Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker
Copyright is all about one thing.
It provides an official date of creation and who created it.


You are absolutely wrong. Article 1 Section 8:

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The Congress shall have Power…

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;




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That said, the library of Congress is the registration that a court requires to bring a lawsuit.


Half wrong. Published works only.

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With the internet and computers, everything posted online has data tagged to it that shows date of creation of that file.


So what? The Federal Court System has yet to accept this. Search BMI in Justia.com.

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In addition to this, there are several companies that are providing a service that dates the files on secured servers. One such is the software company MasterWriter. It's a lyric writing package which includes a registration service.


Barry DeVorzon's service is one of many out there. Unpublished works only.


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One of the publishing companies I have dealt with that placed my music in films and TV, and yes, I got performance royalty checks for that from BMI, told me to not worry about copyright. They were handling that. And they did. For that reason, and others, I don't worry about the copyright for my music.

With Unpublished works, it's ok not to be worried. There's no requirement to register and, if you get ripped off, that's your concern alone.

That the PROs might pay performance royalties without a Form PA Published is not a secret and how they handle this is their affair (the Consent Decree does not require this). However, they cannot initiate a suit on your behalf if your rights are violated without it—and only if the performance occurs after the registration date on the certificate. Again, not knowing this has cost some writers millions of dollars. While you might get paid—always a good thing—the fact is that you do not have the right to be paid without the correct registration.

Red flag here: Is an experienced songwriter really implying that your publishers don't file the correct Copyright forms on your music? It is the publisher's obligation to do so and your lack of knowledge on this subject (real or pretend) is appalling.

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Yep.... I realize that this might ruffle the feathers of some in this business, but you are also free to do this any way that allows you to sleep restfully at night.


As long as those reading know that you are giving some bad advice, how can feathers get ruffled?

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