| Frequently Asked Questions |
| What Does Copyright Mean? Copyright can be defined as the "Right To Copy". The party who possesses the "right to copy" is the copyright owner. Under a system of National Laws and International Copyright Treaties, the copyright owner has the "exclusive right" to perform, display, print, record, or otherwise reproduce the work in any way. Others can obtain permission to use someone's copyrighted work by receiving a License from the copyright owner(s) or their authorized agents. What we can do for you is insure that you have the correct forms completed properly, maintain your documents is a secure manner, it is always good to have backups, and act as your liason concerning authorizations and granting permissions. In order to protect your work from being copied without your permission, you should claim copyright to everything you write. You do this by writing the copyright symbol © followed by the year your work was created and your name. For example: © 2007 John Doe but merely having the copyright notice on your song is not enough. Before you begin submitting your song to anyone you should register the copyright with the Copyright Office in Washington, DC. using Form PA for songs. The current price is $45.00 per registration. You can register one song at at time, or to save money you can register as many as you want as a compilation for that same $45.00. (see CIR50 for more on this) The following publications are from the Library of Congress website and we offer them freely to you to help understand the required processes for submitting you materials to the LOC and registering your copyrights. These items are for reference only, please obtain all required forms directly from the LOC. To download these references, right click on each link and choose "Save Target As" then select the folder on your system you wish to save them in and press "save". Note: These files are in .pdf format |
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| Is there such thing as a "poor man's copyright"? You may have heard a story that goes like this: Put your lyrics in an envelope and mail it to yourelf by registered mail. Leave the songs in the unopened envelope and this supposedly offers copyright protection. WRONG! The "poor man's copyright" has not stood up in court. In fact, a court will not even let you file a case if all you have is an unopened envelope. Do not waste your time. We advise songwriters to register their songs with the U.S. Copyright Office on Form PA after the words and music are completed. It offers the best protection. |
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Music - All Rights Reserved. |