Copyrighting a Song
 

After all these years in music, playing and arranging, I am dabbling with writing some original songs. Is there such a thing as a fast path to getting a song copyrighted?

I haven't done any internet searches yet, as I am certain I will get a plethora of hits, and would like some help in narrowing down my search before I begin.

Ralph Rayner

Re: Copyrighting a Song
 

Hi, Ralph:

Under U.S., Canadian and most other country's current law, as soon as you finish a piece of work, it is automatically copyrighted, with full rights afforded to you.

Several years back, the U.S. unilaterally extended the length of copyright to "life of the author, plus the rest of the year in which the author dies, plus 70 years". The rest of the world is succumbing to the pressure to comply. This is not a good thing: the only ones who really benefit are licensing bodies (Tams-Witmark, Samuel French etc. in theatre terms) and corporations who pay artists to create works but own the copyright for it (Disney, for instance.) It's another corporate money grab.

So, you are protected by copyright for your life plus up to 70 years as soon as you write the piece. The trick is to prove that you wrote it first.

Registering with your country's copyright office is the best. That usually involves some paperwork, a copy of the work and a fee ($15-30 per work? Possibly more by now). That, by the way, does not establish the originality of the work, but simply that you registered that piece on that date. They make no effort to determine whether it infringes on anyone else's copyright when it is registered.

The so-called "poor man's copyright" (sending yourself a registered-mail envelope containing a copy of the work and then not opening it) is as good as any other method, but still doesn't absolutely prove that you wrote it first.

You could also have a copy of the work notarized and dated, but that's about $40 or more per stamp.

What you need to do is actually much simpler.

First off, keep copies of your preliminary draughts and sketches, so that you can show the development process. Also mark all copies that leave your hands with your name and contact information. That's just Authorship 101.

Until a work is published or performed, you really don't have to worry about copyright registration. If it is performed, simply recording the performance with some verifiable dated material (a newspaper with the day's date visible) included would establish a primary date for ownership of the piece.

If it is published -- first, congratulations! -- nobody gets music published these days. Second, your publisher will probably handle the copyright details -- just get a lawyer to look it over first!

Individual works are one thing. Collections or aggregate works are another. When you're working in theatre as I do, where a show might have 30 or more musical numbers, plus the libretto itself, then the work as a whole is usually copyrighted as a single entity. The problem lies in extracting the so-called "small rights" if someone wants to do just one song from it. Unless you want to try to register each musical number individually, then a license for the whole (the "grand rights") can sometimes be considered as granted when a license for one number is granted. As the King of Siam once said "Is a puzzlement."

Anyway, my best advice is: write it first, then worry about the legalities later.

Hope that helps.

David

Re: Copyrighting a Song
 

Thank you very much, David. I figured the process would be somewhat tortuous. For the little ditties I'm writing, it is probably VERY insignificant. I guess in the back of my mind I have the thought that someday I may try to publish some of my swing band material. But that's a long way off yet. First, I would have to find out where to get more free time to do it.

Thanks for putting your time into your response. It is very much appreciated.

Ralph