I am curious to know if anyone is registering there songs
and if so are you registering thru US copyright or other means.
Has anyone used services provided by Taxi and what kind success have you had.

Thanks
Bobby

As I'm in the UK I can't speak for the laws of copyright in the USA. I know that in our UK Common Law (i.e. not in statutes but buttressed by precedent and just as strong, if not stronger) you have automatic copyright of your artistic creations, i.e. you don't have to do anything proactive to register your ownership. Having said that, if something goes awry later and you need to action against someone for infringement it will be of enormous, if not vital, assistance to have positive proof of your ownership, e.g. a dated lodgement of the words, music and a recording with a solicitor (lawyer). There are also web sites that offer such services such as 'Protect My Work' if you really want to set your mind at rest.

John

Bobby, Here is a website that you may want to look at - -> http://myfreecopyright.com. If I understand it correctly this site does not give you the right to sue for damages if someone makes money off your song without your permission but it will prove that it is your song and keep them from using it in the future. You can registering thru US copyright for a fee and get full protection. I used the http://myfreecopyright.com myself. I don't want to pay for something that I may never need or use.

Hope this helps.
Steve

I did one of these "digital fingerprint services" a few years ago... I forget the name... but I actually did pay a fee, I think about 40 bucks. Being quick and easier than doing the formal copyright thing.

I would register songs and they would remain in their repository.
Everytime I checked, they were still there .... About a year went by. ... I didn't write any songs ... no creativity... but decided to "look at the songs in my vault".

The site didn't exist anymore. I would be very skeptical about any of these services. I don't think they want to steal anyones music. Maybe it just wasn't as profitable as they would have liked, so they just shut the site down.


Think i am gonna just do it the "old fashioned way" from now on.


Also I might mention that if you belong to a songwriting club, you can play your song for them, and give them a sheet with your song written on it and ask them to critique your song, make comments on the sheet, and sign and date it and give it back to you. That would also be a good matter of record which would cost you nothing.

superkristen

The Library of Congress will only charge $35 if you submit an mp3 file and a .rtf or .doc file over the internet. It's really pretty easy. You get a registration number right away and a certificate in about a month. The proof of ownership (or at least possession) is immediate.

absolutely.

I registered one of my songs with the UK Copyright Service – UKCS

It was quick, cheap, easy and I still have the certificate to prove it.

Contact : infodesk@copyrightservice.co.uk

It is my understanding that for the 35 bucks to the US Library of Congress, one can submit a "group" of songs. You could, for example, name your submission "The songs of" or "the works of", followed by your name. At any point if a publisher or an artist wants to "use" just ONE of those songs, you can then pay another 35 and get a copywrite for that ONE song that you extracted from the group. I think the deal is that even though the songs are fully protected AS A GROUP you still cannot give permission for someone to "use" one of those songs until it is INDIVIDUALLY copywrited. Personally, I think it is a great way to protect ones songs, and yet not "tie them up" in case someone is ever interested in one of your songs. Hope this is helpful. You should be able to "read up" on all this at the Library of Congress website. You might also want to google "Creative Commons", which is completely free, and look into that as well.

I've used official copyright also, and it does save a little to submit as a collection; whole CD $35.

As I understand it, if you do that you can still grant rights to use of just one song, but you need to be more specific when doing so or the whole collection culd be used. At which point it is often better to get an additional single copyright to avoid the hassles.

Let's face it, we want to protect more songs than are going to sell. So save a little by doing the initial copyright as a collection until someone expresses interest. Then another $35 is well worth the effort.