Copyrighting lyrics to someone else's (instrumental) song?

joey2000

joey2000

New member
Anyone know how this works? The copyright site frankly blows....they didn't cover that anywhere and I never heard back when I tried to contact them.
 
IANaLB...

I would think that you just submit the eCo with the correct authorship cited. So if you're just submitting the lyrics, you would file a lyrics sheet only with yourself cited as sole author. If you're submitting the lyrics matched to the song, you would file it with your name as 50% songwriter (lyrics) and the other author(s) as 50% (music). Right?
 
joey2000 said:
Anyone know how this works? The copyright site frankly blows....they didn't cover that anywhere and I never heard back when I tried to contact them.
Click to expand...

You can copyright your lyrics but you need permission from the original copyright owner/administrator to attach it to the instrumental.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
IANaLB...

I would think that you just submit the eCo with the correct authorship cited. So if you're just submitting the lyrics, you would file a lyrics sheet only with yourself cited as sole author. If you're submitting the lyrics matched to the song, you would file it with your name as 50% songwriter (lyrics) and the other author(s) as 50% (music). Right?
Click to expand...

You can't attach your work to another's without their express permission.
 
They may also say NO! Don't expect even to have to agree a fee, some are very protective. Nothing to stop you (at least in the UK) using music by people who have been dead for 70 years.
 
RRuskin said:
You can copyright your lyrics but you need permission from the original copyright owner/administrator to attach it to the instrumental.
Click to expand...
What does "attach" it mean (legally)?

I guess what I'm trying to do is protect myself so I can give someone the lyrics to their song but my rights - well both of our rights really - are still protected if they use them, record them, etc.

Also would I submit them as just lyrics and that's it or also submit with his instrumental/a reference to it?

Arghh - I know, these are questions for the copyright office but being federal govt I'm not surprised they unhelpful slugs to date.
 
You can copyright your lyrics by themselves. Then try to get the original artist to agree to you using his music or vice versa.
 
joey2000 said:
What does "attach" it mean (legally)?

I guess what I'm trying to do is protect myself so I can give someone the lyrics to their song but my rights - well both of our rights really - are still protected if they use them, record them, etc.

Also would I submit them as just lyrics and that's it or also submit with his instrumental/a reference to it?

Arghh - I know, these are questions for the copyright office but being federal govt I'm not surprised they unhelpful slugs to date.
Click to expand...

You can do anything you want with your lyrics. What you can't do is copyright them using any part of another party's copyrighted material without express permission. I would consider being asked to write lyrics to a tune "permission" but I would get it all in writing to have all "T's" crossed and "i's" dotted before registering the copyright.
 
You're not going to have to worry about it unless you get signed to a major label, record the song, the album does very well. Just ask the guy if he minds you performing your lyric to his music. If he doesn't just do the song. If you sign to a major label and want to record the song, go back to him and copyright the work together so he gets a cut.
Step one is to get a recording contract in my opinion. It would be an extremely rare freak thing to have a major recording artist or publishing company steal a song in my opinion. I wouldn't worry about copyrighting it until I was ready to do something with it. I've copyrighted a few songs and I realized it was pointless.
just.my 2 cents
 
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