copyright info?

[StevieM]

This may be the wrong room for this, but there you go .
Anyone know the position of copyright when tracks are put together by two (or sometimes several) people on here?

Not only the risk if it's picked up and used (nicked) by someone else, but also what happens when, or should I say if, hopefully, something's done with it where there's a chance it could make some money?

[tkofaith]

I'm sure that the forum has no legal bearing on anything.  It is the responsibility of the authors/composers to secure a copyright.  In the case of joint composition, both would need to secure a copyright jointly.  I'm not sure how percentages are worked out, but if you haven't obtained a copyright, you're screwed.

Just my 2 cents!

[BossMicroBRew]

Speaking of 2 cents...

This may be the wrong place to post this, but I read recently that it costs around $40 to copyright a song and about $300 to copyright an album's worth of songs.

Anyone else more knowledgeable on all of this?

[Oldrottenhead]

i always thought as soon as you created something original and could prove when it was created etc etc it was automatically copyrighted, so if someone ripped off a song i posted here i could prove that i created it on date posted whatever, years ago my mates used to post a tape of their recordings to themselves and kept the still sealed and post dated envelope as proof.

[Dmann]

 From Wikipedia;

"Poor man's copyright"
A widely circulated strategy to avoid the cost of copyright registration is referred to as the "poor man's copyright." It proposes that the creator send the work to himself in a sealed envelope by registered mail, using the postmark to establish the date. This technique has not been recognized in any published opinions of the United States courts. The United States Copyright Office makes clear that the technique is no substitute for actual registration.[7] In fact, in the United States if you do not have a federal registration you are unable to enforce your copyrights.[8] This is because a copyright lawsuit can only be brought in federal court in the U.S. and you may not bring an action without a federally registered copyright. [9]

The United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office discusses the technique but points out that neither registering the work or posting the work prove that you were the creator of the work, and instead suggests that you keep copies of all your drafts and anything that evidences that you were the creator.

So if your really worried about it, just spend the small fee it get it properly done, as if it really came down to it, you'd probably spend 100x the cost on legal fees.

[Greeny]

You could always hunt the thief down and break their legs when legal recourse fails 

This is interesting and topical for me - my girlfriend spotted yesterday (on YouTube of all places) a song with a very familiar intro and chord structure - i.e. MINE!!!!! The f*cker performing it is someone who's seen me playing that song many times in the pub. He's done something different with the words / melody, but the start is unmistakably mine.

Now... what do I do?! And how could you ever PROVE he's heard that song? He could just say it's a co-incidence?

[BossMicroBRew]

Let the bugger get rich off your song, then take him for all he's worth!

On another note, I have heard that the "Poor Man's Copyright" method works on patents also...just in case you wanted to design a Hoss Nicro DR.

[Glenn Mitchell]

If you posted your songs on the net somewhere, there is a date stamp on it.
That might not be a slam dunk if "your" song goes platinum by someone else but it would go a long way towards an out of court settlement.

[BossMicroBRew]

For something else to add, I checked on legalzoom.com today and they charge just over $100 to get the paperwork prepared and another $45 to file it with the U.S. Copyright Office.  That seems to be just for one song.

A few things...I don't know anything about legalzoom, other than they advertise like crazy in the US.  Can you do the paperwork yourself and save $100.  What processes are available for the UK?  It would be nice to know if someone has any experience with this, in terms of copyrighting something, and could post something.

In any event, who wants to spend money on legal crap.  Let's just play some music and hope the aforementioned "Poor Man's Method" works to our advantage!   

[tkofaith]

You can always file on your own.  Everyone's out for a buck!