Acoustic Guitar Central: Copyright Your Songs

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Copyright Your Songs
Protect ownership of your creative work by registering your copyright.

By Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

Photo credit: Ray Larsen

So you’ve got a spanking new original song—congratulations! Enjoy the buzz of creation—and, before you share it with the world, make sure it’s protected by copyright, so you receive the credit, adulation, and compensation you deserve.

The good news is, if you have recorded or notated your finished song in a format from which someone else could reproduce it, then your song is already copyrighted. (In US copyright-ese, your work is protected once it is “fixed” in a “tangible medium” that is “sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration.”) No paperwork required: Once your song is fixed, whether on a CD or a lead sheet with the music and lyrics written out, it’s copyrighted.

So why bother shelling out a fee to register your song with the US Copyright Office? Basically, because registering the copyright bolsters your legal rights and provides evidence of your ownership in the public record, both of which could be important if there ever were a dispute over the song. In fact, you can’t even file an infringement suit in court unless the work in question has been registered. So there are plenty of good reasons to register a copyright, especially if you’re publishing the song (i.e., making it available to the public in some form). Registering a song close to its publication date gives you some legal advantages, but even if you wrote a song 15 years ago and never registered a copyright, you can still do so now.

How to Register Your Copyright
Copyright registration is a relatively simple process, especially in the Internet age. First, point your browser to www.copyright.gov, where you can download forms and get answers to many questions; the FAQ pages are very useful and actually written in comprehensible English.

For music, there are two basic types of copyrights with separate registration forms: PA, for performing arts, which covers the composition itself, and SR, which is for a sound recording. The distinction is critical: You can register a PA copyright for your original song, or for your original arrangement/adaptation of words and music in the public domain (e.g., a musical setting of a Shakespeare sonnet, or “Amazing Grace” arranged for fingerstyle guitar and theremin). You cannot, alas, file PA copyrights for your ultracool arrangements of Beatles songs (that is, unless you get permission of the copyright owner—and good luck with that!). But if you make a CD called J.D. Flattop Sings the Beatles, you can register an SR copyright covering the recording itself.

Let’s assume you’re filing a PA copyright to protect your composition. To register your song, you need to send three things to the copyright crew at the Library of Congress:

• a completed Form PA (if the material is all new and you’re the sole author, you may be able to use the Short Form PA);

• one or two complete copies of the work (sheet music, cassette, CD, etc.—read the deposit requirements carefully);

• a $45 fee (up from $30, as of July 1).

You can save some money by registering a group of unpublished songs as a collective work, as long as the authorship is the same for all of them. It is possible, too, to register a PA copyright and an SR copyright on one form (SR) if the copyright ownership is exactly the same for both; that would be the case if, for instance, you were releasing a CD of all-new guitar instrumentals that you wrote and are registering for the first time.

When you’re ready to send your registration materials, pack ’em well: The Copyright Office recommends sending everything in a box rather than an envelope, and putting CDs in regular-size, rather than slim, jewel boxes, to raise the odds that your materials survive the post–9/11 security screening process.

Once your package is received and found to be complete, the Copyright Office will send you a certificate of registration. It might take four months or longer to arrive, so what to do in the meantime? Play that song for others—and get started on your next opus.

Copyrighting Resources

U.S. Copyright Office
www.copyright.gov
Includes copyright basics, FAQ, and forms.

PD Info
www.pdinfo.com
Reference site for identifying music in the public domain.

Songfile
www.songfile.com
Copyright and licensing information on millions of published songs.

BMI Songwriter/Composer/Publisher Resources
www.bmi.com/songwriter/resources
Includes a page on songwriters and copyright.

This article also appears in Acoustic Guitar, Issue #168

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