Copyright Q: "sound recording" vs "musical arrangement", "lyrics"

Yikes this a thread dating back about 10 years but judging by the many different answers you've received I think it is worth clearing the air on this one. As previously noted, once a song has been penned it is for all intents and purposes "copyrighted". There is a difference between a common law copyright and a federally registered copyright but the difference is mostly in the amount of damages that you can collect in the case of an infringement. If a musical work is federally registered then the rights holder can request (and in most cases will be awarded) attorneys fees in addition to statutory fines which can range upto $150,000 per "willful" infringement.

With that being said, a sound recording of a musical work (compostion) is considered a "derivative" work and in order for the registration to be valid the producer of the sound recording MUST obtain a "mechanical" license in order to validate the registration. The copyright office DOES NOT verify this when issuing a registration and therefore even though you may have filled out the SR form correctly, if you did not obtaiin the "mechanical" then your federal registration is not valid and will be challenged by any comptent IP attorney in any litigation involving that intellectual property. You can almost rest assured that your case will either be dismissed or awarded only actual damages (not including attorney's fees) which a) is difficult to prove and b) usually less then the cost of litigation.

The good new here is that you can record ANYONE's work as mechanical licenses for works released as phonorecords (excludes audio/visual works) are compulsory and can't be denied by the rights holders of the musical works. You only need to contact one of the rights holders to secure a license. However in some cases, the other fractional rights holders may have agreed through contract to assign a single author as the administrator of the account in whom you must deal with directly. In either case you should always contact each rights holder which can usually be found on either the ASCAP or BMI websites.

If the rights holder either does not want to deal with you (which is the case with most major publishers) or refuses to grant you a mechanical, you can then file for a "compulsory" with the US Copyright office. The last time I checked the filing fee was $20.00.

Hope this clears this up for you.
 
3-27-2010 7PM (Sat)
Greetings, This has been a very enlightening thread to follow, even though it's 10yrs. old. Hopefully someone here can direct me to or give me the answers: 1) What's "SR" ? Song Rights ?? You guys used a few abbreviatons I don't know but, would like to.
2)What's the LEAST EXPENSIVE way to copywright/protect us songwriters ??????? At 59 I need to relearn the business end once again. I've been outta the "loop" for 10 years.
Last I knew (1984)
it was $10 per song. I hope I am wrong !
Thanks for our time in advance. feel free to contact me direct I'm really looking forward to your ADVICE. dont811 at bellsouth.net
 
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