Registering In The Us Copywrite Office

[Grinder20132014]

Hi, I am a new music artist who creates my own materials and wishes to register in the US Copywrite office music and text pieces I created. My purpose is to prove that I am the creator of the pieces and would like to sell my creations worldwide in the future.

 

I would be thankful for anyone answering some questions I have regarding it:

1.      Is the US Copywrite office a good way to register my pieces or there is a better way to do it ?
 

2.      In the US Copywrite office site at this link there is information which I understand as a warning to new creators about solicitors who deliberately ask for data of recently registered creators and try to find resemblance to registered pieces and sue them. I would like to know if this is actually happening?

I ask this because I believe every artist is influenced and inspired in some way by (but not just) what he sees, reads, hear and generally exposed to. I can never know if a part of my creation has resemblance to some other creation if I am not familiar with it and since there are millions of music pieces, there are chances that some part of unrelated creation may have resemblance to another.

After seeing this information, it feels to me as if some companies with bad intentions are waiting to new creator at the corner of the alley to try and sue them for any resemblance that may be present, and it is not pleasant to feel that way. It makes me think maybe registering in the US office can be a bad experience. But it can also be that I interpreted what was written wrongly, thus I would appreciate your answers.
 

3.      In the US Copywrite office site at this link It says my personal details will be available to the public. How can I register in a way that my personal details (address, phone number) won't be available to the public, but will be available only to the US Copywrite office?

 

Thanks,

Grinder

[MikeRobinson]

You can find everything that you need (with regard to the United States) at http://www.copyright.gov, including the ability to register your works online.

 

Actually, the companies that are trolling these waters are doing so for a fairly legitimate purpose.  There is an extremely important legal principle known as the Doctrine of Laches, which basically says that you are required to be timely in asserting any claim, or you might forever lose the ability to make a claim.  Holders of important copyrights know that "the moment of registration" is an ideal time to detect an upcoming (commercially significant ...) infringement and to stop it before it happens ... or at least, to ask questions.

 

Not all of your personal details are made public.  Some details are requested so that the Copyright Office can contact you with any questions they might have, and they're understood to be nobody else's business.  Simply retrieve any entry to see what data is included in the public view.

Edited February 4, 2014 by MikeRobinson

[Grinder20132014]

Thank you for your answer, I better understand it now. 

 

More questions came up to me:

 

4.  I have various audio and text creations which are not related (i.e, there is no album that gather these creations). Can they all
     be registered together in order to save fee costs (currently it is 35$ online) ?
 

5.  Does registering means it will also protects the titles of my creation ?

Edited February 4, 2014 by Grinder20132014

[MikeRobinson]

The "collections" mechanism is simply a matter of administrative practicality.  For one registration fee, basically any number of works by the same author(s) (claimant(s)) can be registered at once.

 

The components of the collection can be of any appropriate form or forms; for example, a set of audio files plus lead sheets plus documents containing lyrics.  Whatever is appropriate.

 

The legal rights then apply severally to every component of the collection.  The notion of "a collection," in other words, is a pragmatic record-keeping device, meant to reduce the total number of claims that must be processed by the copyright office.  It doesn't alter the rights that you obtain – it just reduces paperwork and fees.

[Grinder20132014]

You cleared it up for me. Thank you very much.

[Grinder20132014]

Hi again,

I have just found a british website which registers ones work, which is called "copyright house" at decent prices with the benefit to update and continue registering future works with a fixed membership fee. I think it is supposed to be a private company.

 

1. Does any one have any experience with this company ?
2. Are there any benefits to registering at the US library of congress (U.S. Copyright Office) rather then a private company ?

[john]

I have no experience with them, however, for US jurisdiction it needs to be registered with the US copyright office. As the largest market is the US it makes sense to register there. I say "needs to be", but that is simply because the US courts place the highest faith in their own copyright service as a verifiable, I tampered with, place of registration. Quite simply you need to be registered to establish copyright within the US territories.

The UK has no need for formal copyright registration and has no central registration office. Private companies like the one you highlight offer this service as a means to help give a better level of proof of authorship within the UK courts. Funnily enough it has been suggested that Songstuff provides a similar service. In the UK copyright is established purely by the act of publication. I would not register my works with a private company over the US copyright service, or instead of, purely in addition to and only then with good reason.

Incidentally, different rules apply, at the US copyright office, regarding published and unpublished works and collections. While I believe that works can indeed be registered as part of a collection that is not available as a published collection, it is worth noting that only the name of the collection will be searchable using a registry database search, not the names of the individual tracks making up the collection.

My understanding for collections where a paper filing is presented, a physical cd or phonograph requires to be lodged... Which if the collection is not available is a bit of an issue. I don't think it makes a difference on digital submission.

Perhaps one of the lawyers on the site could provide the details of collections and physical/digital versions for proof of publication?

Cheers

John

[Grinder20132014]

Thanks John. I appreciate all the answers here and I got alot of helpfull information here. There are still questions of the US copyright (Library of congress) which after reading more, now confuse me. Reading more on this forum and other forums gets me with more diverse answers. For the benefit of myself, and I believe others, I will write them down and hope a laywer in this forum would be kind to help answering them and remove any doubts:

1. Can it be clearified if works (music, text,...) with no connection to each other of the same author can be registered all together for the cost of 1 form filling (35$ right now) ?
2. Practically, what does it mean a collection and why do I need to know about it ?
3. My work was published on Soundcloud, only about 200 people have heard it and there was only 1 download. I wish to register it. Is it considered published or unpublished work ?
4. A work is published on the internet (like www.SoundCloud.com) of a foreign autor from a PC located outside of USA. does US court regards it as a published or unpublished work ? 
5. Suppose I have published a work a year ago. Can I register it on a form of unpublished work ?    what is the benefit of registering my work on a published work filling form ?  
6. After I fill the registration I cannot delete any data, so I must be sure-how can I register in a way that my personal details (address, phone number) won't be available to the public, but will be available only to the US Copywrite office?  Can you please show the forms and mark the places in the forms where any details I fill will be private and available only to the library of congress ?
7. Can Common creative license of a work be changed to "all rights reserved" after it was published ?

Edited February 6, 2014 by Grinder20132014