|
I
hate writing articles about this boring stuff 'cuz it makes
for a very boring article, but it's so important that I can't
NOT write the article. I promise I'll try to make it fun to
read, but there are no guarantees. My next article will be
about trademarking your band name.
First
off, believe me when I tell you that you do NOT need a lawyer
to copyright your material. If you are intelligent enough
to read and follow instructions on filling out forms, you
can DIY. Of course, I am the world's biggest advocate of DIY,
so you can expect nothing less than my best advice on DOING
IT YOURSELF.
There
are no excuses for why you do not have your stuff copywritten
if you don't. I'll waste no time telling you all the no-brainer
reasons why you need to do it, and if you already know how
to, read on anyway to absorb any info you might not already
know.
Get
your forms by calling the Hotline to order copyright forms:
(202) 707-9100. You'll leave your name and address and the
info about which forms you want on an answering machine and
you can expect your forms in the mail in about a week. (I
called on Dec. 31st and received my forms on Jan 7th.) Request
both the PA and the SR forms, and Continuation Sheets. You
will need Continuation Sheets especially if you want to copyright
more than one song, or a collection. This is because every
song title included in your collection needs to be listed
in the "Title of the Work" section of the PA and SR forms,
and there will not be enough space in that section of the
PA or SR Forms if you have numerous songs to list. You will
put the name of the Collection, such as "SHUT UP MARIE COLLECTION
2001" in the "Title of the Work" section on the PA or SR Form,
and then use the Continuation Sheet to list each song "in
'SHUT UP MARIE COLLECTION 2001'", such as "Raining Like Crazy"
in "SHUT UP MARIE COLLECTION 2001", "Like You" in "SHUT UP
MARIE COLLECTION 2001". There should be enough room for 20
or more songs on this Continuation Sheet. I do know that instructions
on filling out the PA and SR forms are also included with
the forms. If you have further questions about filling out
these forms, the Copyright info line is (202) 707-5959. If
you do submit your material for copyright improperly, they
will send you a letter stating what's wrong with your submission,
and tell you how to properly submit.
For
quicker access to the forms, go to www.loc.gov/copyright,
and under "Publications", click on "Forms". At this time,
the Copyright Office does not accept online registration,
but you can fill it out online and print the filled out application,
and mail it to: Library of Congress, Copyright Office, 101
Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20559-6000. Be
sure to include the proper fee and deposit materials (your
tape or CD).
Also,
the Copyright
Office requires downloaded applications on a single sheet
of paper; therefore, you should consider reinserting the first
page back into your printer so that the back page will be
printed onto it. These forms should be printed "head-to-head"
on a single piece of 8 1/2" by 11" white paper so that when
you turn the paper over, the top of page 2 is directly behind
the top of page 1.
The
PA form is what you use to copyright your basic song; melody
line and lyrics only. (PA stands for Performing Arts, so I
assume that this is the same form that script writers use
to copyright their scripts, and I should be using this form
to copyright my articles, but it just occurred to me so I
guess I'll have to do that as soon as I'm done writing this
article!) You can't copyright chord progressions. If you could
copyright chord progressions, no blues band would ever have
a chance in hell... the 12-bar blues progression is used by
every blues band I know for a good number of their songs.
They'd all get sued by whoever the first guy who used the
12-bar blues progression is. And I'm sure that guy is dead
now anyway so I guess it's a moot point... unless it falls
under the category of general public use, or general pubic
use, in my case, because I generally think in those terms....
anyway... I digress...
I
suggest you lay down your song on a good hand-held tape recorder
with your vocal and something to give a basic accompaniment
like a guitar or piano. That's all you need to send them.
According
to US Copyright law, the song is protected a soon as it's
written, but you want to send it to the copyright office to
cover your ass. A guy in a former band of mine claimed to
write this song that sounded EXACTLY like an Oasis song (I
had not heard the Oasis song at this point yet), and then
he heard that Oasis song and he said he thought they could
have stolen his song. He told me that he'd previously sent
it over to Europe to some girl, who, perhaps on the off-chance,
could have possibly known one of the guys in Oasis. You just
never know. Point is that he could not prove he wrote the
song 'cuz there was no copyright form proving he wrote it
years before the Oasis song came out. He would have won if
he had the form and took them to court; his song sounded EXACTLY
like that Oasis song. He would have made hundreds of thousands
of dollars. He could have been lying, but why would he make
an ass out of himself like that?
Get
your basic song on tape or CD, type your lyrics out, fill
out the PA Copyright form and send the stuff in. About 3-9
months later, you get your response back from the US Copyright
Office telling you that your stuff is copyrighted under the
file number they give you, and you keep that on file so you
can refer back to it in the unfortunate case you'll ever need
to. It costs $30 for as many songs as you want to copyright;
you can copyright 1 song or 100 songs for that $30. In the
case where you're copyrighting a number of songs, the title
of the work is a collection, like "SHUT UP MARIE Collection
2001" or whatever. Just make sure that the address you fill
out in the section they'll use to send your papers back to
you is an address you
can
retrieve mail from 9 months after you send your stuff. (Duh.)
Send it to your parent's if you have a habit of moving every
2-3 months, like for those new Los Angeleans who just moved
here and are staying with different friends until they get
a place of their own.
The
SR form is the second form you'll fill out once you have your
song fully produced and have a professional recording to protect
and therefore will want to copyright the SOUNDS you have created.
Copyrighting your work using the SR form also costs $30, and
can also protect a collection of songs. SR stands for Sound
Recording, so it will protect all those riffs and hooky guitar
parts that you create for that song while it's in development.
If you do come up with some major-killer hooky guitar riff
that you'd like to protect before you play your song on stage,
I suggest you record that song produced to the best of your
ability on a 4-track recorder and send it in with the SR form.
Since, technically, the work is protected as soon as it's
written, you should be okay without having to spend the $30.
each time you write those killer hooky guitar riffs, but if
you can at least record a club performance and date it, you
have a dated record of that song and those riffs with witnesses
and that should protect you until you can SR copyright the
song in a collection.
If
you have not yet filled out the PA form for your work, and
you have completed fully-produced recordings, you only need
to fill out and send in the SR form with lyrics. This protects
the entire work and sounds, and that would include those lyrics
you have written. Then continue to PA copyright your work
periodically, I suggest at least every 6-12 months, protecting
the most recent collection of any new songs you have written.
Copyrighting your material is obviously an ongoing thing for
us artists, so be sure to check out the latest fees and stuff
at their webiste.
Meantime,
keep loading your gun.
You can read more of Annette's articles @:
http://www.diymagazine.com
In
a Band?
Got a Question for Annette?
Publicity Whore's B-Diddy
poses for his fans
do you see the resemblance
scary, huh -->---->--->
DO YOU HAVE
WHAT IT TAKES
TO WRITE FOR
PUBLICITY WHORE?
Publicity Whore was voted the #1 Entertainment
Publication in Los Angeles - 2001. Proud Recipient of the
- Imbecilious Award - for Excellence in Entertainment
Journalism.
|
