Copyright Law Explained
The Basic Principle
The international laws relating to song copyright state that your songs are your creative work and your property. This legal principle of ownership means that the writer controls and owns all rights relating to the use and reproduction of the song - including the right to sell or assign the copyright and ownership to another individual or company. This is the law under international legal agreements and it is the basic principle of copyright that is accepted throughout the world. Most countries have formalised the principles of copyright outlined above by signing up to an international agreement known as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. It was first adopted in 1886 as an agreement to honour the rights of all authors who are nationals of countries that are party to the convention. The current version of the convention is the Paris Act of 1971.
The convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). A search on the internet will show a number of sites with up to date lists of the countries that have signed. This international agreement provides legal protection to the authors of original works where these works have been presented in a tangible, fixed and physical form of expression.This agreement makes it very clear that as soon as your song, music or lyrics are written down, or recorded as a sound recording, they are automatically copyrighted and the writer(s) has/have full legal ownership.
This is a very important point. It is not enough to compose a song in your head and keep it in your memory - it must also exist in a physical and tangible form, a form that others can see or hear, for the copyright rules to apply. So under the Berne Convention you officially and legally own the copyright in your work as soon as you express it in a tangible and verifiable form. This protection applies to both published and unpublished works.
Song Titles
People often ask if song titles are copyright protected. The answer is no. Song titles are not protected under copyright law. Anyone and everyone is free to write and publish a song with the title "Yesterday" or "Imagine" or "My Way" for example. There are many thousands of different songs that share exactly the same titles.
Copyright Proof, Theft and Protection
As discussed above: Under the Berne Convention there is no legal requirement for writers to register work with any official body as ownership is automatic. Under international law, copyright is the automatic right of the creator of a work. As soon as you write down a song or make a recording, it's copyrighted. But in order to enforce this copyright you need to be able to prove your ownership. This is where problems arise. If you don't register your song this may cause problems if someone copies your song and tries to pass it off as their own. Unfortunately this can happen to any composer or songwriter at any time and the risks today, with widespread access to music on the internet and mobile devices, are greater than ever before. If this happens to you it will be necessary to prove that you wrote the work in question and this may be difficult if the song was not registered.
If someone hears your song on the internet or reads the lyrics on a website, or your neighbour overhears you composing it in your home, or your band plays it at gig, or you enter it in a competition, someone could easily decide to copy it and pass it off as their own composition. Copyright theft happens every day and copyright registration may provide the insurance that you need to help you protect your valuable creative work and enforce your legal rights.
Poor man's copyright - mailing a song to yourself
Most songwriters have heard about the practice of recording or writing down a song, placing it in an envelope and mailing it to yourself by registered mail. Because it's registered mail it gets an official post office seal on it, complete with the date. This used to be a popular method of establishing proof of ownership of a song and it became known as "poor man's copyright" because it doesn't cost very much. The idea is that, provided the seal with the date on it is never broken (in other words no one has opened the envelope) the post date on the stamp serves as proof that the song was written before the date on the seal. This makes sense and many writers still use this method today. But the fact is that use of this method may not hold up in a court as it is very simple for lawyers to argue that that an envelope's seal can be carefully unsealed and resealed and individuals can pre-send envelopes which can then be used later by placing the materials inside. The general current opinion is that this method is fallible and wide open to attack from the opposing side in a court case and it is not usually recommended.
Arrangements and Copyright Law
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following was writen BEFORE the March 2015 court ruling in the Marvin Gaye Estate V Robin Thicke, T.I. and Pharell Williams “Blurred Lines” case. That ruling, and the appeals to follow, may change things and we will update this section when the dust settles.
There is sometimes confusion among songwriters about what aspects of a song are relevant regarding copyright but the accepted convention that would normally be upheld in a court of law is that song copyright consists in the melody and lyrics of a song. All other aspects, for example arrangements, production, chord progressions, backing tracks etc are not normally part of the song copyright. Dr Richard Niles, a top arranger, producer, musicologist and copyright expert says: "Having testified in many copyright cases, the only elements of a song that are legally relevant are the melody and the lyrics. As an arranger for 40 years, I know you cannot copyright a chord progression or an arrangement, which is what a backing track is. On its own, it's a composition and whatever bass lines, riffs and melodies are elements of that instrumental composition. Once there is a melody & lyric, it becomes a song, and if the melody uses no melodic elements of the track, the writer of the melody and lyric is the songwriter and the creator of the track is the producer and arranger. Arrangers do not receive royalties unless they write an arrangement of a public domain work. In the eyes of the law, the songwriter and publisher own the rights to every note an arranger writes." For more details see Richard Niles' blog article Arrangers and the Royalty Issue where he discusses the Sting and Puff Daddy "Every Breath You Take" case and the recent Marvin Gaye estate, Robin Thicke, T.I. and Pharell Williams “Blurred Lines” case.
Return soon for updates on the current situation regarding arrangements and song copyright law.
