How To Register Song Copyright

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When you have written a song (or book, or created whatever other piece of artwork), you lot automatically create something called a copyright. This is a legal protection that nobody else may use, publish, sell or tape your song without your permission. In order to protect your copyright further, you should annals it with the U.S. Copyright Office. You may wish to hire an attorney or agent to assist you lot with this process, but it is pretty uncomplicated. Nigh people can do it themselves. There is a pocket-sized filing fee.

1. 1

   Realize that you lot have a copyright automatically. Past international police force, yous actually ain the copyright to your song (or book, artwork, or other artistic creation) equally soon as you create information technology. Your copyright is gratuitous and is automatic. The song must exist "fixed" in some way, in a written down copy or a recording. Yous cannot have a copyright to a tune in your caput, or that y'all perform in public, unless you write information technology downwardly or record it in some fashion. You do not accept to take any activity to have this copyright. The deportment that people refer to when they talk about "copyrighting a song" are steps to register and protect your copyright, which make it easier to prove that it is yours if some dispute arises.^{[one] [2]}

2. 2

   Understand your "bundle of rights." A copyright is not a unmarried thing. The discussion "copyright" is actually a single term that applies to several different rights that attach to a piece of music. If y'all are the original writer, singer, recording artist and record producer, y'all may own all the copyrights to the song. But if you lot wrote a song and Taylor Swift recorded her ain performance of information technology, you would have the copyright to the written vocal, and she would have the copyright to her recorded version of it.^[iii]

   • There are many other technicalities involved in who owns the copyright of "works made for rent", and things created every bit joint works. Your exclusive rights are also discipline to various statutory limitations, such as "fair utilize" and certain "educational uses", that are not infringements of your rights.

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3. 3

   Know the different rights involved with your copyright. Included in your "bundle of rights" are several split rights or licenses. You can go along part of the copyright to yourself, and license away another part, for example. Some of the different rights, broken into their separate parts, and some of the related licenses, are:^[4]

   • Public performing right. If you are the possessor of a song, y'all have the right to control its performance or manual in public.
   • Public performing license. A license is a permission that can be granted to someone for a specific purpose. A public performing license is a permission that tin can be granted to someone else to perform your song. If you lot register your music through a publishing company like BMI, the company will manage public performing licenses for y'all.
   • Reproduction right. As the owner of the copyright of a song, you control who may reproduce your song in a record, cassette, CD, online or any other format.
   • Mechanical license. A mechanical license is a permission to someone to reproduce and distribute a specific composition at an agreed price. Signing a recording contract will involve a mechanical license.
   • Synchronization license. A synchronization license is permission granted for the use of a song or recording to accompany a visual performance, such as background music for a movie, goggle box show or video.
   • Derivative works. Yous accept the exclusive correct to have your work modified in whatever way to create a new work, to to put it into a different form, including translations of lyrics or change of tempo. You may license such rights to others, whether for a fee or as a courtesy.

4. 4

   Register with a licensing bureau. If you have written a song (lyrics, music, or both), yous may register that song, completely for gratis, with whatever of several commercial licensing agencies. Registering with these agencies is designed to help y'all sell licensed use of your song, but it does non provide legal protection for your copyright.

   • Some of the most popular licensing agencies are ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), or HFA (The Harry Fox Agency, Inc.).^{[5] [half dozen]} They deal with licensing different aspects of your rights.
   • The U.s. Copyright Office as well handles issuance of a "compulsory license" for not-dramatic music, afterward y'all have published your own recordings. People can apply for that when they want to publish copies of their own recordings of their "cover" performance your work, under 17 USC § 115. You, as the copyright owner, may so receive royalties from the U.s.a. Copyright Office, or may choose to negotiate a different license with the producers of those recordings.
   • Even if you never register your work with an agency, or in the United states Copyright Office, you still have the correct to negotiate individual licenses that let others to use your works based upon mutually agreed terms.

