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HAVE YOUR MUSIC AND LYRICS COPYRIGHTED

Note:  We do not give legal advice.  This is to help you gather the correct information needed to guide you through the maze of the copyright process.






To get started, the first thing you can do is go to the website:  www.copyright.gov and print a copy or two of form SR and the instructions to form SR. (in publications column, click on forms, then sound recordings, then form SR).  Read through this and keep it on hand because you have to gather information needed to complete this.
 
Once you get all your songs completed for one album, copy all of your songs onto 1 cd, and give that cd a title (example:  John Smith's Songs"or "Songs from my Heart" or whatever).  Also make a list of all the song titles that are on the CD.

It's important to remember that you can not copyright song titles. You can "register" your song titles, but that's another lesson and another $350 or more. (Copyright fee is $30)
 
Then make a list of everyone who contributed to the songs' creation and have claim to it.  This can be just you or a group.  You'll need names, birthdates and addresses of everyone.  You'll also need the year of creation and the date your work was made available to the public for distribution.
 
This should take a while to do, so after you get that far, if you still have other questions, feel free to contact us with specific questions and we will continue to guide you through the last steps.

What is a copyright and why register?

Copyright registration establishes the legal owner and/or publisher of intellectual property for works such as musical compositions or the lyrics for a song. In music, two registration forms are the most common. The PA Form and the SR Form.

PA Forms are used to copyright the composition itself, while SR Forms are intended to protect the sound recording of intellectual property. It is important to understand the difference between these two forms. Theoretically, you could copyright a terrific song using the PA Form, record your project and start selling your CDs in stores everywhere. But if you had never registered the sound recording of your song using the SR Form, another band could send in the very same recording using an SR Form and claim that your recording belonged to them. You would be credited for ownership of the song, but they would get the credit for all your hard labor in the recording studio and collect all the mechanical royalties! Hopefully that brief scenario shows just how important the SR Form really is.

For some helpful information, go to this site: http://www.benedict.com/Info/Info.aspx  

We highly recommend this book. Check it out.

Book Description: The definitive handbook for anyone looking to understand and benefit from copyrights in the Information Age! Veteran attorney Lee Wilson engagingly teaches the ins and outs of copyrights in a logical fashion, making a complex subject easy to understand. Now completely updated and expanded to reflect important changes in copyright law and the impact of the Internet on copyrights, this new 3rd edition discusses what can and cannot be protected under current law, how to avoid infringement, what to do if you suspect infringement, how to turn copyrights into income, and more. Plus it includes dozens of real-life case histories, as well as ready-to-use model agreements and sample forms.

 

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