SEAL files to copyright/protect your songs. anyone used them?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fetusborg
  • Start date Start date
Fetusborg

Fetusborg

New member
http://www.worldwideocr.com/index.asp

everything sounds cool, and convincing.
but its a membership fee you pay. 1 year plan, 5 year plan, whatever.
you have to pay every year just to keep your songs protected.

what happens when you want to temrinate the account?
you lose your protection?

say you protected a song 3 years ago using their service. and now you dont have money to keep the membership. you terminate. you lose your protection, and the song is as if you just wrote it the minute you terminated.

thats bull.
 
I just shot an email to one of my coworkers who deals with copyright issues. I'll let you know what she says.
 
I don't get it. If you have not registered your creation with the copyright office, you still will have trouble with any legal claims to copyright. If you do submit it to the copyright office, you don't need these guys, as the LOC will have a date stamped receipt for your item.
 
they say: the more the better.

more means you undertook to protect yourself, the better.

all over the world this is pretty shakey. there is no full proof protection. thats what i've gathered from reading.

nice article.
im curious to hear what your lawyer friend has to say mad audio
 
She's not a lawyer. She's in charge of licensing and royalties for Folkways. Anyway, she says sevices like these are a waste of money.
 
i thought so.

so you think the best way is still the library of congress?

or just mailing it to yourself... or evening emailing the song.
 
mailing it to yourself doesn't work and doesn't hold up in court. registering with the copyright office is the best way to ensure the best case if someone uses your work without your permission
 
yeah, ive seen all that in my researches.
i figure its the best way.

now... i know they state to send the form filled out, 30 bucks, and the sound recording (a cd in this case).

and i dont wanna sound like a dummy who cant read directions,,, but wouldnt it be smart to include copies of the lyrics of the songs on the cd, all in orderly fashion ?
 
cool
last question! hahaha


you know if this protects the song all over the world?
i live in sao paulo brazil at the moment.
 
It depends on if the country in question recognizes U.S. copyright law. Some don't.

Are you a U.S. citizen? If not, I don't think a non-U.S. citizen can copyright his work in the U.S.
 
I SEAL my music...

I agree, I was worried about that too. It is really cool though and they only charge 59 bucks for 5 years (which includes 20 copyrights) so i tried it. I'll figure it out in 5 years, and I hope I am in a position to at least afford the $10 membership renewal... If you shop around you'll find it is a preety good deal.
 
yeah, but you ever thought what will happen if you want to cancel your membership?

its a deal where you'll have to be a member for the rest of your life
unless you registered your songs at the same at the library of congress.
 
I figured it out...

If i want to protect all of my songs with them, and I live for another 60 years I can protect 240 songs for $708 or $12 a year.

Besides the LOC or other national government copyright registries, you always have to pay a company or law-firm or safe-deposit box to maintain your copyright archives. these guys do it the best and cheapest.

You can look at their cost comparison page to do some quick calcs.
http://www.worldwideocr.com/costcomp_1.asp
 
As far as copyright issues go, that's why I try to remind myself, whenever I'm test driving a guitar at a store, to not play any of my original stuff. It'd suck to end up on the receiving end of an infringement suit, when the riff(s) in question are one's own creation, but somebody overheard you at the guitar store.

Matt
 
How To Copyright Songs

This is a very important topic. I would strongly encourage you not to use those third party copyright companys to protect your music. If you have written good music and not stolen anything from anybody else's music, just send it into the US copyrights office. You can send a whole CD worth of songs for $30 bucks. It requires a little paperwork and reading their instructions but it is worth your while. Just get this:

http://www.copyright.gov/forms/formpai.pdf

I will make it easy and explain what to fill out. It is very self explanatory but this may help:

1. In the first space write the title of the collection or album you are copyrighting.
The next space is where you fill in the names of the songs in order in this format:
"Flowing;" "Music is Really Cool;" "A Little Song I Wrote;" "Love Might Let You Down;"
You get the point.
For Nature of this work you will probably put "Words and Music"

2. This is where you write the author(s) of the music and lyrics. It is very easy and you shouldn't have any trouble. For nature of authorship you write what contributions the different writers had. If you wrote the whole thing, under your name put "Words and Music".

3. Just write what year you wrote the song. If you have published it fill out the other part.

4. Don't worry about this.

5. If you are reading this the answer is no.

6. You probably don't have to worry about this.

7. If you are reading this you don't have to worry about the deposit account. For correspondence just write your name and address.

8. If you wrote the song you are the author, print your name and the date, and sign it.

9. Just address it to yourself so you can recieve the certificate.

---
That's it. Just send the paperwork, two copies of the CD, two copies of the lyrics, and a $30 check made out to whatever they say to make it out to. It's that simple. And after you've done it once it gets much easier. I hope I was able to help many people with this. The only downside is that since it is snail mail, and it takes awhile for the copyright people to do their thing, it can take several (around 4-6) months to get it copyrighted. For this reason you should also address a copy of the lyrics and CD to yourself and don't open it when it comes. The poorman's copyright is a little backup while you are waiting. Good luck!
 
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