Copywriting my song(s)

[Crazy]

Hi people,
eeehm, i aint got the money now to get copyright on my lyrics..
so i readed somewhere else that i could mail it to myself,
so if something get stoled, i could say its mine..
so i made an paper with informaton like:


Song made by:
man/woman:
emails(s):
Date: (date i made this so they could know when i mailed it to myself)
Adress:
Country:
Phone nr:
Signature: (my sign.)
Lyric nr: (1, 2, 3...)
Song title:
Description: (song description)
Date lyric started: (that they know when i started writing)
Date lyric ended: (that they know when i ended writing)
Xtra: (like a cd with the song on it)

and on the right the text of the song.



could i do this untill i've got the money to get © on it???
and is there something i could add on this list??

Crazy

[Mr T]

Yes you can as long as you keep the envelope sealed when you receive it. I usually send a cd of my songs to myself recorded delivery.

[Crazy]

thank you

[Apple]

I've heard sending a registered letter to yourself won't stand up in court. A dated email would probably be as good to establish precedent. The copyright law states that your work belongs to you in the moment of creation. And, if your work goes out into the public domain without the copyright notice, you could potentially lose the rights to your work.

[Mr Nice]

I thought that poor mans copyright would work too, but it can be faked! And I also heard that it wont stand up in court, but it has never actually been tested. My understanding is that it would be totally up to a judge whether "mailing yourself a copy" to be admissable or not. I wouldnt take that chance at all, so click the link below and decide if you would still consider "mailing yourself a copy".

Click Here to see all about the "poor man's copyright"

Hope this helps!

[philboyd studge]

I've never heard of a case where a poor man's copyright held up in court.

All the info you need is here - http://www.copyright.gov/

[Rokket]

Why not just copyright it? I've done it, and you can find the form on line and it only costs $30.00. All you have to do is record it, burn it to CD, and enclose a copy of the CD with the application. If you want to just copyright the lyrics, it's even cheaper. Don't take chances. Copyright.... just my two cents.

[rjt]

This topic has been covered a number of times:
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sho...d.php?t=118050
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sho...ight=copyright

Click on some of the links in the links above for even more info.

The bottom line (IMHO) is that mailing to yourself is an old wive's tale... doesn't work at all (even with registered mail). (In the past whenever someone wrote that it doesn't work someone else would write in that their father used that method or a law student friend of theirs said it would be fine.... great, if you want to trust your masterpiece to that, enjoy!!) A web search of sites devoted to copyrights indicates 1) some say it works (a few not many say that), 2) more say it doesn't work, but do it if you want to and 3) most say, don't bother with it. I think that in one of the links I posted, I listed 3 or 4 sites that are devoted to copyright law and they generally suggest not to use the mail to yourself method. But, people will do what they want to do , so.......

Take Care