copyright confusion

Amnesia Vivace

Amnesia Vivace

Clever Title
I have a question about which form to use to register my copyright... short PA or long PA...

I am registering my bands cd, we all wrote the music as a group. do I need the long form and list each of us as authors, or is the short form with one contact/author appropriate? We are very small time :-) and the only reason I need to register the copyright is due to fine print in the contract for distribution of our cd.

thanks
 
From http://www.copyright.gov/register/performing.html, link "which form" under Step 2:
Use short form PA if
  • You are the only author and copyright owner of this work, and
  • The work was not made for hire, and
  • The work is completely new (does not contain a substantial amount of material that has been previously published or registered or is in the public domain), and
  • The work is not a motion picture or other audiovisual work.
Otherwise, use the standard form PA.
Click to expand...
One question I have is, do you have a reason not to use form SR (see http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html) to register both the recording and the underlying work (the songs themselves) at the same time? Form PA will not cover the recording, only the songs.

Don
 
Registration is optional both for the songs and for the recording; but there are benefits to registering. Whether these benefits are worth the cost is up to you and your bandmates to decide. Also, check your distribution contract. Does it say whether the copyright registration must cover the songs, the CD's, or both?

If the authorship is the same for the recording and the songs, you can use form SR to register both at once, with only one fee. If the authorship is different, you have to file form PA to register the underlying work separately. Since you say the songs were a group effort, it sounds like the authorship may be the same.

It may be worthwhile for you as a group to consult an entertainment lawyer. I am a software engineer. :)

Don
 
DonF said:
It may be worthwhile for you as a group to consult an entertainment lawyer. I am a software engineer. :)

Don
Click to expand...

i thought about that, but we are only a hobbist band .... actually i read some more about the form SR, and I was completely wrong in my initial interpretation of that form. I thought it was *only for cover songs and performances of published works.

btw, the contract i am dealing with is the standard one at CD Baby. I think it needs the performnance and the recording registered.
 
In the research I did you should copyright each song individualy not the album. You have more flexability that way. You can sell or lease an individual song easier that way. They each have thier own reg #. Otherwise you are copyrighting the cd as a whole. (at least that's the way I understand it)

The government site is pretty good at explaining it, but you will have to look around for a bit to wrap your head around it.

I used the pa short form and sent two copys of the song on cd and two copys of the lyrics. It was 20 per song and took about 2 to 3 months to receive paper work back.

Hope this helps

F.S.
 
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