Seeking advice on a co-writing situation...
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:58 pm
Hi Taxi team,
Here are my circumstances. A not-particularly-musical friend of mine has decided to embark on a musical career (she likes to sing) and approached me to help her with voice lessons. She offered to pay me a nominal fee (or sometimes wine) to make our weekly sessions a little more worth my while, and I accepted, even though it's not the rate I normally get. After a while she also asked me to help her write songs.
With the songwriting, she typically brought in a musical idea/theme with a few lines of lyrics. Since I have songwriting experience (I started informally composing about 45 years ago with personal but no commercial success), I actually enjoy taking the “seeds” she provides and creating a structured and polished song, usually including substantial input on the lyrics. I also create the sheet music to capture it since she has no musical skill there either.
I was happy to consider our efforts simply a 50/50 co-authoring arrangement, however, her claim is that since she’s reimbursing me for my time she owns the songs. (As I’m just helping out a friend, we’re clearly not employer/employee and there are no other agreements, written or otherwise.) She has started proceedings to copyright our songs as the sole author without my permission or participation. I’m looking for a legal reference that applies to this situation.
Here are my circumstances. A not-particularly-musical friend of mine has decided to embark on a musical career (she likes to sing) and approached me to help her with voice lessons. She offered to pay me a nominal fee (or sometimes wine) to make our weekly sessions a little more worth my while, and I accepted, even though it's not the rate I normally get. After a while she also asked me to help her write songs.
With the songwriting, she typically brought in a musical idea/theme with a few lines of lyrics. Since I have songwriting experience (I started informally composing about 45 years ago with personal but no commercial success), I actually enjoy taking the “seeds” she provides and creating a structured and polished song, usually including substantial input on the lyrics. I also create the sheet music to capture it since she has no musical skill there either.
I was happy to consider our efforts simply a 50/50 co-authoring arrangement, however, her claim is that since she’s reimbursing me for my time she owns the songs. (As I’m just helping out a friend, we’re clearly not employer/employee and there are no other agreements, written or otherwise.) She has started proceedings to copyright our songs as the sole author without my permission or participation. I’m looking for a legal reference that applies to this situation.