Copyright / registration of songs?

[Drumstruck]

Hi guys,

Wonder if someone would be kind enough to key in a few bullets / links for copyright/registatration of songs?

I'm about half way through my album and wanted to get this happening before rather than after.....


thanks

[vanderlae]

Hi Ian,

There's no official way of copyrighting songs. Simply put, from the moment you have written a song you own the copyright in it. You do not need to do anything further. Should you find someone rips a song off, then you only need to demonstrate you had the song first; which you can, as you'll have your album and presumably earlier demos etc.

You can register the songs with APRA/AMCOS anyway when you're ready so you're taken care of for live performance and mechanicals.

In the old days people used to send registered post to themselves with the songs (tape?!) to date-stamp them, but that's always sounded far-fetched to me.

Easy peasey.

[jkhuri44]

^ the sending post to yourself is supposed to be legit. I've heard of people doign this also. for what reasons woild you say it's farfetched?? out of interest.

[Alistair]

You could always just email yourself an mp3 nowadays too. That will be datestamped and hang around forever.

[Drumstruck]

Thanks heaps guys - that's good to know.

All my stuff is timestamped on the server storage/backup/archive so that should cover it.

Now..... should I post a song for you guys to listen too?

[jkhuri44]

with gmail's new privacy policy...it is....actually saved forever...ffs.

[Alistair]

Fair point. If you want google to own it, use gmail.

[jkhuri44]

Fair point. If you want google to own it, use gmail.

then sue google for copyright infringement ?

[The Tasmanian]

Just burn them to CD as data / and copy to a hard drive - making sure that the date created is there.
Done

[Hookemeister]

Just burn them to CD as data / and copy to a hard drive - making sure that the date created is there.
Done

I'm not so sure about that Chris.

What's to stop someone from setting up an old PC, setting the system clock to say 2010, then burning a data CD, or backing up a song on the hard drive. That data CD would then be date stamped 2010. They could then claim that as proof they'd written the song prior to the real composer.

Unfortunately data is very easily manipulated these days.

In the old days it was sent registered post to a bank and stored in a safe deposit box, then only accessed if there was a dispute.

The easiest way is to commercially release it or have it pressed by a duplication plant.

[The Tasmanian]

Exactly - you are going to release it, and you have registered with APRA, and you have your CD/Data time stamp.
You have the recording sessions backed up.
Who is going to go to all that trouble to set the clock on their computer back - rip your song off after its been put out, etc etc.
Why be so precious with fear of getting ripped off? - just put it out and have a good nights sleep.

[vanderlae]

^ the sending post to yourself is supposed to be legit. I've heard of people doign this also. for what reasons woild you say it's farfetched?? out of interest.

I'm sure it was done, but nowadays it would be moronic to do that when as I said, as soon as you write the song it is instant copyright and proving when that happened has never been easier. I've mentioned I and Chris did also; register the songs with apra and be done with it. Chuck "copyright 2012 YOURNAME" on your album's liner notes and worry about important stuff...like promoting it!

[Drumstruck]

After a little bit of internet searching I located this that may help anyone else in future:

http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/

http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/downloads/ ... online.pdf

cheers guys

[Petes]

You can register you songs
If you register a group of songs as a collection it works out to be relatively cheap
I have done this for all of my works as it is a requirement often asked for by US music libraries etc.

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/copyrightmy ... ext/steps/

Hope this helps

[Kurt]

"Moronic" is a bit harsh! The sending it to yourself (and not opening it!) means it is dated by someone the courts will trust. It's much easier and much cheaper than registering with APRA ect... It may be just the ticket for you, depending on what you expect to do with the final result.

^ the sending post to yourself is supposed to be legit. I've heard of people doign this also. for what reasons woild you say it's farfetched?? out of interest.

I'm sure it was done, but nowadays it would be moronic to do that when as I said, as soon as you write the song it is instant copyright and proving when that happened has never been easier. I've mentioned I and Chris did also; register the songs with apra and be done with it. Chuck "copyright 2012 YOURNAME" on your album's liner notes and worry about important stuff...like promoting it!

[AlCraig]

I have about 50 songs registered with APRA. I don't recall having to pay anything. APRA/AMCOS is the only way to go. That is what they are there for.
Besides, if you perform your songs live, you get paid performance royalties. And if your songs get on radio, you get paid. And some internet activity gets you money as well.
Just go there and sign up.
Easy
Al

[gigpiglet]

not to be the devil… but registering it with apra doesn't confirm any copyright or ownership
it means you "claim" the copyright
a number of people could register the same song.
or question your registration of it.
you can still have the pants sued off you! (may the list begin)

apra is there to pay the registered owner
if there is a dispute about who the registered owner is…. thats not their bag.
thats the court.

having said that - I'm all for just release it, register it, and move on.

having said that - I've been in court a few times.

[Petes]

I was refering to registration copyright with the Library of Congress in U.S not with APRA
Can register songs with PA form, sound recordings with SR form.
Can submit a collection of works (eg. a CD) and pay one fee for the whole collection rather than per song
Australian citizens can submit works
I submitted a while back, can be done on line

http://www.copyright.gov/forms/