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 How
to Copyright Music
Article by David Nevue - Dec
2007
Back to Internet Music Promotion 101
How
Do I Copyright My Music?
That's
a question I get asked a lot
here at the Music Biz Academy.
And so, I decided I might as
well write a formal article
about it.
I discuss
the issue in detail in my book,
How
to Promote Your Music Successfully
on the Internet, so
I've more or less included an
excerpt from that here. So here
we go...
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 Intellection Property Org:
http://www.wipo.int/members/en/
The Harry Fox Agency: http://www.harryfox.com/index.jsp
The
above a brief, (and slightly
edited) excerpt
from How
to Promote Your Music Successfully
on the Internet.
-----
David Nevue
is the founder of The
Music Biz Academy
and Whisperings:
Solo Piano Radio. He is also a professional pianist,
recording artist, full-time Internet musician, and author of the book, "How to Promote Your Music Successfully on the Internet."
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