5. 5

   Don't autumn for the "Poor Man's Copyright" play a trick on. Some people have described a "poor man'southward copyright" every bit a complimentary substitute for registration with the U.South. Copyright Office. This gimmick involves mailing yourself a copy of your song, keeping the sealed envelope, and then supposedly using the postmark as proof of copyright of the contents. You lot are free to do this, if y'all wish, but realize that this is no legal protection of your copyright.^{[7] [8]}

   • Some of this confusion may arise from the use of this and like methods in other countries where registration is not required, or (in most countries) not even possible. Simply having proof of the engagement of your earlier piece of work is often deemed sufficient proof of your ownership of the copyright.

6. half dozen

   Be willing to pay a bit to protect your copyright. If you've written a song, you lot own the copyright. Done -- it'southward automatic, past constabulary. Even so, to reserve the right to protect that copyright in court means you lot may need to incur a small fee. Yous tin can register your song(s) with the U.South. Copyright Role for $35. This registration is stronger protection of your copyright, because any other writer or performer who comes along afterwards cannot merits a song that is already registered. Likewise, anyone who wants a license can find your song championship and your ownership listed in the Us Copyright Office database, in one case it's registered. Formal registration will exist well worth the coin if there is ever a dispute later on on.

   • Knowing that registration is a condition for enforcement of US copyrights, you might want to check the online copyright database from time to time, in case someone else has decided to register your works equally their own, perhaps by error. You can search the database by title and author, amid other things, free of accuse, or hire someone to do it for y'all.
   • When it comes to unauthorized distribution of your works past online downloads or streams, even your non-registered copyright may be "enforced". Nether the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Human action (DMCA), y'all may (as the copyright possessor) file a formal complaint with whatever spider web hosting service that allows your works to be distributed without your permission. Under DMCA laws (in the U.s., like in other places), they are so required to "promptly remove" the violating publication of your works. Of course, if they refuse, and you want to pursue it, yous may need to annals your copyright and sue them and their member who uploaded it to their servers.
   • The process to enforce your copyright in a US court can exist very expensive and is generally reserved for serious violations that cannot exist resolved in any other way. You will nearly always need to have consulted with an chaser before you consider that sort of enforcement. However, in some circumstances, you can besides claim restitution of your attorneys' fees, in improver to damages and injunction, when you lot win your case. ^[ix]

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1. one

   Admission the U.s. Copyright Part website. To preregister a song or to register a song online, yous must create an account online with the U.Southward. Copyright Office. Brainstorm past visiting the website at world wide web.Copyright.gov.^[ten] Select the link to "Annals a Copyright" and and then select the button to "Log in to eCO."^[11]

2. 2

   Choose "New User" to create an account. If this is your first time conducting business on this site, you lot will demand to create an account. Choose the push button for "New User." Yous will then see a screen to create your account. You volition demand to enter the post-obit information:^[12]

   • Name
   • Email address
   • Userid (you will create one)
   • Countersign (you lot will create one)
   • Challenge question, as a security tool in case y'all forget your password
   • Choose "Next" when you are ready to movement on.

3. 3

   Provide your address and telephone number. On the adjacent screen, yous volition be prompted to provide your accost and telephone number. After you enter all this information, click on "Next" at the bottom of the screen.^[13]

4. 4

   Read the warning notice near credit cards. After you enter all your information to create your online account, yous will be shown a detect that the copyright.gov website does non capture any credit card numbers for any payment. When y'all read this detect, cull "End" at the bottom of the screen, and your account will be set for utilize.^[14]

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1. 1

   Decide if you qualify for preregistration. Preregistration of a copyright is a step that notifies the U.S. Copyright Role that you have a song or other creative work in process and that is likely to be mass produced in some form. It is non the aforementioned as registration and does not have the same legal meaning. For a vocal to be eligible for pre-registration, the following must apply:^[15]

   • For a sound recording, at least some of the sound must already exist in a recorded grade, although the last production does not need to exist completed yet, and you must verify that you lot accept a "reasonable expectation" that the work will be commercially distributed.
   • For a vocal composition, at least some of it must be written or recorded in some format, the song is intended for use on a mass produced record or movie soundtrack, and you must accept a "reasonable expectation" that the work will be commercially distributed.

