Copyrights

[ LiB ]

Copyrights

Song thieves aren't nearly as common as most people might worry, but they do exist. Songs are worth money. Here you'll learn how to protect your prized possessions. We will also cover the options of not worrying too much about copyright.

I see artists spending a lot more time worrying about this than they probably need to. I actually see people who have yet to create anything worrying about how they're gonna protect this thing that they might come up with sooner or later. I find that this is common among the wannabes: They will do anything but get down to it, roll up their sleeves, and work .

But you ain't a wannabe. How do I know? Because the $30 School books ain't for wannabes. There were probably plenty of books on the same shelf in the bookstore next to this one that offered overnight success. Those books exist only for the commerce of helping books. They don't help people become stars. Or artists.

So if you're reading this book, I can properly assume that you're a sensible person who is not afraid of a little work. So you will understand that it's putting the pipe before the crack to worry too much about copyrights before you've actually writ ten anything to copyright.

But if you have started writing songs, then you're ready.

Here's my experience on the matter: I've put out 12 or 13 records (I can't even remember exactly how manythat should give you some insight into how much more I am a process-oriented artist than I am a goal-oriented artist). Most of these records have been on small cool indie labels. A couple I put out myself . The first one I even had a party with friends to put the covers together. One was on a major label. So you can see I've done pretty much every kind of record deal that it is possible to do. And I've never had anyone steal a song in any way. It ain't that much of a worry. And I've written some great songs. People just don't really steal much. There is too much vanity probably people have their own ideas, there are a million ideas out there and why would someone bother stealing a song? I don't even know anyone who's had it happen.

Now I should probably cover a bit here of what is actually copyrightable.

What Is Not Covered by Copyright?

Ideas are not covered by copyright. If I do a concept album about the phases of the moon or a musical about the mating habits of the Nutria rats of Louisiana swamps, you can too, and I can't stop you.

Titles of songs and records are not covered by copyright. There are a hundred songs called "I Love You" and a dozen called "Money." Titles of huge-selling records might be covered by trademark ( especially if done in conjunction with a movie release), but that's not going to be a problem for you. Band names , as we have seen, are covered by trademark. But not copyright.

What Is Covered?

Works of art and intellectual property: songs. Melodies and lyrics. Collections of songs. Arrangements of songs. CDs of samples to be used to create new music. The individual samples themselves . Movies. Screenplays. Software. Photographs. Books. Magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, poems, plays, articles (even on the Internet). Anything written and published.

How Long Does a Copyright Last?

The life of the author plus 50 years .

After this time, they enter what is called public domain, which means that it's fair play to be covered without paying the writer royalties.

Not everything you'd think would be public domain actually is. "Happy Birthday to You" is owned by Michael Jackson. He also, somehow, owns the Beatles' songs. (Don't get me started on that.)

How Do You Get a Copyright?

Unlike patents and trademarks, which have to be granted by the government, you grant copyrights to yourself simply by putting a copyright notice on the art and then publishing it. A copyright notice consists of the little c in a circle copyright symbol ( ) and/or the word copyright , then the year and your name . Like:

2003 Michael W. Dean

or

Copyright 2003 Michael W. Dean

or

Copyright 2003 Michael W. Dean

Any of these three is acceptable. Then you publish it. This can mean either making copies of it or putting it on the Internet. Both constitute publishing. You just have to make multiple copies of it and make it available to the public.

The U.S. government will, however, register a copyright. And this is worth doing. The easiest way to do this is to copyright a collection of songs at the same time. This costs $20, and all you do is send in a cassette tape or a CD of the songs (you could also send a data CD with the lyrics on there in electronic format for extra protection). You can get all the forms to do so from the Library of Congress site: www.loc.gov/copyright.

There is a rumor that you can do a "poor man's copyright," which consists of mailing a tape to yourself and then later, if needed, using the postmark date to establish first authorship. This is not very airtight, as it's too easy to just alter a piece of mail. The government is better.

Some countries honor the copyrights of other jurisdictions. Some do not. Check your local laws if you are not in the U.S. And keep in mind that if you are in the U.S., your copyright may not apply in other countries.

There are several private organizations, like ProtectRight.com, that claim to be able to do the same thing that the government does, as far as keeping a copy on hand for a fee, but since the fee is the same as the government price, I go directly to the source, the U.S. Copyright office.

Figure 14.2. Library of Congress site.

graphic/14fig02.gif


Publishing Rights

This is that weird bit of commerce voodoo that is extremely complicated and beyond the scope of this book. If you get signed to a major label, your lawyer will be glad to explain it to you and charge you $350 an hour to do so. They did that to me, and I'm smart, and I didn't get it. I do know that I got small checks (like 200 bucks a pop, three times a year) in the mail for a few years after I got dropped from Warner Brothers. After a while, they tapered off. We did get a publishing advance, which is basically you betting the company that you'll fail. We won, because we didn't sell that many records (about 10,000 of the Warner Brothers record). That's nothing on a major label, and they gave us a $65,000 advance. Of course, after that was split with the band, the lawyer, the manager, and all, it worked out to minimum wage.

The Flip Side

You don't really have to deal with copyrights and all that crap at all. Dischord Records does not copyright their work. Sometimes the individual bands do, but the label does not add a copyright. When you sell your art through most media corporations, the corporation, not the artist, owns the copyright. Look at the copyright in the beginning of this book. It's not in my name; it's in the name of Muska & Lipman. This is something you usually are asked to give up in exchange for a good advance.

Dischord works more like a repository or public library for documenting music they love, rather than a conventional media concern. And their two biggest selling bands, Minor Threat (who sold over a half-million copies of one recordan amazing number for an indie label) and Fugazi have never charged anyone for covering their music. And they're covered by everyone from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to Slayer to Silverchair. Bands that sell millions . Dischord is not interested in dealing with the commercial trappings of art, just the art itself, but somehow they do commercially better than most indie and some major labels. And actually pay health insurance for all their employees .

I am somewhere in the middle. I throw a copyright notice on everything I do (unless a company pays me to let them own the copyright [2.] ), but I never really bother much beyond that. I have never registered a copyright with the Copyright office. I was a member of ASCAP (a performing rights organization that allegedly collects royalties due to musicians and takes a tax off the top for doing so) but only because I was dumb and on a major label and my lawyer told me to. I dunno seems like a lot of paperwork to me. (If you contact www.ascap.com or www.bmi.com, I'm sure either will give you a compelling case for how they will try to get you lots of money).

[2.] It may seem antithetical to the thesis of this book to do so, but it's really not. Muska not only lets me print pretty much anything I want, they provide excellent editorial support and get my books into stores everywhere that I could probably not get them into on my own. Their editors are really smart and close to my ethic and don't dilute me. They work with me, back and forth, making suggestions for small changes in focus that only make my words stronger without diluting my intent. Being able to take suggestions is part of the growing- up process, in my book.

If you want to play that game, feel free. It doesn't interest me at this point in my life though.

To Wind Up So Far

Protect yourself, but don't trip on it too much. As we said at the end of the last chapter, the music should always come first. Everything else is just administration.

[ LiB ]


[d]30 Music School
The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1)
ISBN: 1592001718
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 138

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net