Copyrighting - Always Protect Your Music ALWAYS

Hey Greg.
The driving thing is incredibly distracting.
I absolutely hate someone talking to me while they're obviously distracted by something else.

Don't mean to sound harsh. Just a headsup.
 
Hey Greg.
The driving thing is incredibly distracting.
I absolutely hate someone talking to me while they're obviously distracted by something else.

Don't mean to sound harsh. Just a headsup.

No hard feelings. I figured I'd try to multitask since I was going to be away from home for a while
 
Quite frankly, I've never seen anyone do anything quite as stupid as this. What you were doing there with your 'multi-tasking' was endangering the lives of all other road users. I didn't take in ANY of what you were saying, because I was waiting for you to hit a cyclist or pedestrian. Slow down, and keep both hands on the wheel and don't make videos while driving. :mad:
 
Quite frankly, I've never seen anyone do anything quite as stupid as this. What you were doing there with your 'multi-tasking' was endangering the lives of all other road users. I didn't take in ANY of what you were saying, because I was waiting for you to hit a cyclist or pedestrian. Slow down, and keep both hands on the wheel and don't make videos while driving. :mad:

Lol! Suh-mash! :D
 
Using a mobile/cellular phone whilst driving is illegal downunder.
Driving no hands is illegal downunder.
Focussing on recording yourself and going "..at little too fast" is illegal downunder.
Going into the wrong lane because you were focussing on recording a monologue is stupid everywhere.
Talking over the same sentence of information again & again & again should be illegal everywhere.
QUESTION:
Would you take advice from a person driving while recording, no hands, too fast & in the wrong lane?
 
I won't comment on the driving aspects of the video. :)

Some simple facts about copyright:

1. A copyright registration is a prerequisite to suing for infringement, i.e. if you don't have the registration, you can't get in court (there are limited exceptions involving foreign works but they're not pertinent here).

2. Post-registration infringement entitles you to statutory damages, i.e. you can only get actual damages for infringement before you register the copyright. Statutory damages are, usually, much higher and don't require proof of harm.

3. A copyright registration creates a legal presumption with respect to validity, ownership and date of creation. This means that, if you have a copyright registration, the accused infringer has the burden of proving that the copyright isn't valid, you are not the owner of the protected work, and/or it was not created prior to the accused infringer's copy.

4. Independent creation is a complete defense to copyright infringement. Good luck trying to prove it, however.

5. Copyright protection begins the moment the work is fixed in a tangible medium. For music, this means written down, recorded to tape, saved as digital media or, in some circumstances, broadcast live.

6. Copyright infringement is strict liability. This means that someone is liable for infringement even if they lacked any intent to infringe or even knew they were infringing.

The video mentioned trademark. Trademark is an entirely different species of intellectual property protection, serves an entirely different purpose and has entirely different requirements. It's too involved to go into in this post but, unlike copyright, requires more than simply registering the mark for protection to accrue.

PTravel, Esq.
I'm a real IP lawyer, I don't just play one on the internet. :)

Edited to add:

One more thing. The video mentions "poor man's copyright," and Greg is right in that it's not particularly helpful, but not for the reasons that he mentioned. Self-mailing is relevant evidence of date of creation and all relevant evidence is admissible in a copyright infringement action. The trier-of-fact, who may be the judge or may be a jury, must decide how much weight to give to the evidence and, as Greg mentioned, the fact that a self-mailing can be easily faked definitely weakens its probative value -- just mail yourself a bunch of unsealed envelopes tomorrow and, in the future, drop recordings into them as you write them. However, as mentioned above, you must have a registration before you can sue for infringement, the registration entitles you to an alternate measure of damages that can be considerably higher, and having a registration shifts the burden of proof on key issues to the defendant who is accused of infringing.
 
It starts out at a long stop light and i could hear the car's turn signal. I almost responded by saying, "Little pop at: :01. :03, :05, :07, :09, etc.).

:)
 
You ever watch any russian dash cam vids? They always capture cool stuff.

Yeah. Except, as this one was described, it wouldn't have the warning that you normally get. It's clearly labeled as a video about copyright, then WHAM! Car crash instead.
 
I send my material to the Library of Congress... 2 years later I have my copyright certificate come in the mail
 
I send my material to the Library of Congress... 2 years later I have my copyright certificate come in the mail
And the protection that accrues from registration begins on the date of filing, not the date of issuance of the copyright, which is why you are smart to do that.
 
I got my copyright certificate from LoC within 2 months of online registration. For the $30 (I think that's what it is) to register a whole album at one time, it doesn't make sense not to do it. Can't comment on other country's processes, thoguh.
 
Yeah that's about how long it took for mine, too.

I'd rather have the protection than not, but my music business prof always said that it's a waste of money unless someone steals your music. That's circular reasoning, but still, he has a point. The odds of someone trying to infringe on my intellectual property are minimal, because I have precisely three fans. Now as soon as you're famous, the game changes overnight, of course...
 
Yeah that's about how long it took for mine, too.

I'd rather have the protection than not, but my music business prof always said that it's a waste of money unless someone steals your music. That's circular reasoning, but still, he has a point. The odds of someone trying to infringe on my intellectual property are minimal, because I have precisely three fans. Now as soon as you're famous, the game changes overnight, of course...
Tell you music business professor that an IP lawyer said he was wrong. :)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, you lose the entitlement to statutory damages for infringements prior to registration. Particularly with respect to someone whose music won't have wide distribution, statutory can far exceed (by orders of magnitude) actual damages and may be sufficient to justify filing suit (for which registration is a prerequisite).
 
Quite frankly, I've never seen anyone do anything quite as stupid as this. What you were doing there with your 'multi-tasking' was endangering the lives of all other road users. I didn't take in ANY of what you were saying, because I was waiting for you to hit a cyclist or pedestrian. Slow down, and keep both hands on the wheel and don't make videos while driving. :mad:

Sorry you feel that way, but honestly what I was doing is no different than what people do every single day when speaking with someone in the passenger seat.
 
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