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I understand that American composers can file for copyright registration with the Library of Congress.

I haven't been able to find out if there's something comparable in Canada for Canadian composers - is there any way to file for copyright registration?

Hi Duane:

You can register here:

http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/information/reg ... ent-e.html

Thanks. They say on their site that they don't accept copies of the work, but that it serves as legal proof of ownership. If they don't archive the lyrics or music, how could you prove that your song had certain lyrics or music? I thought in the US you filed a copy of your lyrics and recording with the library of congress, which seems to make sense? Did I misinterpret the Canadian government site?

it's been about 10 years since I lived in canada and I only lived there briefly, so I don't remember clearly, but as I recall, you did not submit copies of work. The copyright is just a claim of creation - a glorified 'time stamp' of your work. If you need the comfort of submitting work for copyright, you may be able to send it to the US Library of Congress, although they do ask your citizenship and domicile, so I'm not 100% certain you can. If you can, there are international treaties in place for almost every country, so your copyright would be vaild pretty much worldwide if you submit to the US. If you want more clarification, you should contact the website phone number to discuss. You can also contact SOCAN, the PRO for Canada and they should be able to help.

Duane,
Check SAC's Song Vault. I use it.
It's an effective and easy way to do it:
http://www.songwriters.ca/songvault.aspx

If anyone is interested I started new topic called Copyright summary, added some basics.
I´d like to try sum up the copyright more on global (perhaps international sounds better) way,
maybe you can find next days useful information there too.

Vašek