2. 2

   Log in to eCO to preregister online. Preregistration is a step that is only available online through the eCO system. To access the organization, brainstorm at the copyright.gov home page, select "Register a Copyright," and then "Log in to eCO."^[16]

3. 3

   Enter your userid and password. In the box in the top left of the side by side screen, you volition see a identify to enter the userid and password that you defined when you created your account. Enter those hither and select "Login."

4. 4

   Select "Preregister a Claim." On the left side of the next screen, yous will meet a list of options. In the middle of the list, under the heading of "Copyright Registration," select "Preregister a Merits." The screen will change automatically to the adjacent stride.^[17]

5. 5

   Read the Preregistration Overview. The side by side screen contains information nigh the preregistration process. Read through this information to be certain that you lot wish to preregister, and then continue. Select "Start Preregistration."^[xviii]

6. six

   Identify the type of work that y'all are preregistering. Y'all will accept half-dozen dissimilar choices, and you may select one or more of them. Choose whichever apply to the work that you are preregistering. Make sure that any yous choose represents the rights that you hold. For instance, do not merits the copyright in the sound recording of a vocal, if you were the author but not the performer. The choices are:^[19]

   • Musical limerick
   • Sound recording
   • Literary work in book grade
   • Computer program
   • Motion picture
   • Advertizement or marketing photograph
   • Move on to the next stride by selecting "Continue" at the top of the screen.

7. seven

   Provide the title of the work. This may be a working championship, which could change when the terminal copy is produced, but yous do demand to enter a title for the work. If the work that you are preregistering is an album or other collection of songs, you need to give but the album title at this fourth dimension.^[20]

8. 8

   Provide the names of individual songs, if whatever. The adjacent screen is to list the titles of individual songs. Provide equally many every bit you lot know, with the current titles. This all may alter for the final product.

9. ix

   Provide the name of the writer. On the next screen, listing the proper name of the author or authors of the work. If you wish to be known by a pseudonym, so enter that name.

10. 10

    Identify the "claimant" of the copyright. The claimant, in most cases, will be the aforementioned as the writer. However, sometimes the copyright claimant may be unlike than the author. For instance, if the writer is writing a song as a work for rent for a moving picture, then the movie publisher may be the claimant of the copyright.^[21]

    • Information technology is also possible that you lot have already transferred your copyright ownership to others prior to registration, making the new owners the "claimants". They should accept a written, signed and dated copy of the document in which you agreed to transfer your rights.

11. 11

    List three important dates related to the composition. The next screen will ask you to identify iii important dates to identify your claim in the song:

    • the date yous began creating the song
    • the engagement you conceptualize creating the piece of work
    • the date y'all conceptualize commercial distribution

12. 12

    Write a brief description of the song you are preregistering. This description does not need to be very thorough, but enough to be able to identify it in case of a later claim of infringement. Your description is express to 2000 characters, or about 300 words.

13. 13

    Certify your claim. Later you accept completed all prior steps for preregistration, you will exist asked to certify that you are in fact the copyright holder for the song or album that you lot described and that you take a reasonable expectation that the piece of work will exist commercially distributed in the near future.^[22]

    • There is no fee for preregistration.
    • When you certify your claim, you lot are warned that yous are making a statement nether oath and that falsifying a claim may be a federal offense.

14. 14

    Annals your song later completion. Preregistration is not sufficient to protect your copyright completely. To do that, you must register your copyright within three months after the kickoff publication of the finished work, or within one month if you go aware that someone else has infringed on your copyright.^[23]

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1. 1

   Decide if y'all wish to register online or by mail. Your registration will be processed more quickly and has a cheaper filing fee if you submit it online. Only if you do non have access to the Cyberspace, or if you only prefer to send it by mail, you may practise so. The registration is equally valid either way. The instructions in the side by side few steps (except the login stride) will utilize as to online registration or paper registration. ^[24]

   • To request newspaper copies of the registration forms, y'all can call the Copyright Function at (202) 707–3000 or 1 (877) 476–0778 (toll complimentary). You will demand to ask for course SR if y'all are registering a audio recording of a song, or form PA if yous are recording the written lyrics or music, without a recording.
   • If you have access to a computer, y'all can find and print these forms at http://www.copyright.gov/eco/.

