getting my composition copyrighted

[BrassaxMan5]

How do I go about this?
my mom mentioned it to me, becuase if some other band plays my song, then I could get royalties from it. Also, would it be a good idea to publish it, and if so, how do I get it published?
thanks for any responses.

[tjontheroad]

Click here (http://www.copyright.gov/forms/)

[Riff]

http://www.copyright.gov/

[Chris S]

For publishing, you'd have to have a publisher interested in it, or publish it yourself. I don't think I'd reccomend sending it to publishers, I'd just wait and publish it yourself until you had a publisher interested in you.

Chris S

[Greelmo]

Here's a little trick that a lot of people don't know about:

If you are in the United States:
Mail a copy of the score to yourself. Boom... it's done. If you ever hear another band playing your song, you can then prove it as long as you don't open the letter you mail to yourself. The government accepts mail dates as official. This will save you money!

-Greelmo

[odsum25]

That poor man's copyright has no legal value in the US. This has been discussed before, where it came up that in the UK it could have some worth. In the US, though, it means absolutely nothing.

[Greelmo]

shot down! 2 points odsum25!

Until next time...

-Greelmo

[gary]

shot down! 2 points odsum25! Until next time...
That sure was a quick retreat, LOL. ;)

If anyone can come up with the thread odsum is referring to it might be interesting; my recollection was that there was not a concensus. My understanding is that one does not have to officially register a work in order to prove authorship, only to be able to prove the authorship itself and, of course, to be able to prove the date of authorship in the case of a conflict.

Registering with the Library of Congress is of course the safest and it is not that expensive, so why go to the trouble of circumventing it?

But if you did choose to mail yourself the work, the problem with self-mailing a copy, again my understanding, is not that it won't prove authorship on a certain date, but that the envelope might have been somehow tampered with. So, Greelmo, if you could come up with a way of mailing an envelope to yourself that was seen to be tamper-proof, the contents should suffice to prove the date of authorship.

[Pete Thomas]

That sure was a quick retreat, LOL. ;)

But if you did choose to mail yourself the work, the problem with self-mailing a copy, again my understanding, is not that it won't prove authorship on a certain date, but that the envelope might have been somehow tampered with. So, Greelmo, if you could come up with a way of mailing an envelope to yourself that was seen to be tamper-proof, the contents should suffice to prove the date of authorship.

I used to use post office issued recorded delivery envelopes, sign across the flap, then sellotape over the signature. I did this on about 20 songs, sent them to myself, then realised I hadn't marked the envelopes with which songs they were.

I could just imagine turning up in court and opening them one by one, then finding that the one song being contested I'd forgotten to send.

[Greelmo]

I could just imagine turning up in court and opening them one by one, then finding that the one song being contested I'd forgotten to send.

LOL!

Pete I think that that's the best way to go about (with the labels). It sounds like the way you did it would enable you to prove it beyond doubt.

-Greelmo

[Media Lint]

Anyone motivated should set up their own publishing company. If you work a small label deal right, retain your own publishing. Publishing is worth a lot more to you, don't sign it off if you don't know what you're doing.

Copyright, ^ the url is up there. Just file it. You can send a compilation of unreleased works and get 10+ in one shot to begin with. The mail trick is just propogated through musician crosstalk like this and is worthless.

[ben easler]

having just had to do a copyright project at school, this info is still fresh in my mind and all of this can be found at the U.S. copyright website. First, you obtain a copyright to your work the second that a tangible version of it is created. This means that either you have a file of your piece or a printed copy and that the idea is out of your head and onto some source that can be seen. By sending in your work or works to the Library of Congress, you are registering your copyright. This is so your work is on file and is helpful in a potential court case. In most cases, you can still win a lawsuit regardless if you even have a registered copyright, but registering is extremely helpful and is pretty much a guarantee of winning any lawsuit regarding a piece. Numerous pieces can be sent in together, so it is not really that expensive. I believe it is 30 dollars for each time you send works to be copywritten.