How to Copyright Music

How to Copyright Music Article by David Nevue

Why Copyright My Music?
Now technically speaking, the minute you put your music into a tangible form (a recording), the music is copyrighted. However, to really protect yourself, you will want to register that copyright with the copyright office. This will protect you in the event that someone, somewhere, steals one of your songs and claims it as their own. Registering a copyright is not difficult, and whether you want to copyright just a single song (for possible digital distribution) or an entire CD of collected works, the process is the same. Just fill out Form SR, which you can get from the U.S. Copyright Office, and submit it with two copies of your CD (or a CD single) and $45 to the Library of Congress at the address on the form. Once you do that, every song on the CD you submitted is protected. Yes, it really is that easy.

Form SR?
Yes, Form SR. The nice thing about using Form SR is you can copyright an entire album of songs under one form submission. You don't need to submit each song individually. That makes the process so much easier. But when you need to include on the form is a statement claiming copyright to both the sound recording and the underlying composition. You do that Under section 2a, where you see “Nature of Authorship.” In that space, indicate that you are claiming copyright to both the sound recording and the underlying composition – and use that exact wording. If any of the songs on the CD are cover songs, then make a note of that under section 6a, “Derivative Work or Compilation.”

You’ll find complete, easy-to-read directions and a downloadable version of Form SR at the U.S. Copyright Office web site at http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html . It will take six months to a year for the Library of Congress to process your form, but once you’ve submitted your work, you’re officially protected. If you use FedEx to send in your copyright information (which I suggest you do), keep your tracking number handy and you can present this as legal proof of your effective date of copyright registration should you ever need it.

What Does Copyright Registration Do for Me?
Well, if someone does steal your work, not only can you prove the work is yours by your registration, but you can also sue for damages (you can’t legally sue for damages if your song isn’t registered with the copyright office). If the copyright infringement is determined to be deliberate, your attorney can initiate a formal criminal investigation.

Registering your songs using Form SR grants you these exclusive rights:

• The right to make copies and duplicate your CD
• The right to distribute your music
• The right to prepare derivative works (alternate versions, new arrangements)
• The right to perform the songs publicly
• The right to display the product publicly
• The right to perform publicly via digital audio transmission

Once you’ve registered your sound recording (your CD) with the U.S. copyright office, these rights belong exclusively to you and you alone (provided, of course, that you are the actual copyright owner). No one can take those rights from you.

Once your song is registered, you no longer have to worry about someone stealing your song idea and taking credit for it. If someone does that, gets a hit out of it and you can prove the song is yours with your registered copyright, you are going to smile all the way to the bank when the court awards you damages, which can be very high for copyright theft.

How to Copyright Individual Digital Creations
What if you only want to copyright a single song (or video, or photo, or article, or blog or whatever) to prove it’s yours? See http://www.myfreecopyright.com/ . At this web site you can upload your digital files, be they music, video, pictures or whatever, and they are instantly copyrighted and you can prove the date/time of registration. The service is free, and it’s a very simple way to copyright your individual music creations. Just so you know, however, even though you can use this digital copyright in a court of law to prove infringement, you cannot collect statutory damages from the infringer. You can collect lost profits that might be determined, but not statutory damages which is generally where the big money comes from. To collect statutory damages, you still need to send in a registration form into the copyright office as stated above.

What About Creative Commons?
There is an alternative means by which you may copyright your work called Creative Commons ( http://www.creativecommons.org ). Basically what this does is create a copyright for your music whereby instead of all rights being reserved, only some rights are reserved. This invites others to use your work for certain purposes without having to get permission from you first. In theory, this means people searching for music to use in their products or digital creations are more likely to use your music if they don’t have to jump through a lot of legal hoops to make use of it. So, for example, you might allow a song to be used in a non-commercial product (ie. no financial profit for the distributor) without forcing the licensee to get permission from you, but still reserve the right to collect a royalty if the product in question is a money-maker. The Creative Commons copyright is still a rather new concept, and there are many variations on it that may make the concert confusing for the potential licensee. Even so, it is something to at least be aware of if the concept becomes more widely recognized and accepted. For a list of the different Creative Commons licenses available, see http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses

What About International Copyright?
If you are not a citizen of the United States, obviously the comments above do not apply to you as every country handles the copyright process a bit differently. However, chances are that your homeland is a member of the World Intellection Property Organization (WIPO). If so, you can start researching your copyright options at http://www.wipo.int/members/en/ . Select your country name from the WIPO list, follow the “contact information” link, and that will take you to a page that lists the web site address of the copyright office for your country.

Some notable and related links from this article:

The U.S. Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov
Copyright and Fair Use: http://fairuse.stanford.edu
Copyright Your Web Site: http://www.gocopyright.com
Copyright Form SR: http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html
Copyright Your Digital Creation: http://www.myfreecopyright.com
World Intellectual Property Org: http://www.wipo.int/members/en/

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