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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Andrew Hickey" <stealthmunchkin@lycos.co.uk> |
| Subject | Re: Easiest way to copyright your music.. |
| Date | Mon, 8 Sep 2003 07:42:32 +0100 |
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ArthurBang2@aol.com wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I just thought I'd post this here because I was curious as to what
> the best way would be to go about copyrighting some songs that I've
> written. I've heard various things, and was wondering if anyone
> could give me some advice either on or off-list.
>
> I have a friend who wants to use one of my songs in a video he's doing
> and I hate for too many people to hear these, because someone might
> take it and record it for themselves and then I wouldn't get credit.
>
> Any help would be appreciated..
I'm sure people will be able to give you fuller answers than this, but
basically (I'm assuming you're in the US or UK, but most countries work the
same) you own the copyright as soon as your song is put in tangible form
(written down, taped or whatever). The question then becomes one of proving
you wrote the song first.
If you want to be absolutely sure you can register your copyright with the
government (I believe in the US it's the library of congress, but you'd be
best googling for details), but this is not legally necessary. Other means
like a dated, notarised copy of the sheet music being held by a lawyer, or
anything else that would stand up in court as proof you wrote it first would
do.
In fact if the video itself is going to be copyright-registered, then you
should have no problems at all...
BTW this seems the best place to point out that *all* musicians need a copy
of All You Need To Know About The Music Business by Donald Passman (a music
lawyer who's worked with a lot of big names), which covers all the basics of
copyright law, contracts and so on. Get the UK edition, as that contains
every word of the US edition anyway, plus a lot of information that only
applies to UK/European markets...
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