United States

The copyright office should make it as easy and cheap to copyright original material as it is to steal it. A dollar to upload and copyright a single photo or song is not unreasonable, expecting a musician to pay thirty five dollars to copyright a single song, is. Waiting to compile a catalogue of songs to copyright them all at once, is asking someone to steal your music.

Email the U.S. Copyright Office urging them to offer reasonable rates to up load and copyright single songs and poems. In the age of cell phones and mp3 recorders, nearly ubiquitous means of copying materials played or sung aloud, it is imperative that poets, musicians and song writers have an almost instantaneous method to copyright their works. Music pirates and parasites are everywhere, anyone who writes knows this, and we all need to be able to upload and copyright a song as soon as it is written to maintain our rights to those lyrics and music.

Write the copyright office and your congressmen and women and demand that the U.S. Copyright Office allow musicians and other artists to be able to setup secure individual accounts whereby we can be charged a given fee for an account and then up load works individually, for say a dollar, until our charges are depleted, then we can renew our subscription, to protect our work. Do this and the endless lawsuits to prove ownership of intellectual property will cease.[/b]

You can copyright a stolen lyric or piece of music, & it won't come to light until it's publicly presented. Note "My Sweet Lord," by George Harrison, & the lawsuits that followed, once it was released.

Simply getting a copyright doesn't mean the lawsuits will stop.

A copyright Will document your rights, and it Will serve as proof in court, and That will cut down the piracy, and That will stop the lawsuits.

Yeah $35 and a 2 year wait . . . if any other company on earth made you wait 2 YEARS for what you paid for, they'd be out of business.

A lot of people I know don't even bother with it. The only thing that worries me is that you for instance RM could write something, maybe even just a long phrase in a song and be sued for it even if you wrote it and they screwed up.

That to my mind is folly in its most lucent form.
What do I know anyway? I'm just a cabbage now.

Yeah $35 and a 2 year wait . . . if any other company on earth made you wait 2 YEARS for what you paid for, they'd be out of business.

A lot of people I know don't even bother with it. The only thing that worries me is that you for instance RM could write something, maybe even just a long phrase in a song and be sued for it even if you wrote it and they screwed up.

That to my mind is folly in its most lucent form.
What do I know anyway? I'm just a cabbage now.

Yeah $35 and a 2 year wait . . . if any other company on earth made you wait 2 YEARS for what you paid for, they'd be out of business.

People will always make money repackaging sh*t, look at windoze. The point is to get your words and music on record so if somebody does steal it, and you want to get your cut, you have it irrefutably, cheaply and immediately documented. Who makes all the money in this business,
the musicians or the record companies who pay people to phish for your music? Protect your work! Immediate copyrights are the only means to do it.

You speak as though you have lost a lot of money on this topic. Is this true?

Fact is, the majority of music out there isn't worth stealing, so those folks have little to worry about.

After that I follow up with, well, I wrote it, they stole it... if they want another hit, they know where to come.

Its not supposed to be a situation where your worried about someone stealing the rights to your music. Its not a product... its MUSIC. MAKE IT, don't worry about "who owns the rights". It's not a Volvo... its a song, sing the damn thing and get on with it.

If someone is trying to earn some money from a song, why on earth would he want to just give it to some stranger to make money with, instead?
There's a REASON for copyrighting a song, or anything, for that matter.

It's like taking the key out of the ignition when you leave your car, so no one can just get in, turn the key, and drive off.
Why the hell should I give my car away?
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Yeah anything can be stolen. (So - therefore we should just give up locking it? That's a defeatest attitude . . .)
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A lock keeps an honest man honest.
And, just because my car can be stolen, that doesn't mean I should just give up on trying to protect it by at least locking the damned door . . .
If it get's stolen, I'll call the police.
But, with my car, I have a title and registration to prove it's mine, when I find it.
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Many folks want the same kind of paperwork for their songs, in case one is stolen.
A title says a car is yours.
A copyright says a song is yours.
With a copyright, one has some proof.

Nah I agree with the process really its just that they aren't up to it in my view.
I'm considering a creative commons license myself. Like Rm said it's just about saying you did it really but as above if you ever get confirmation it would also be rather grand too.

One thing I did read elsewhere however is that if someone buys a track say for instance? The act of transferring that copyright to the new owner is sometimes very off putting? (You can understand why if it takes TWO YEARS!) Now I don't know whether that is true or not but it does seem to make sense with an ocean of talent and music at anyone's fingertips. The person also mentioned that he's been in the business for many years and had made more money without copyrighting his material, again I don't know whether that is true or not?

