Ever wonder how Weird Al Yankovic gets away with making parody songs that bear a striking resemblance to the originals? He’s well versed in copyright infringement laws, that’s why, in that he’s diligent in asking for permission before making a parody of another musician’s song.
Knowing even the basics of copyrights in the music industry can help keep you out of hot water and getting sued for infringement. As a musician who writes your own songs, it can help you protect your work to keep it yours. Furthermore, plagiarism and piracy laws are muddied when uploading and releasing your music on the internet in the digital era. ServiceScape hits the nail on the head when speaking of plagiarism, stating, “the evolving nature of plagiarism in a digital age isn’t quite so simple, and involves a blurry assortment of laws that have even blurrier impact.” Although they are talking about writing content here, it very much applies to all intellectual property.
So, how exactly do you copyright, and how does it help protect your work?
What do You Gain from Copyrighting
Essentially, as a musician, you gain six rights as a copyright owner of your work:
- The right to copy and reproduce the work that’s yours.
- The right to perform the work in public.
- The right to showcase your work (mainly in the case of art).
- The right to make alternate versions of your work (as in the instance that Weird Al wants to parody your work, he has to ask permission before doing so).
- The right to distribute (sell copies) of your work.
- The right to publicly perform the sound recording of your work via radio, TV, the internet, etc.
Another reason to copyright your work is that you can administer license, to your liking, for people to do the above as you own the rights. This is usually where the money comes in for a musician. A record company will pay you a certain percentage and you will gain royalties if you grant them the license to copy and distribute your work and perform the sound recording for radio or TV.
What’s great for musicians is that you have that right to say whether or not people can make alternate versions of your work — preserving the sanctity of your songs. This issue can get very complicated, however, as successful attempts to skirt around infringement are becoming more and more common with vague verdicts of innocence. Having your song copyrighted will be heavier ammunition for you to prove infringement if the issue ever goes to court.
What to Copyright
In the grand scheme of things, your song actually consists of two parts. It is important to distinguish between the two when considering copyrighting your music. A composition copyright protects just that — the compositional makeup of your song. Composition copyrights are held by the one who actually wrote the song — coming up with the arrangement, lyrics, and melodies.
The copyrights for the actual sound recording are different. There can be many copyrights on many different sound recordings. The difference between a composition and sound recording copyright can perhaps better be explained by DIY Musician “when someone covers your song, they create their own sound recording copyright for the cover. They will, however, still need to get permission to use the composition copyright.”
It is extremely important, if you write your own songs, to register for the composition copyright. Intellectual property copyrights are among the most protected documents of a company, and if you are serious about your music, they should be among your most protected documents as well. Without them, anyone can rip off your song and record it as their own and you won’t have a leg to stand on in defense while trying to dispute it.
How to Copyright
Copyright.gov is an official way for you to copyright both of the components described above for your song — musical composition and sound recording. Two forms are used — SR for registering your sound recordings and PR (Performing Arts) for registering the musical composition of your song. You can also register both under the form SR. For a comprehensive understanding and the pricing of registering for copyrights, go to Copyright.gov.
Another method — the “poor man’s copyright” — is sometimes used to get around the pricing of registering for copyright protection. This seemingly reliable technique includes mailing yourself, in a sealed envelope, a recording of your song. The envelope will then be time stamped and sent back to you. This will show that if your song was copied/stolen any time after you mailed your song to yourself (stamped with the date), that your song was recorded before someone tried to pass it off as their own. This method may hold some weight when trying to prove infringement, but is not suggested as actually registering to copyright your songs is much more substantial.
You work hard on your music and to have it stolen away from you would be an atrocity. It’s up to you to protect your intellectual property in the form of copyrights to not only have it remain yours, but to protect the integrity of the music business. It’s one thing for Weird Al to make parodies, or to even be a cover band (which in my opinion is pretty artistic in itself), but flat out presenting another musicians work as your own is not artistic and shouldn’t be tolerated.
NOTE: I am not a lawyer and the suggestions and tips above are meant to serve as a rough outline of copyrights in the music business. Copyright laws are very intricate and, should you find yourself considering copyrights for your music extensively, consult an attorney for these delicate matters.
Courtesy of Desmond Rhodes
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