Copyrights

[Wolk]

Hello!

A friend of me recently asked me how to copyright tunes. It struck me I got no idea how to do that!
Thus I cannot answer his question so I'm passing it forward to You. =)

Thanx for your help!

[ruiner]

Well, you can mail a CD of your tunes to yourself and not open the package. :)
Here's a link to the US Copyright office with instructions for sound recordings. http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html

[Max Levin]

Contact STIM, Wolk!

[Wolk]

Yeah STIM I know of but that's a Swedish "thing" so to speak, right?
(Svenska Tonsättares blaha blaha)
My friend whos asking is from Scotland...

I have never cared about copyrighting my own tunes, partly because I am not that a great musician and partly that I feel that even IF someone would rip my tunes, claiming they were thier own work, I would not get THAT upset.

I guess my Scottish friend wants a way to (legally) proove that his tunes really are his tunes but I don't really know how to do that.

[Makke]

Chris wrote something about this I think.

http://c64audio.valuehost.co.uk/edge/licencing.htm

There we are

It's mainly about C64 copyrights, but there's stuff there that are "general" copyright rules.

[Chris Abbott]

1) A tune is "copyrighted" the moment it's created
2) If you want to prove someone ripped off your piece, you have to show that (a) you wrote it first, and (b) that the person who ripped it off could possibly have got it.
3) STIM won't help: they're only interested in giving you royalties if your piece receives radioplay. However, if your piece is about to be exploited commercially then joining the NCB is a good idea, since they collect the royalties for you when people press CDs. It's also the best proof of copyright.

Oh, just read it again, he's Scottish! Well, substitute MCPS for NCB then. It's all the same kind of thing.

Incidentally Max, I'm joining STIM and NCB. Haven't heard anything about that CD release after my email...

Chris

[SunGod]

Actually, a great way to prove the date you created a copyrightable work of art is to make a duplicate copy, sign a quick note that you create it, stick it in an envelope, and mail a few copies to yourself. This way if you ever have to go to court, take a sealed copy with you, submit it as evidence, and the postmark will prove the date that the item was mailed. Obviously you created it BEFORE the date of the postmark. Kind of hard for an attorney to tell a postal service that it's lying... if you know what I mean...