Copyright Songs

The old "quick copyright" was just to us the US Postal system. Make a copy (recorded or written version) of the song and mail it to yourself and leave sealed.

Newer... post it on YouTube.

Of course... to actually copyright... one has to go through the agency.

((Edited to add: Intellectual theft is highly irritating, but it happens all the time. I've heard some of my husband's melodies on the radio played by someone he jammed with the year before... I have friends who've had stories stolen -one thing you'll notice about authors is that we almost never give out storylines before they've been published unless it's with an established character. There's no such thing as a new plot : boy meets girl, good guys chase bad guys, end of the world as we know it, etc.. but storylines are fingerprint like. A fairly notorious one is a college student who told her roommate about a short story she was writing, who then told her dad who told, who told,... and a 18mo later the short story was a tv show. The story had (fortunately) already been published at that point... but it was something of a mess legally speaking. Because while the storyline was the college girl's, thousands of man hours and hundreds of people... not to mention a team of writers, all working out of their own minds had created this show... so it wasn't considered theft. They didn't even have to put a "based on" tag at the beginning of the show because they settled.

Anyhow.. yeah... highly irritating to hear someone else playing a riff my husband created 10 years ago, but that's just one of the dangers of preforming arts. And they can do it, copy right or not, and legally, as long as the entire song isn't my H's. Because it falls under "influences". Art, like science, stands on the shoulders of others. At least, popular art does. Anything truly original gets booed offstage in the beginning at best. There is no piece of popular music that doesn't have it's roots in other popular music. Things people think of as original (like Stomp, for example, or Blues, or Elvis, etc.) all have strong influences from something else that is widely accepted that is just looked at in an innovative way.

People, including celebrities, will steal them if they are put anywhere online. So, it depends on her intent... will she want to turn it into a career, or create a fan following? If so, and she does not want to release her rights, she would need to copyright the songs. Copyright laws change all the time and are interpreted differently as well. However, the 'poor man's copyright' won't usually hold up in court, especially online, bc legal proceedings to prove it would be more expensive than getting the copyright.

Also, if people don't steal them, they can always create similar works and that may or may not be infringement, depending on what is done.

for instance wafflepwn and fred figglehorn have huge followings, and maybe even paid endorsements, but it doesn't appear they have any copyrights on their sight, though they do have some copiers:
http://www.youtube.com/user/wafflepwn
http://www.youtube.com/user/Fred

Of course, they have character portrayals as opposed to music, so it could be different.

At the very least, she can post a disclaimer stating something along the lines of:

Original works by {name}. All rights reserved. Do not use anything from this site without written permission and proper attribution.

I don't know if this holds true for music, but I have heard of a "Poor Man's Copyright" for written works: mail yourself a copy and NEVER open it. Mail it Certified Mail from the post office. The post mark is from a government agency and is dated, so if anyone publishes it thereafter or tries to take credit you have PROOF it is yours. Thing is, you would have to sue over it, then have the proof (the SEALED envelope with the original work in tact) with you in court so ONLY the judge opens it. (Mailing multiple copies just in case would be a good idea.) I don't know which would be more expensive: the copyright or the lawsuit. If a FAMOUS person publishes it, an attorney may take the case with the deal that whatever you win s/he will get a percentage.

The current law is that when new material is "published," that is, the first time it's released or performed in public, it's legally considered copyrighted, automatically. Keep a record of when this happens, written or on a dated video.

That won't prevent others from violating the copyright, however. If you want to prosecute for a violation, that's still a time-consuming and expensive process, unless you actually end up collecting for damages. I'm an artist, my husband is a writer, and we've both had our copyrights violated. Unfortunate, but that's life.

On the other hand, we're getting by financially on our work. We smile, feel gratitude, and get on with our creative efforts.

Copyright by post office does not work. You have to register with the Copyright Office and they will issue a certificate of registration to the owner. http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright. You may copyright musical compositions, including the lyrics of the song, sound recordings, including Web site audio transmissions and more that may not pertain to music.

Keep in mind, people still all kinds of copyright work all the time. They have no clue of the law suits involved in doing so. I want to say an infringement of copyrighted work is somewhere in the tune of $70,000.00 if a lawsuit is brought against someone.

Have you had someone listen to her play? Someone in the music industry? You will have to follow up with us to let us know how this goes so we can watch her grow.

Best wishes.

I would say it's completely necessary to copyright original material. Especially in music. I'm a writer and I make a point to copyright everything. All it takes is for one person who wants their name on that work to notice there is no copyright and it's theirs for the taking.You say you are making a video of your daughter singing one of her original songs. Do not post that video anywhere until that material has been copyrighted. All it takes is for one person in the music industry to see or hear that and they can steal it away right from under her with no repercussions for them. You can hear Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift singing that song on the radio within weeks. If it's not copyrighted, it's fair game. It's not fair but that's how they get what they want - money.

All of these answers are wrong.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf