Copyright My Songs

I am trying to find out how to copyright my lyrics I have wrote 300 songs but I want to copyright them before i start singing them every where.

As far as I know, you already owe copyrights to all your songs and everything you create by your own - so you don't have to do something special to obtain these copyrights. If you're concerned with the possibility that someone can say that your text belongs to some other person, you can go some notarial service and try to register printed materials, to get some prior registration day.
I suppose you may find lots of answers here: http://www.copyright.gov - information of US copyright office.

You can do a poor man's copyright....make copies of your songs and mail them back to yourself and don't open them. By doing this the post office will stamp it with a date. It's not 100% gauranteed - BUT it's better than nothing at all. They can look at the date for when it was done. Typically, once the pen/pencil is done with the work it's copyrighted. The absolute best way is to copyright your songs with The Library of Congress. You do have to pay a fee to do this - usually about $30 - but it is 100% effective if someone comes behind you and claims that "they" wrote it and not you.
I do both

Hope this helps???

dj writer

Hi,
I was recently doing exactly thhe same. I agree with the best of the best solution being the USCO, but if you have lots and lots of songs to copyright, this can be very expensive and it takes 6 months.

I think the best way to copyright songs is to use http://www.provemycopyright.com where you only pay for an account, not per song.

Never use the "Poor mans copyright" as that has never stood up in court, because it's not independent.

Originally Posted by bobthedog

Hi,
I was recently doing exactly thhe same. I agree with the best of the best solution being the USCO, but if you have lots and lots of songs to copyright, this can be very expensive and it takes 6 months.

I think the best way to copyright songs is to use http://www.provemycopyright.com where you only pay for an account, not per song.

Never use the "Poor mans copyright" as that has never stood up in court, because it's not independent.

Funny how it's worked for a good number of years in Britain

You could also try using http://www.digiprove.com - it's a way to prove you own the copyright without having to upload your work to the site (it uses digital fingerprinting technology).

The "poor man's copyright" and at least one of the other methods mentioned above may make you feel better but they absolutely won't work should you ever need to prove ownership in a court of law.

For example: Mailing a lyric to yourself and keeping it unopened as "proof" (known as the poor man's copyright") seems like it would be infallible but is, in fact, is 100% fallible and totally unacceptable in a court of law in any country. Why?

Because you could have mailed an unsealed letter to yourself in 1978, hand copied Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" lyric when it was released in 1983, put it in the unsealed-but-stamped-by-the-post-office letter, then seal it and take it to court claiming you wrote it.

Obviously that method is totally worthless.

I would highly advise you to read the free article:

How to Copyright Your Song at this link: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Bill_E_Watson

Just scroll down and you'll see it.

T

KarenH, thanks for the tip, Digiprove is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Good find!

That's just copyrighting the words. If you perform the song, you'll come up against people who think intellectual copyright doesn't exist, so music can just be copied freely by whoever wants it without the producer receiving any return.

A great service that i use to Copyright lyrics, poems, music and photos is CopyrightsWorld.com

Its realy cheap, and acconding to my lawyer extremely valid as it provides multilevel proofs of ownership.

You can see how it works here: http://www.copyrightsworld.com/en/help/howitworks/

Hope that helps

Ted

Hi,

I am curently using CopyrightsWorld.com service as well.
they rock and they have great support!

+1

I had 75 of my songs copywritten just last year for only $30. The Library of Congress charges $30 a song/entry, but I did my lyrics as one collection so it counts as one entry. Poor Man's Copyright isn't very secure nowadays. If your lyrics are important to you then spend the $30 it takes to get an official, unbreakable copyright.

http://www.copyright.gov/

If you have any other questions, i'd be glad to help.

Yeah, I've been wondering this...I just joined these guys the other day www.Smashcopyright.com, really easy and pretty affordable too. Unlimited submissions for $75.
Cheers

It says that you have to pay $30 plus a $105 fee. Is that right?

Originally Posted by SJ.Stevens

I had 75 of my songs copywritten just last year for only $30. The Library of Congress charges $30 a song/entry, but I did my lyrics as one collection so it counts as one entry. Poor Man's Copyright isn't very secure nowadays. If your lyrics are important to you then spend the $30 it takes to get an official, unbreakable copyright.

http://www.copyright.gov/

If you have any other questions, i'd be glad to help.

The copyright fee is $ 35 and true ; you can get a collection of your lyrics done at one time. All you have to do is put them in volumes with a number on it like volume 1 for the first on and volume two would be the next collection you copyright. this way the $ 35 is well worth paying because of the amount you can do at one time. This is the way I do all my copyright. It takes a while to get your certificate like up to 8 weeks depending on how busy they are.

No. I uploaded my document online(which is cheaper), paid the $30, and within a few months I got my copyright. Just $30; no other fees unless you mail it in instead.

If I remember correctly, it took about 7 months for me to get my copyright in hand. They were really backed up when I applied. Hopefully it'd only take 8 weeks, but unfortunately that wasn't the case when I did it. It usually says on their website how long they expect it to take.

Yes, I was talking about the mail in. And I also stated that it depends on how busy they are for the waiting time to get your certificate. So , we are both right; by the two different ways that we stated.

As i get notifications on this thread, i would like to let you know about my experience so far (almost 2 years later) with CopyrightsWorld.com

OK, these people are great. They have lowered their prices (they were already cheap) and we get our cerifications mail to our doorsteps every single time. With 35$ i get tons of creations protected. And their support, works! Looks like they know their stuff.

I highly recommend them!

Just that!

Originally Posted by SJ.Stevens

I had 75 of my songs copywritten just last year for only $30. The Library of Congress charges $30 a song/entry, but I did my lyrics as one collection so it counts as one entry. Poor Man's Copyright isn't very secure nowadays. If your lyrics are important to you then spend the $30 it takes to get an official, unbreakable copyright.

http://www.copyright.gov/

If you have any other questions, i'd be glad to help.

I am going to copywright all of my lyrics that I have co-authored with my husband and I saw that I can do it online for $35. It says that they charge per title though, so my question is, did you submit all of your works as one title to avoid the extra fees? Do you think this is the best way to do it? Thanks.