2. ii

   Access the eCO website to begin your registration. To admission the registration system online, begin at the copyright.gov home page, select "Register a Copyright," and then "Log in to eCO."^[25]

3. 3

   Enter your userid and password. In the box in the top left of the side by side screen, you lot will run across a place to enter the userid and password that you defined when you created your account. Enter those here and select "Login."

4. 4

   Choose "Register a New Merits." On the left side of the screen, you volition see a list of options. Under the heading of "Copyright Registration," select the pick "Annals a New Claim." Yous volition be directed automatically to the next screen.^[26]

5. v

   Reply iii questions to define your registration. The next screen will prompt yous with iii questions. Your answers to those questions volition determine the appropriate awarding for registering your piece of work.^[27] The three questions are:

   • Are you registering one work? If you accept a unmarried song to copyright, you lot volition answer "yes." If y'all have a collection or a full album, you will respond "no."
   • Are you the only author an owner of the work? If you wrote the song past yourself, answer "yes." If yous collaborated with one or more other people, say "no."
   • Does the work contain fabric by only this one writer? If you sampled other music in your song, for example, you will answer "no." Otherwise, cull "yes."

6. 6

   Select the type of work you are registering. There are several choices, to brainstorm the identification of your copyrighted work. Review the listing on the dropdown menu, and make your selection. Be careful in making your pick. Once you take chosen the type, you cannot change it. You lot would have to cancel this entire registration session and outset over again. The choices for literary type are:^[28]

   • Literary work
   • Work of visual arts
   • Audio recording - this will be your pick if you are copyrighting a detail recorded version of a song
   • Work of the performing arts - this will be your selection if yous are copyrighting a written song, but non the bodily recording of the song
   • Motion moving picture/AV piece of work
   • Single series upshot
   • Select "Keep" afterwards you have made your selection.

7. 7

   Provide the title of the work. If you only take a working title, provide that. If the work is untitled, then type in "untitled."^[29]

   • On the same screen, y'all are asked to say whether this piece appears every bit function of a larger work. This would include a song that is part of an album, or a brusk story that is function of a collection.
   • Click on "Go on" when you are ready to get on.

8. 8

   Tell whether the song has been published. For this purpose, publication ways offer copies of the song for sale or other public distribution. A public performance of the work does not constitute publication.^[thirty]

   • Answer yes or no to the drop downwards question. Then you lot will be prompted to give your preregistration number, if you preregistered this piece of work.

9. 9

   Place the author and claimant of the copyright. The "legal writer" is generally the person who wrote the song, or their employer. The claimant may be the aforementioned person as the author, or it may be someone else. For case, if you wrote a song for hire, to exist used in a movie, you might (or might not) be the "legal author", and the pic producer may exist the claimant.^[31]

   • Nether U.s.a. laws, if y'all're employed for the purpose of creating such works, your employer is considered the author. Similarly, if y'all are an independent contractor creating a "work for hire", nether a properly written contract, the customer is considered to be the "legal author" and the owner of the copyright in your piece of work, unless they have signed a different agreement proving otherwise. ^[32]
   • Unfortunately, resolving the question of "properly written contract" would require the review and communication of an attorney. Withal, as a bonus, if in that location is no written contract or the contract for "work for hire" fails for some reason, then you (the author) are the default "legal author" and thus owner of all the rights. Many WFH contracts include a separate "assignment of rights", every bit a backup plan to own your rights (by written transfer), even if yous are deemed the "legal writer".
   • Consider the fact that anyone performing on a recording of your performance who is not nether a "piece of work for rent" also becomes, past default, a "articulation possessor" of your copyright in the resulting joint work.