The international laws relating to song copyright state that your songs are your creative work and your property. This legal principle of ownership means that the writer controls and owns all rights relating to the use and reproduction of the song - including the right to sell or assign the copyright and ownership to another individual or company. This is the law under international legal agreements and it is the basic principle of copyright that is accepted throughout the world. Most countries have formalised the principles of copyright outlined above by signing up to an international agreement known as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. It was first adopted in 1886 as an agreement to honour the rights of all authors who are nationals of countries that are party to the convention. The current version of the convention is the Paris Act of 1971.
The convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). A search on the internet will show a number of sites with up to date lists of the countries that have signed. This international agreement provides legal protection to the authors of original works where these works have been presented in a tangible, fixed and physical form of expression.This agreement makes it very clear that as soon as your song, music or lyrics are written down, or recorded as a sound recording, they are automatically copyrighted and the writer(s) has/have full legal ownership.
This is a very important point. It is not enough to compose a song in your head and keep it in your memory - it must also exist in a physical and tangible form, a form that others can see or hear, for the copyright rules to apply. So under the Berne Convention you officially and legally own the copyright in your work as soon as you express it in a tangible and verifiable form. This protection applies to both published and unpublished works.
Song Titles
People often ask if song titles are copyright protected. The answer is no. Song titles are not protected under copyright law. Anyone and everyone is free to write and publish a song with the title "Yesterday" or "Imagine" or "My Way" for example. There are many thousands of different songs that share exactly the same titles.
Copyright Proof, Theft and Protection
As discussed above: Under the Berne Convention there is no legal requirement for writers to register work with any official body as ownership is automatic. Under international law, copyright is the automatic right of the creator of a work. As soon as you write down a song or make a recording, it's copyrighted. But in order to enforce this copyright you need to be able to prove your ownership. This is where problems arise. If you don't register your song this may cause problems if someone copies your song and tries to pass it off as their own. Unfortunately this can happen to any composer or songwriter at any time and the risks today, with widespread access to music on the internet and mobile devices, are greater than ever before. If this happens to you it will be necessary to prove that you wrote the work in question and this may be difficult if the song was not registered.
If someone hears your song on the internet or reads the lyrics on a website, or your neighbour overhears you composing it in your home, or your band plays it at gig, or you enter it in a competition, someone could easily decide to copy it and pass it off as their own composition. Copyright theft happens every day and copyright registration may provide the insurance that you need to help you protect your valuable creative work and enforce your legal rights.
Poor man's copyright - mailing a song to yourself
Most songwriters have heard about the practice of recording or writing down a song, placing it in an envelope and mailing it to yourself by registered mail. Because it's registered mail it gets an official post office seal on it, complete with the date. This used to be a popular method of establishing proof of ownership of a song and it became known as "poor man's copyright" because it doesn't cost very much. The idea is that, provided the seal with the date on it is never broken (in other words no one has opened the envelope) the post date on the stamp serves as proof that the song was written before the date on the seal. This makes sense and many writers still use this method today. But the fact is that use of this method may not hold up in a court as it is very simple for lawyers to argue that that an envelope's seal can be carefully unsealed and resealed and individuals can pre-send envelopes which can then be used later by placing the materials inside. The general current opinion is that this method is fallible and wide open to attack from the opposing side in a court case and it is not usually recommended.
Arrangements and Copyright Law
IMPORTANT NOTE: The following was writen BEFORE the March 2015 court ruling in the Marvin Gaye Estate V Robin Thicke, T.I. and Pharell Williams “Blurred Lines” case. That ruling, and the appeals to follow, may change things and we will update this section when the dust settles.
There is sometimes confusion among songwriters about what aspects of a song are relevant regarding copyright but the accepted convention that would normally be upheld in a court of law is that song copyright consists in the melody and lyrics of a song. All other aspects, for example arrangements, production, chord progressions, backing tracks etc are not normally part of the song copyright. Dr Richard Niles, a top arranger, producer, musicologist and copyright expert says: "Having testified in many copyright cases, the only elements of a song that are legally relevant are the melody and the lyrics. As an arranger for 40 years, I know you cannot copyright a chord progression or an arrangement, which is what a backing track is. On its own, it's a composition and whatever bass lines, riffs and melodies are elements of that instrumental composition. Once there is a melody & lyric, it becomes a song, and if the melody uses no melodic elements of the track, the writer of the melody and lyric is the songwriter and the creator of the track is the producer and arranger. Arrangers do not receive royalties unless they write an arrangement of a public domain work. In the eyes of the law, the songwriter and publisher own the rights to every note an arranger writes." For more details see Richard Niles' blog article Arrangers and the Royalty Issue where he discusses the Sting and Puff Daddy "Every Breath You Take" case and the recent Marvin Gaye estate, Robin Thicke, T.I. and Pharell Williams “Blurred Lines” case.
Return soon for updates on the current situation regarding arrangements and song copyright law.