RhythmMan, I think you and I disagree on the point of music. It's not a way to create intellectual property to pay your bills and kids/ grandkids/ great grandkids.

Music is a salve to the soul when is aches, a kick in the pants when people are apathetic... a gift from the Universe to Musicians... to be shared, and if possible, turned into a paying gig.

Back before this whole "recording industry thingy" musicians were paid by their performance to the largest degree. Not a Good that could be "propertized"... a service.

Then along come the "industry"... wants to turn your little ditty into a worldwide hit, giving you $.01 on the dollar, just sign here and sing into the can.

Then its an issue who owns it, and chasing down accounting tricks to make sure you get paid. Or has been the case in more than one "Deal" I'm privy to, something above the "sign here" line obligated you and left you indebted to the "Man".

No thanks... crappy system for the musician and consumer and I don't participate.

Does anyone think the metric ton per hour of copyright requests will ever make a Buck for the eager requesters? Or is it just some way for them to try and sue later on when a song kinda sounds like something they once copyrighted?

How about we do like our Forefathers the Cave Musicians... and earn our living. Pay for your own studio time, duplicate and distribute your CD's as "GOD" intended music to be distributed... from musician to fan. If your music is good, it'll be successful, if it is stolen, you'll have recordings to take to court... or worst case, some hack will have one song, and you will have the source.

I know the reason for music's existance . . . I've been writing songs for years, now, - songs which people tell me they love.
And I love writing and playing them.
But -
Writing music and getting paid royalties - that's not mutually exclusive.
TV, radio, movies . . . that's the whole purpose of SECAP, ASCAP, BMI et al . . .
. . . plus they monitor restaurants and lounges and the like . . . for when you play somebody else's song . . . covers.
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If I want to get some return on my thousands and thousands of hours of song writing / practicing - to pay for my equipment, strings, gas, etc - then collecting royalties on my music is one way to help make it possible for me to be able to afford to create the music in the first place.
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There are millions and millions of musicians writng their own songs and selling them . . .
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You say music is not a way to pay your bills?
What!?
Hell . . . even a fricking floor sweeper or a dish-washer gets paid! Why the hell shouldn't I get paid, too? I work a lot harder than any f'ing janitor . . .
You think musicians shouldn't get paid?
Do you play for free?
Not me . . . I'm going to get paid for my work.
Or - do you ask to be paid when you gig?
If you get paid for gigging - you are selling the music . . . maybe selling your music, or maybe selling someone else's music, if you play cover songs . . .
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I will not give my hard-earned original compositions away, nor play for free - unless it's for a charity event; I've done that before . . .
And I 'donate' about a dozen songs a week at open mikes and such . . . I don't ask for pay for that.
So -yeah, I know the reason for music.
And if a dish-washer gets paid - then I will also be paid.
And so I will copyright my songs.
. . . even if the f'ng gvt. drags it's feet . . .

You think musicians shouldn't get paid?

Is that what I said?

I reviewed and it is not... What I said was Musicians USED to be paid for performances, not songwriting. "Composers" were paid to write... Musicians played.

Then along comes the "recording industry" and suddenly every musician thinks they can write 3 minutes of something and ride it for the rest of their life... or use the copyrights on a crappy piece of music vaguely similar to a successful piece of music and sue the profit from the better musician/ songwriter.

I make music for different reasons than pay... but yes I insist on getting paid for performances... and any CD's with my own material on them.

The reason I make music is because it is inside of me burning a hole to get out. I make music because sitting down and picking the songs out of my gives me relief from them. Thousands of GOOD songs bouncing around in my head, every moment of the day and night unless I am playing something.

When I grab one of those pieces and "figure it out" and get it down... then that song is "freed" from captivity and given freely to anyone who can get an ounce of joy out of it.

Should they decide they can make something with it... great, fine, wonderful. When they need another tune because their well is dry mine is not and they can deal with me as the source... not a free ride.

I understand it takes money to make the process roll... and the initial investment comes from me. But at no point of making music am I doing it for the money. I charge money so the show can go on.

Yep, SP is right.
My last 4 copyrights were batchs of at least 10 songs each, for $45 per collection - and then later $35.
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The current price - online - is $35/song, or $35/ collection of songs.
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I believe mail-in (on a CD) is still $45, don't recall . . .

I agree with Dewy, most original music is not worth copying. 95% of musicians want to write and record their own music and the 5% who might copy something are usually crappy musicians who won't be around long anyway. If it boosts your ego to say you've got all these albums copywritten fine, but unless you've got people beating down your door for your music it's probably a waste of time and money.