10. ten

    Limit your merits, if appropriate. If your work contains parts of other previously copyrighted works, you will demand to identify the original works hither. For example, if your song takes samples from other songs, you lot need to identify those original works.^[33]

    • This is a step that may require the help of an attorney, if you demand aid deciding how much use is adequate every bit "fair employ" or public domain.

11. 11

    Identify contacts for rights and permissions, if y'all wish. This is an optional stride. If you take registered your works with a music clearinghouse, you may wish to identify that organization here for copyright management or permission to use your work.^[34]

12. 12

    Name a correspondent for further contact. The correspondent is the person who should be contacted past the U.South. Copyright Office if there are any questions almost this copyright registration. You may name yourself, or you may choose to appoint a manager or chaser.^[35]

13. 13

    Give your address for mailing the copyright certificate. When your registration has been processed completely, the U.S. Copyright Office will mail you lot a copyright certificate. You need to requite the complete name and address for mailing that certificate.^[36]

14. xiv

    Request special treatment, if applicable. If you lot fall into one of three special categories, you may be able to asking special handling of your registration. This will speed the process for your claim to get through the U.S. Copyright Office and to render your copyright certificate. To request special handling, i of the following three conditions must apply:^[37]

    • you are involved in pending or prospective litigation
    • in that location is some community effect related to the vocal
    • a contract deadline requires an expedited certificate

15. 15

    Certify that the claim is yours. The final step is to certify that the copyright of this work is legally yours and that y'all are legally entitled to merits the copyright. Marking the box and blazon in the name of the authorized claimant.^[38]

    • If you do not complete the certification step, you lot cannot proceed.
    • You are warned that making a false certification or merits of copyright is a violation of federal constabulary. This is the same law that deters others from falsely registering a claim to your works, giving your registration the weight of evidence y'all will need in court.

16. xvi

    Review your entire submission. If you lot are submitting your registration online, all the data that y'all entered in response to the previous screens will appear in one table. Read it advisedly and check for accuracy and abyss. If you need to brand any changes, you lot tin become back to make corrections. If you lot are registering on paper, proofread everything carefully.^[39]

    • When you have reviewed everything and made any necessary corrections, select "Add to Cart."

17. 17

    Pay for your registration. After your submission is complete, y'all need to pay the registration fee. The fee for registering a single new vocal online by a single writer is $35. A standard awarding for all other filings is $55. You will need a credit card to pay for your registration, or y'all tin can open an business relationship through pay.gov.^[40]

    • If you are submitting your registration by mail, you need to include a check made payable to "Register of Copyrights" in the amount of $85.^[41]

18. eighteen

    Submit your song. Afterward your payment is complete online, you should meet a annotation that says "Payment Successful." You now need to follow these steps to upload a copy of your song to accompany the registration:^[42]

    • Click the "Continue" button on the upper correct of the Payment Successful screen.
    • Click the green "Select files to upload" button in the "Eolith Submission" table. A window with fields for browsing and selecting files to exist uploaded should appear.
    • Select the file(s) to be uploaded for the work existence registered. As they are selected, the file names will exist displayed under the green "Select Files to upload" button.
    • After selecting all files for the work, click the blueish "Start Upload" button.
    • When all files accept been uploaded for the work, click the green "Consummate Your Submission" button.
    • If you submitted multiple applications together, repeat these steps for each awarding to upload and electronic copy of the work(s).
    • If y'all are registering by postal service, you lot need to send in a copy of your written music, lyrics, or the recording. You may submit an audio cassette, videocassette, CD or DVD recording. You lot demand to packet the recording in a box, not an envelope, in society to ensure proper handling past the U.S. Copyright Office.^[43]
      • Floppy disks, cypher drives, or other calculator recordings are not adequate.
      • Once you submit the piece of work, your re-create volition non be returned to you.
      • Many people submit their work by certified mail, but that is non a requirement.

