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Have you ever copyrighted your music?
Not everyone might know the ins and outs. What was the process/fees/wait like. Also I was wondering if its possible copyright a whole cd of tracks at one time.
Well, there's a difference between copyrighting your music and registering your copyright. Essentially, every original piece of music that you record is protected as your property under copyright law. You just have to be able to prove that you had that idea first, if someone were to infringe on your idea(s). Registering your copyright is essentially filing an official record of your work with the government, making it easier to demonstrate that you own the material, should the need arise. The last time I checked, the cost to register a copyright was $30 per submission. You can register the copyright on as many songs as you want under one registration form, so yes, it is cheaper to register all of your songs at once than it is to register them separately.
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| Originally posted by cryophonik Well, there's a difference between copyrighting your music and registering your copyright. Essentially, every original piece of music that you record is protected as your property under copyright law. You just have to be able to prove that you had that idea first, if someone were to infringe on your idea(s). Registering your copyright is essentially filing an official record of your work with the government, making it easier to demonstrate that you own the material, should the need arise. The last time I checked, the cost to register a copyright was $30 per submission. You can register the copyright on as many songs as you want under one registration form, so yes, it is cheaper to register all of your songs at once than it is to register them separately. |
http://www.wikihow.com/Copyright-a-Song
(That's for Americans - Canadians register with SOCAN, Euros probably have to fill out 268 forms and send them to 46 different government agencies, I dunno)
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| Originally posted by DigiNut ...That's for Americans... |
Well the site mentions something about copyrighting an album instead of a song. What if you want to copyright 10 songs but its not really an album? And if you send in 10 songs to get copyrighted wouldnt each one be copyrighted seperately. But this confuses things...
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| Copyright albums at a time rather than each song. It is a lot cheaper to pay $45 instead of $300 or more. The exception is if the publisher insists to copyright each song. |
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| Originally posted by DigiNut http://www.wikihow.com/Copyright-a-Song (That's for Americans - Canadians register with SOCAN, Euros probably have to fill out 268 forms and send them to 46 different government agencies, I dunno) |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Kismet7 Well the site mentions something about copyrighting an album instead of a song. What if you want to copyright 10 songs but its not really an album? And if you send in 10 songs to get copyrighted wouldnt each one be copyrighted seperately. But this confuses things... |
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| Originally posted by DigiNut http://www.wikihow.com/Copyright-a-Song (That's for Americans - Canadians register with SOCAN, Euros probably have to fill out 268 forms and send them to 46 different government agencies, I dunno) |
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| source: www.socan.ca Registering copyrights is not part of SOCAN's service offering. |
Yes, I copyright my music with http://creativecommons.org/ , Its what real artists use 
Copyrights to me are pointless unless you're famous and have some actual risk of losing money over it.
And even in that case, they're pointless.
I prob commit about 50 copyright offenses a day, have over 50,000 forms of shit on my computer proving this (music, etc) and I could prob make my own website telling the world I do this and still not have one person try to take me to court over it.
I have as much faith in copyrights as I do in Santa Claus.
You don't copyright to stop people from pirating your music.
You copyright to stop other people from claiming it as their own then suing you. Even if you have proof the thing is yours, because you didn't take the time out to copyright it, it still becomes valid for the one who did to have ownership of it. You copyright music to save yourself. You copyright anything for this reason.
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| Originally posted by SgtFoo SOCAN does not handle registrations for copyright.. SOCAN handles royalties and such. See: http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/c.../h_wr00003.html ^the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. |
As an artist you just don't send out your music before release. Or just very little before the actual release date. Problem solved.
Any type of intellectual property is copyrighted by default. Either by the person that developed/made the product or the company it was developed in. If you're smart enough to keep the music to yourself you can't run into any problems at all, nobody has your music, nobody can infringe your copyright. Furthermore the risk of ending up in such a copyright infringement case is virtually null. As soon as the track is released it serves as evidence you own the intellectual rights to that track.
Copyright offices are bullshit as you can make sure no infringement (before the release of your track) will take place all by yourself. Thus it doesn't have to cost you anything. Amongst this there are other legal ways which are way cheaper to prove you owned a track before others did. That's ultimately what it comes down to IF you run into any problems, which is not likely at all.
My boss gave me this idea:
You can give yourself copyright infringement insurance, is to burn your track and project files to a disk, seal it up in an envelope, and mail it to yourself via certified mail, and just leave it at that. Anyone tries to steal your sh!t, the government basically says that it was in existence, because you sent it to yourself and transitively had it processed by a governmental agency.
...Of course this could be a completely bullsh!t idea, but it sounds pretty legit, heh.
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| Originally posted by ReclusNdangrmnt ...Of course this could be a completely bullsh!t idea, but it sounds pretty legit, heh. |
. Just make sure you keep the envelope untouched.
All this confusion over how many tracks can be copyrighted at once makes me wonder if you couldn't send a flash drive with hundreds of songs on it for registration. This will make you look smart and cost-effective.
Has anyone tried this yet?
My friend suggested I license my tracks under Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org)
Otherwise, if you expect your track to be a big success (especially commercially) then it probably would make sense to get a registered copyright.
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| Originally posted by ReclusNdangrmnt My boss gave me this idea: You can give yourself copyright infringement insurance, is to burn your track and project files to a disk, seal it up in an envelope, and mail it to yourself via certified mail, and just leave it at that. Anyone tries to steal your sh!t, the government basically says that it was in existence, because you sent it to yourself and transitively had it processed by a governmental agency. ...Of course this could be a completely bullsh!t idea, but it sounds pretty legit, heh. |
You copyright stuff so you arn't sued.
If I write a book, and i give it away with no legal copyright. Someone else can take it, copyright it in the legal system, then sue me for giving it away. Its happened with people I know. Also with music. Practical applications of copyright have little to nothing to do with whether people will download it or not. People will pirate your stuff. That is a fact, and no system can stop them. But with that said you still don't leave it alone, because of the aforementioned reasons.
"Ego" is how a person sees themselves. I have no clue how you thought I was talking about ego.
that was strange. I apologize. I glossed over your post and thought your point was that copyright is essential so you can say it is yours. I thought you saw it as a means to basically say something is yours and that in itself was the ultimate goal. I missed a few details that make my previous post silly. My bad.
IN the previous post you just made, you mentioned legal right. Are you aware of what that actually means?
Come on, I'm not that daft :P
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| Originally posted by ******** In Canada all artistic works are copyrighted by default, including musical productions. That is one benefit of writing in Canada - copyright by default. For Canada it is royalties that matter, which means having material in use by others, and joining an agency like SOCAN, unless you are a comercial producer on contract, or employed by a music sales firm. http://www.socan.ca/jsp/en/about/me..._Background.jsp |
But how does Canada know that this thing is yours and not the guy claiming its his?
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