another copyright question....

my situation is that i have a song that will be on a compilation cd. the people putting it out will obviously copyright it. should i copyright it too? or does it only have to be copyrighted once as long as my name is on the work?

Copyright your stuff!!! At ALL TIMES!!!

Whoever has the copyright has control over the track.If you let them copyright it they can do whatever they want with it after that and there's nothin' you can do about it.Like Doc said......Copyright your stuff at all times!

yo Doc I was just peepin your stuff man. very nice (beats that is)

With taking the cheap route of copywriting( mailing to yourself) your stuff do you have to mail it any special way? Does it matter what carrier you use?

The only way, that will stand up in court, is to send material to library of congress, with proper form & payment.

Lord Toranaga wrote:The only way, that will stand up in court, is to send material to library of congress, with proper form & payment.

Does the song or beat has to be complete or just part of it?

ok...but if i just did the beat...do i need to copyright the song? can i copyright the song if i only did the beat?

You can only copyright what you created.If you didn't write the verses then you can't copyright them.Maybe if they give you permission?which i doubt they would.Just copyright your tracks and you'll be good.

you probably should not try to copywrite a beat that has recognizable samples.

true, it doesn't matter if the dude putting out the comp has copyright.. get your own.. this will allow you to get performance rights as well. If you live in Canada I would suggeest going to cancopy.com

also.. man i don't agree with not copywriting a beat if it has reconizable samples.. I would copywrite it anyways but wouldn't shop it unless the samples have been cleared.. I don't believe you get in trouble from just copywriting it. Remember the copywrite owner (guy who ur sampling) is the dude that has power over the samples.. and he isn't gonna restrict or sue unless that shit is worthwhile.. copywrite it now, clear samples later if the beat is making it big. You can get a whole cd of beats copywrited at the same time. Correct me if I'm wrong

so...it's possible for a "work" to have more than one person/entity owning the copyright?

for example: me and the company putting out the compilation????????

hhmmm, I believe so.. I could be wrong though. But I do know that the complilation could own the publishing.. or part of the publishing while you still own the song as either producer or songwriter or both.

If you and your company are putting out the work you could set it up so your company is collecting all the publishing royalties, in which case your company is your own publishing company.. which seems to me like the thing to do since publishing companies don't "shop" your tunes like they use to.