Registered a song with a misspelling now what?

[mikeymike2000]

OK biz people,

Surely someone somewhere has done this one...

I registered a song with the title spelled wrong. What to do now? (It's only one letter but still...)

a) change the title to the correct spelling and leave the registration alone

b) re-register the work so there is no confusion

c) leave it alone everywhere and call it artistic license

Thanks!

[Casey H]

You're totally screwed. Once you register a song with a misspelling, it is banned from royalties for eternity.

Casey

[andygabrys]

You're totally screwed. Once you register a song with a misspelling, it is banned from royalties for eternity.

Casey

hahah!

actually just send an email to your PRO and they will fix it. well, send it to the right department lol!

BMI has often fixed stuff for me.

[mikeymike2000]

Casey: I knew it! Even though it was my mistake... the world is against me, I quit!

Andy: Cool, I had no idea it could be so simple.

What about the LOC though, I don't anticipate I would ever have to enforce a copyright but if I did, would this throw the case out the window?

[andygabrys]

i don't think so.

whatever name your register the song under at copyright.gov is going to be the name. whatever you have it registered as at the PRO could be the same just to make things simple, but as you can see from re-title libraries of all kinds, the name at the PRO doesn't much relate to the copyrighted name.

Casey maybe has more info about that from his music library experience.

[mikeymike2000]

Ya know, upon more thought... I think I will ask BMI to change the name but re-register it with LOC cause if we are talking court of law, all the i's must be dotted and then there is simple no question.

All in all it is not that much and I have the misspelled version with a date stamp already so if need be that will help the issue.

better safe than sorry, especially with a tune that has serious potential.

[Casey H]

Ya know, upon more thought... I think I will ask BMI to change the name but re-register it with LOC cause if we are talking court of law, all the i's must be dotted and then there is simple no question.

All in all it is not that much and I have the misspelled version with a date stamp already so if need be that will help the issue.

better safe than sorry, especially with a tune that has serious potential.

Mike
Simply contact BMI and ask them to fix the spelling error.

Not a lawyer but my understanding is titles are not copyrighted, the underlying work (e.g. music, lyrics, recording, etc) is. So changing it with the LOC would be an expensive waste of time. Titles are irrelevant here.

And worrying about a court of law scenario is also pretty wasteful use of your energy. This sort of thing is extremely rare and unless you have SIGNIFICANT damages (a lawyer tells me over $75K), you wouldn't be in court. It's pretty doubtful that you'd ever have that much in damages.

Put the energy back into making the best music you can.

*BIG "I AM NOT A LAWYER" DISCLAIMER*

Casey

[mikeymike2000]

hey Casey,

Your comment was interesting so I looked into it and it appears that may be correct. Copyright covers the song, not the name. The name is under Trademark (much much more ridiculously expensive) and never needed for a song title.

I understand the spirit of your other comment, 'prob not ever gonna be in a situation of more than 75K' but personally, I don't think that way. hehehe Dream big baby!

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