[Copywriting]

Wow, considering this was a question not to be asked, it sure has got some answers   

By the way thank you all

[Copywriting]

No totally not the case. I actually post songs here to protect them. I will take you through the US system as I am guessing you are in that duristiction. If your not other Berne signatories are pretty similar the differences are procedural.

Point one any work has copyright automatically when it is created. There is no need to register the work.

Copyright protection exists whether you include a statement to that effect or not. The reason for using a

Copyright or phonocord statement symbol and date is to indicate to others that you are aware of your rights and may well peruse them.

Infringement

Unless you are wealthy in the United States and Australia owners of patents copyrights and trademarks would need to carry intellectual property insurance otherwise they would be unlikely to have the wear withal to mount a case.

Proof

Step one the court will not hear the case unless you can prove access. That is it the case goes no further unless you can show on the balance of probabilities that the infringer had access to the work the case closed. Does not matter if it's a direct knock off , if you can not prove access case is closed. That is why posting on sound click or sound cloud is so wonderful as evidence. A time stamped upload (proof of time of creation) a public arena proof of possible access. So you can get past stage one.

The next question of proof. Is to do with creation of the work. The evidence here is earlier drafts, work tapes, discussions on critique forums. Notes in your DAW as you worked the song up. There are dates on all these revisions in your computer system. These can be extracted and are good evidence of creation. Can the infringer show these workings, well he could if he could be bothered forging them but he would need a tech head to manipulate his computer. And it would be a lot of work. If a person is too lazy or so lacking in talent they can't write their own song are they going to be up to faking this? Highly unlikely. One thing they can not fake is the time stamp on the upload, unless they conspire with sys admin at click and cloud and sonsgtuff, plus all the members.

The next question for the court is substantial similarity this is a matter for expert witnesses a musicologist who will give evidence on which bits are substantially similar and what the contribution is to the work as a whole. A stupid myth is you can copy ten percent and get away with it. This is nonsense it is all about the contribution of the similar bits to the work. For example if the riff for jumping jack flash had been written by any other than Kieth Richards there would have been plagiarism of the riff from satisfaction. That would be under two percent of the work yet those riffs are central to the success of both works. The flash riff is a variation of the satisfaction riff and not a disticnt new work.

The next question is an opinion by qualified witnesses, musicologist to review other works and make a call as to whether it is plausible that you wrote the work.

The final question in the US only is that of intent as US courts award punitive damages. That is to say that if after they have ordered the infringer to remove all the plagiarised material from the market place and have it destroyed, and or remit all royalties and court costs to the court for payent to the injured party. If the court feels it was a deliberate act they will punish the offender by awarding you extra money in punitive damages. This amount is dependent on the means of the defendants if they are a multinational record company that could be several million dollars, if it's joe blow fron hickory hollows it could be $5,000.00 the idea is for it to hurt.

Now having said all this most judgements of unintended plagiarism are settled somewhere between these outcomes. In the Harrson case while royalties were handed over no destruction of the phonocord my sweet lord was ordered. In the Lennon case which was settled out of court additional royalties were generated by the rock and roll album to compensate the injured party. There was a subsequent action in that matter but it related to damage to artistic integrity by breach of contract. Which Lennon won with a four hundred odd grand punitive damage award.

Here endeth the copyright rant which is copyright BTW

Cheers

Gary

Thank you Gary, I am glad that you have replied so constructively to me, I was beginning to lose faith in this place. Thank you so much for your input

[Copywriting]

John & David have already handled your question, but I wanted to interject some different advice. Not so much for you, as for those who have asked and those who will ask....that same question over and over again on sites like ours.

 

My advice is simple....do not ask the question!

 

In the end, you satisfied your curiousity by doing a little research of your own, then reaching your own concusions. So....why didn't you simply do that to begin with?

Last year, I wrote an entire blog article called "Will My Songs Get Stolen?". I never posted it because I didn't wnat to risk offending members. That being said, I've pasted an exerpt from it below. Hopefully it explains the reasons for my advice.

 

"Ask yourself this........if you don't post your work online somewhere, exactly what do you think you're gonna do with it....stick it in a drawer & protect it from everyone and everything forever?

If that's the case, then why write it in the first place? Unless you're simply writing because you enjoy it.

But if that's the reason, then why would you be so concerned about it being stolen?

The bottom line is this........it's never a good question....ever!

Why?

- Because it immediately alienates folks who know more than yourself

- Advertises your inexperience & lack of knowledge about the functioning of the industry

- Makes you look a bit egotistical about your place in the overall scheme of things. Out of everyone here, you must think that yours is the most worthy of stealing...right?

- And most of all, because.....you're never gonna get an answer that makes you comfortable!

In the final analysis, you'll have to ask yourself....why you should trust a bunch of strangers online? Right?"

 

People.....please get a clue! We live in an age where professional writers and musicians can't make money from their own material. What in the world makes you think someone can make money from stealing yours?

 

Tom

 

So if people have questions....... anything? then this is not the place to ask? Is this not a community based forum? It seems to me that by your patronising response that only those who have a little experience are welcome here. 

[Copywriting]

What is to stop you taking a song by any famous band and passing it off as your own here?

Absolutely nothing. As soon as you put your music in the public arena, anywhere, including your local bar, anyone can take your song and pass it off as their own.

Why don't they?

Multiple reasons. The shame of being caught, because they would be. The threat of being sued, which is very real. It would likely be the end of their musical career. No one would trust them.

Okay but is that likely with a song posted on Songstuff?

Yes. We at Songstuff retain time stamped entries that would go towards constituting proof of authorship (based on who posted first is more likely the owner/author). That aside many authors have their work posted elsewhere too, which all goes towards a burden of proof.

Stronger proof than Songstuff, and many writers on Songstuff do this, and we definitely recommend it, is to register your works with the US copyright registration service. I would recommend this no matter what country you are in. Why? Because it is the biggest jurisdiction on the Internet, and because it is still a respected organisation worldwide.

 

 

Thanks I just looked at the registration thingy and it looks like it costs $35 to register and I thought, is what i wrote worth $35? nah lol No one would pay me that! lol Call me a cheapskate, I'll take my chance hehehe

[Copywriting]

The only fool-proof way to protect your work, is to never let anyone else know it.

So if something here made it big for someone else then it's just tough? No comebacks?

[Copywriting]

Hi, Just wondered, what is to stop any member taking a song posted and passing it off as their own on here? What can someone do to protect their work?