Copyright and Songs

[mtelesha]

What are ways to copyright a song?

In my former life, I would simply mail my client songs in certified mail to keep their copyright. Never was an issue. My 11 year old song wrote a song and his piano teacher wants him to copyright the song. Granted it is an exceptional song regardless of his age.

[vurt]

google your own countries rules, some places the above is enough, others even publishing online, will give you a time and date.

[i need Help]

If you’re in the U.S., we finally have online copyright submission. Idk how well it works but it’s better than trudging to some government office lol.

https://www.copyright.gov/registration/

Also the whole bit about “You own the copyrights the second you create the work!”, which, sure I guess lol?

[JerGoertz]

In the US at least, simply expressing an artistic work in a fixed medium grants the creator copyright. I.e., once you've made it, it's yours. Now *proving* that you made it can be an issue, for which there are many solutions, some already mentioned. Filing a musical work with the US copyright office is a pretty ironclad option, although it does take a little time and money. It also allows for automatic damages if someone violates your copyright.

Edit: The poster above got their post in while I was typing this and basically says a lot of what I'm saying. I actually filed my first album online and it wasn't too bad.

[mixyguy2]

In the US at least, simply expressing an artistic work in a fixed medium grants the creator copyright. I.e., once you've made it, it's yours. Now *proving* that you made it can be an issue

Exactly, which is why it's pointless to consider it having a true copyright until you register it with the link above (for the U.S. at least). I think it's still just $35 and you can submit one song or a whole album/compilation or anything in between. Of course being the U.S. govt it's not exactly the most elegantly designed system, but