Copyrighting???

S

smallhands

New member
My band recorded its first album about 7 months ago and we filled out the copyright applications and mailed it off about 8 months ago. In the application, it states that you can consider your songs copyrighted as soon as you put the application in the mail. That being said, we still haven't received any kind of receipt for the fee payment or notification of any kind informing us that our songs have been copyrighted. Has anyone copyrighted songs before and is it normal to have to wait this long for feedback? Will I ever get feedback?:confused:
 
smallhands said:
My band recorded its first album about 7 months ago and we filled out the copyright applications and mailed it off about 8 months ago. In the application, it states that you can consider your songs copyrighted as soon as you put the application in the mail. That being said, we still haven't received any kind of receipt for the fee payment or notification of any kind informing us that our songs have been copyrighted. Has anyone copyrighted songs before and is it normal to have to wait this long for feedback? Will I ever get feedback?:confused:
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Wouldn't surprise me. You should be thankful it's not a patent. Some of those can take over 5yrs.

I read somewhere that the copyright office gets over 50,000 songs submitted daily.

Copyright theft from the big labels is pretty rare. The songs that you create are automatically copyrighted at the time of creation, you register it just so that in court there is evidence of who created what first. If the issue is your waiting for you registration before going to market with your album don't worry about it. One quick thing you can do is burn a copy of the CD label it and bundle it with chord/lyric sheets and go to a notary and sign and date all your copies.


Racherik
 
When I copyrighted my first CD I didn't get my papers until nearly a year later, NO big deal though, like the previous poster said, it's copywritten at time of creation.
 
Much easier to just mail a copy of the Cd to yourself.
If Nickleback steals your song, you'll still will be able to cash in on it by having a judge open it at the hearing. In a way, you'd be better off having them steal a song than buying it from you because you'll get ripped off big time.
 
matttheaxe said:
Much easier to just mail a copy of the Cd to yourself.
If Nickleback steals your song, you'll still will be able to cash in on it by having a judge open it at the hearing. In a way, you'd be better off having them steal a song than buying it from you because you'll get ripped off big time.
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This is a myth and is not valid proof in a court of law. Straight from the US Copyright website:

I’ve heard about a “poor man’s copyright.” What is it?
The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.
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...and I don't think you have to worry about Nickleback stealing your songs, but you might with Led Zepplin. :laughings:

To the OP, How did you pay the filing fee? You might be able to verify if funds have been transferred. If it was a bank check, hopefully you still have the carbon copy. You can go to the bank and ask them to pull it. If it's been cashed, chances are your paperwork is going through the mill.
 
I would think my tongue-in-cheek post would be easier to decipher.
The purpose of copywriting material is for the exact reason that you don't want others stealing it and making money. Leaving you, the creator, with nothing.

Well the truth is that artists steal music all the time and get away with it. lady gaga has ripped of tons of yester-years songs to get where she has.
Speaking of Zeppelin, I have a CD called the roots of Led Zeppelin where they completely ripped off early american blues artists and put their name on the songs.

They even tell you that your music IS copywritten the moment you create it. The office serves to simply generate income. THIS is the reason they say it is no substitution because they get no cash.

My point in all this is that in this era of 1/2 a billion songs on itunes, does it really matter anyway:rolleyes:
 
Chili said:
Couldn't agree more... (um , until somebody rips off my music and makes a million bucks!! :laughings: )
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YEAH ha then its personal. Do you think a lot of people look at someone else's finished song and say "that's mine" and steal it? I never really hear of this going on.
 
what about registered mail?
If it's copyrighted when created and all that's needed is to establish a date ...... it seems to me that registered mail would establish that.

I just copyright stuff online though.
That's IF I bother to copyright it at all which I rarely do.
 
Lt. Bob said:
what about registered mail?
If it's copyrighted when created and all that's needed is to establish a date ...... it seems to me that registered mail would establish that.............
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The courts want to see proper registration via the Office of Copyright.
 
Terra said:
YEAH ha then its personal. Do you think a lot of people look at someone else's finished song and say "that's mine" and steal it? I never really hear of this going on.
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lol, no of course not. I think the only time people really have to worry about copyrighting is when co-writers are involved. A likely scenario would be two friends write a song together. One friend takes the song to his band and they play, make money, famous, yadda yadda... the second friend is left out in the cold because he didn't have an agreement and he didn't get his name on the copyright.
 
Chili said:
lol, no of course not. I think the only time people really have to worry about copyrighting is when co-writers are involved. A likely scenario would be two friends write a song together. One friend takes the song to his band and they play, make money, famous, yadda yadda... the second friend is left out in the cold because he didn't have an agreement and he didn't get his name on the copyright.
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Or when an advertising agency uses a piece of music without authorization for an ad campaign thinking that it's local and nobody will find out. Such a scenario happened to me in the 80's.
 
RRuskin said:
Or when an advertising agency uses a piece of music without authorization for an ad campaign thinking that it's local and nobody will find out. Such a scenario happened to me in the 80's.
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ouchhhhh. i'm sorry rick. i assume it wasn't copyrighted?....and i assume you had a few words with mr. ad agency....
 
Terra said:
ouchhhhh. i'm sorry rick. i assume it wasn't copyrighted?....and i assume you had a few words with mr. ad agency....
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It wasn't my tune but my recording of "Here Comes The Sun" from my 1st Takoma LP. It was Takoma's responsibility to register the album but for some reason, neglected to do so. They were so out-to lunch that they declined to pursue any litigation but did assign any and all rights to me for that purpose. I prevailed but received a much lower settlement than if the idiots at the label had taken care of business.
 
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