ARTICLES

4 Reasons Why You Should Copyright Your Songs

By: Gian Erguiza - March, 2008

You’ve made the perfect song. It’s the one. It’s the one that’s going to get you out of the rut and into the limelight with recognition from the music industry and from music lovers alike. You know it’s going nowhere but straight to the top and you decide to release it online and everywhere you can. You start hearing it everywhere but something is wrong. You’re not making a fortune out of it just as you were expecting. Why? It’s because you didn’t copyright the song and basically gave it away for free and now you’re fighting for the rights to your own song, the one that you made and pushed to be heard, by yourself.

I still can’t believe after all of these stories and after all of this time that artists have been fighting to keep the rights to their songs, that there are still musicians out there that are not willing to fork up the dough or take that extra step to copyright their songs. It is probably the most important thing you cannot afford to skip and must do to protect your musical work. Time and time again, artists have been hijacked by corporate label sharks and end up with nothing in the end, nothing to show for their work, even after touring the world or hearing three consecutive number #1 songs on the radio. Surprised? Don’t be. If you don’t know what you’re doing in the music industry, it will eat you alive. And now without further a due, here are the four reasons why you should copyright your songs:

Copyright Infringement – copyright infringement means, a violation of the rights secured by a copyright. If you have the original owner’s exclusive rights to your songs, unauthorized use of your material whether reproduced, performed, or bootlegged is copyright infringement. Although interchangeable, the terms piracy and theft are often in the same league as copyright infringement. There are a lot of ways that someone can infringe on your copyrights so make sure you check the legalities involved with copyright infringement. You also cannot sue anybody for copyright infringement until you have filed for copyright protection through the U.S. Copyright Office. Penalties for copyright infringement, varies with the type of infringement and the situation at hand. Common forms of copyright infringement:

Unlawful downloading and sharing of downloaded music and pornography. Unauthorized copying of “Screener” DVD’s distributed by movie studios while the movie is still in theatrical release. Bootleg recordings where the artist never gave permission for a release of previously unreleased material or recordings. Selling of illegal material such as pirated DVD’s, CD’s, and VCD’s usually sold by peddlers by the roadside, markets and other outlets. Illegal use of text content such as copying and sharing without the consent of the Author.

Copyright Registration – Once you register your works with the U.S. Copyright Office, they will establish a public record of you copyrights. They will also give notice to the world that your work is now protected under the U.S. Copyright Laws and will give them a good idea that you have already sought the claim copyright. This comes in handy in the event of a legal claim, plagiarism or in the case of infringement, the copyright owner can produce a copy of the work from a viable source to validate the content of the work in question. Copyright registration in the United States can be filed with the U.S. Copyright Office and copyright registration in United Kingdom and elsewhere, check with your commercial services which provide a registration facility.

No award for Statutory Damages and Attorney Fee’s – Registration is required before an infringement suit may be filed with the U.S. courts. This will protect you from copyright holders for they will not be able to claim statutory damages or attorney’s fees unless the work was registered prior to infringement. The same rule applies if the work was registered within three months of publication. The same rule also applies to published works not unless the copyright registration is made within three months after the first publication.

Burden of Proof or Prima Facie – In modern legal English, prima facie is used to signify that a matter is self-evident from the facts, from the first examination. Prima facie in Latin is “on it’s first appearance” or “by first instance.” In law jurisdictions of today, prima facie would be the sufficient proof of a particular fact or proposition. Most legal proceedings of today require a prima facie in order for a case to exist, commence proceedings, and create a ruling. In our terminology of today, prima facie basically is, what we call,”Making a case” or “building a case.” In a simple example, if there was a murder case, prima facie evidence would include the defendant’s act of what caused the victim’s death and that they acted in malice. If the prosecution failed to provide such evidence, the case would fail or it would be “failure to make a prima facie case.” Do not make the mistake of confusing prima facie with res ipsa loquitur. Prima facie is obvious and self-explanatory while res ipsa loquitur means “it speaks for itself.”

These four reasons are just the first step as to why you should copyright your work. There is so much more to copyrights and you should read up on it, all of it, to fully understand as to what is involved with copyrights. If you are planning to go to court for copyright infringement or any other copyright issues, make sure that you have a case. The list below is some of the things that you need to confirm before building a case or else you will lose the case, hands down.