COPYRIGHTS
and
COMPOSER'S
ROYALTIE$
We have received many questions
about
Copyrights and Composer's Royalties
so we decided to add a page to help
clear up some common misconceptions
and answer some frequently asked questions.
1. To copyright a composition, you need to
fill out the appropriate application, (Form PA for a work of the Performing
Arts or Form SR for a Sound Recording) make a cassette tape of the song
or songs and mail them along with a check for $30 to the Register Of Copyrights
at the Library Of Congress in Washington D.C. Merely stating or posting
on your web site that a work is copyrighted (©) does not register
the copyright. Mailing a copy to yourself, commonly known as "The Poor
Man's Copyright", should be called the "Poor Fool's Copyright". What if
you lose it or it gets opened by mistake? How well would a self addressed
envelope stand up in a Court Of Law, compared to a completed and returned
Copyright Registration Form? The wisest thing to do is register the copyright
of your work before you post it on your web site, or submit it to anyone
. All the information you need, and downloadable forms can be found at
: U.S. Copyright Office Home
Page . To have forms and information mailed to you, call the Forms
And Publications Hotline 24 hours a day, (202) 707-9100, and leave a recorded
message, or write:
Publications Section,
LM-455
Copyright Office
Library Of Congress
Washington, D.C.
20559-6000
To speak to an information specialist
to find out which form to use or to request further information, call (202)707-3000
or (202)707-6737 between 8:30 and 5:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Monday
to Friday.
2. To collect Composer's Royalties due to
you from your work being played on Radio, TV, Movies, Videos, Jukeboxes,
Web Sites, and in Concerts & Night Clubs, etc., you need to join a
Performing Rights Organization such as BMI
or ASCAP.
They collect monies from these sources who are required to log which songs
are being played, and calculate on a pro rata basis how much is your share.
Artists who record your songs are required to secure Mechanical Rights
(unless you sell the songs to them outright). RACo
Records Staff Writers Rick
Alexander and Cathe
St. Jean are BMI affiliates. To telephone BMI for information, call
(615)401-2724 (Nashville, TN), (310)659-9109 (Los Angeles, CA), or (212)586-2000
(New York, NY)
3. To license your Web Site for Performance
of BMI and ASCAP material, follow these links - BMI.com
ASCAP's Calculator
for the ASCAP Online License Agreement To find out about obtaining
Mechanical Licenses (the right to create an Audio Recording, MIDI File,
or other reproduction) for most popular songs, check out The
Harry Fox Agency, Inc. Many people think that it's legal to post MIDI
or Audio files of Copyrighted Songs on their Web Sites as long as they
are not charging for it. They are mistaken - it is
illegal to post Copyrighted Material without permission from the Copyright
Owner, and doing so can leave a Web Site Owner liable for Lawsuits
and even Criminal Prosecution.
4. The US Copyright Office is now accepting Standard MIDI Files on Floppy
Disks and CD ROMs. MIDI Files are now considered Sound Recordings, and
form SR should be used for this, unless just the Composition itself is
being copyrighted, in which case form PA should be used.
We
hope this will help you, and if you have any questions
or
problems, you are welcome to e-mail us . . . . . . .