Quick copyright question

W

Whyte Ice

The Next Vanilla Ice
Copyright Question

I'm interested in copyrighting a few of my songs but still am unclear of what to do exactly. My reason for copyrighting right now is not because I'm going to be selling cd's or anything like that but would like to make it official that these are mine and would like them protected.

I don't have any complete recorded versions of my songs, just demos, so I would just like to send a CD with pretty much me playing into a tape recorder with just me and a guitar/piano.

Here's some questions I have:
  • Would I have to include lyrics?
  • Would I have to state before each recording what song it is?
  • Would a tracklisting of the CD/tape be necessary?
  • Would I need to include sheet music or a chord chart?
  • If I have a song that was co-written with another songwriter, how would I go about including his name, would I need to take a different direction than copyrighting individually?
  • Which of the forms would fit me better, PA or SR?
  • Will all songs included be treated individually? Say I include a song called "Home Recording" on a compilation titled "Whyte Ice Demos." Would I be able to take the song "Home Recording" and put it on different compilations and keep the copyright or would the copyright only be good when included on the "Whyte Ice Demos?"

And I also have a question regarding publishing. I'm not interested in publishing too much right now but it would be good to know in the future if I decide to take things farther. Would all songs/compilations I've copyrighted prior to getting publishing still be covered? I'm still not too sure on how the whole publishing things works and why it's needed so if anyone could explain that to me, that would be of much help.
 
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Yo, Ice! That ain't no quick question. It took an entertainment lawyer almost 3 hours to answer that question for us, and the answer to every question is "it depends". I'll see if I can post up a real good book on the subject. Every one of your questions is answered, and it took over 100 pages. I'd try to answer myself, but I only know the answers for my own situation, and I'm not going to give you bad legal advice. Definitely do a google search on the U.S. Copyright Office. They have a bunch of free publications that will answer all of your questions in non-legal terminology.-Richie
 
you dont have to include lyrics, but id suggest you do

no

no, youll give the list on the form

no

copyright those co-written separately to avoid confusion...this is my opnion only......

PA...SR would be used to copyright the recording also and since you just have it demo'd, its not necessary......

each song only needs to be submitted for copyright once, no matter what you do with it.....you can record it on 10 different albums and its still protected from one copyright......


I know ZERO about publishing....
 
Hey Gidge,

Thanks for the reply, you were very helpful like always.

One more question though about packing all this together and money. Do you just throw everything together in an padded envelope with cash? Is there a certain way to organize everything?

I would like the whole process to go down smoothly without any problems.

Thanks again. :)
 
I took a look at the PA form and I didn't see any area to write down a listing of songs.

Also, if there are parts on the form that you can't fill out either because you don't know or it doesn't really pertain to you, you can just leave it blank right? For examples, for most of the stuff I want to copyright, I'm the only author but there's other fields for author.
 
Hi ICE!

I released a collection of pieces last year. Publishing essentially means that when you offer the product for sale, it's published. I simply sent the form SR along with a finished CD (labels and all). Make something up if it's not a "release" product.

DO NOT SEND CASH!!! Follow the instructions and send a check. Simply put all materials in an envelope and send it to the copyright office.

Make sure that none of the selections are under something like 10 seconds or are repetitive in nature (like 30 seconds of a clock ticking). Those selections cannot be copyrighted.

And finally, have patience. The US Copyright office is inundated with mail and it will take some time for them to review your submission and get back to you. It took many months in my case!!! Good luck, Ice!!!
 
YOU DON"T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING!

In case you don't know, you immediately have copyright if you're the original author the minute it becomes a tangible work. All you have to do is say this:
Copyright (c) 2003 <your name here>

Now if you want to register a copyright, go to copyright.gov and they have detailed instructions there.

Otherwise, you can claim copyright just because its yours - you don' t have to go through the government.

Visit copyright.gov
 
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