How do you copyright your music?

Swe dmbfan · Post by **Swe dmbfan** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 11:48 pm

haha..

Beauford33 · Post by **Beauford33** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 11:55 pm

I dont know for sure. I think its on antsmarching.org though

Dan5290 · Post by **Dan5290** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:41 pm

I believe it was because the song and lyrics were too personal/emotional, he didn't want to cheapen them by putting fixed lyrics down. I think.

DT · Post by DT » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:17 pm

i did a 14 page research paper on this topic for a law class last semester... any time you record an original musical work in a tangible medium it inherently has a copyright. You have to prove when it was made, though, and registering a work with the government provides extra security and proof that the work is indeed yours. These cases happen more often than you would think, most of them just get settled out of court.

GuitarGuy305 · Post by **GuitarGuy305** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:37 pm

Something I've always wondered:

If you write a song in, say, 2001, but don't copyright it until 2005, is the song copyright Youre Name Here, 2001, or 2005?

As in, is the copyright effective when you say you wrote the song, or when you actually copyright it?

sunglassesatnight · Post by **sunglassesatnight** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:15 am

The Dreaming Tree wrote:i did a 14 page research paper on this topic for a law class last semester... any time you record an original musical work in a tangible medium it inherently has a copyright. You have to prove when it was made, though, and registering a work with the government provides extra security and proof that the work is indeed yours. These cases happen more often than you would think, most of them just get settled out of court.

Brock · Post by **Brock** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:18 am

GuitarGuy305 wrote:Something I've always wondered:

If you write a song in, say, 2001, but don't copyright it until 2005, is the song copyright Youre Name Here, 2001, or 2005?

As in, is the copyright effective when you say you wrote the song, or when you actually copyright it?

I believe that it is updated every year the work is changed. So, say you write the lyrics in 2001, make a lyric change in 2003, and copyright it in 2005, I think you could do Copyright 2001, 2003, 2005 (or just 2005).