19. xix

    Wait to receive your copyright certificate. After y'all accept completed the registration process, whether online or by mail, your piece of work is over. Your merits will be processed in line with other claims as they are received. Processing time for online filed claims is most viii months. Registrations past postal service may be longer. If that much fourth dimension has passed and you have not received anything yet, you may check the status of your claim by submitting a status request.^[44]

    • If the Copyright Office finds bug with your application or the copies you submitted, they will contact you lot with the problem and requite you fourth dimension to prepare it, in most cases.

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1. one

   Empathise your automatic copyright protection. As before long equally yous create a work, you own the copyright to it. This is generally recognized around the world. The process of registration with the U.S. Copyright Office protects that copyright within the U.Due south. The United States has reciprocal agreements with many other countries, whereby each country agrees to recognize and protect copyrights nether each other's laws. Therefore, if you created your work in the U.S., or in other "convention countries", yous are protected by copyright laws in those countries.^[45]

2. ii

   Marker your piece of work with the recognized symbol for copyright. Under the Universal Copyright Convention, an international treaty that the U.Southward. has been party to since 1955, you lot tin can protect your copyright with the internationally recognized copyright symbol:^[46]

   • The symbol begins with the letter C with a circle effectually it
   • Include the date the piece of work was created
   • Include the name of the person claiming the copyright.
   • These marks should appear on the work itself, at the bottom of the page or somewhere on the packaging for a recording.

3. 3

   Review international copyright treaties. The U.Due south. is a political party to several different international treaties regarding the protection of creative works. If yous are interested in learning more, yous can research these treaties. Some of the treaties that the U.S. recognizes are:^[47]

   • the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
   • the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
   • the WIPO Copyright Treaty
   • the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty
   • the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms
   • the Brussels Convention Relating to the Distribution of Program-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite.

4. four

   Review the law of a specific land. If y'all are concerned about protecting your copyright in a particular state, you lot should inquiry that country's copyright laws. For this, y'all may need to enlist the services of an experienced international copyright chaser.^[48]

   • As described above, the DMCA only applies in U.South. jurisdictions. Nonetheless, a number of other countries have established like guidelines for online service providers (OSP) to avoid copyright liability for acts by its members. Among such countries are Australia, United Kingdom, Red china, Japan and S Africa. They each have their own limitations. However, absent specific limitations on liability in their country, an OSP could be sued for unauthorized distribution of your copyrighted works.

5. 5

   Recognize the fact that it may not be necessary to strictly enforce all copyright laws against all infringements. You, every bit the owner, have the option of whether to take administrative, civil, or even criminal action against infringers, or to merely ignore them. You may grant waivers or even a courtesy (free) license afterward-the-fact for infringements of which yous actually approve. There is an sometime saying, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." -- Charles Caleb Colton.

   • Do not forget that enforceability of your exclusive rights may also exist limited by statute, then practice not exist quick to attempt legal actions without first agreement the relevant laws.

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• There is a "gimmick" of mailing a re-create of your written or recorded song to yourself, and so storing information technology safely with the postmark as proof of your cosmos date, without opening the envelope. This trick might serve every bit some evidence, simply it is not valid registration of a copyright. You need to register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, if you programme to sue in a Usa federal court.

• Information technology should as well exist noted that the post office can, in fact, deliver an unsealed envelope, making your postmark meaningless for purpose of proving what might have been inside on that date.

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Commodity Summary X

Copyright law tin can seem confusing, but y'all can hands copyright your song for gratuitous. Under international law, y'all automatically ain the copyright to your song as soon every bit you lot create it. Notwithstanding, make certain yous record the song in audio or annotation so y'all can show that you lot wrote the song earlier anyone copies it. If you want to sell licenses to your song so you lot can make profit when other people perform, sample, or record your song, you'll need to annals with a licensing agency like Broadcast Music, Inc. or The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. If you lot want the right to protect your music in courtroom, yous'll demand to pay a fee of 35 dollars to the U.Southward. Copyright Function, which will give y'all stronger protection over your music. For more tips from our Legal co-author, including how to create an account with the U.S. copyright office, read on!

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