How To Copyright 01 Introduction
In simple terms the copyright of your music is your way of protecting it and your ownership of it. It's a legal right, and like most legal things it's not that straight-forward. But it's not that difficult either and it's useful to understand it.
Exploiting your rights as a copyright owner is how you make your money as a songwriter.
This section takes you through copyright, including:
-The different types
-Copyright protection
-Your rights
-Publishing and copyright
-Moral rights
-Copyright of recordings
-Performers' rights
02 Copyright in Songs/Compositions
With songs, there are two different forms of copyright which run along side each other.
The first covers the actual composition of the song. This is the copyright of the actual words and music.
The copyright is automatic and belongs to the writer or writers of the song as soon as it comes out of their head and is put into some kind of recorded form. This could be recording it on tape, CD, DAT etc, or it could be writing out the lyrics and music on paper.
The second form of copyright is the copyright in an actual recording. We'll cover that later in this section.
The different types
-Copyright protection
-Your rights
-Publishing and copyright
-Moral rights
-Copyright of recordings
-Performers' rights
03 Copyright Protection
These copyrights are automatic. Many people talk of 'copyrighting' a song but this isn't really accurate.
Copyright is a thing you have not a thing you do - and you have it from the moment you've written the music.
In the UK music copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the writer, so it's something you can pass on to your grandchildren.
You may need to prove you are the copyright owner if there's a dispute over the ownership of a song. For example, if in a few years someone releases a song with lyrics that are extremely similar to yours, and you believe that they've actually nicked them, you will need to prove that you wrote them first.
The easiest way to protect your copyright is to send yourself a copy of your material by recorded delivery. Remembering to do the following:
Put a note inside of when and where the material was recorded, a list of performers on the recording, and the names of writers of the song. Include their addresses.
Make sure that you write the name of the song on the outside of the package.
Get the post office to date stamp across the seal.
Don't open the package when it arrives, just put it somewhere safe.
You don't necessarily need a recording, a manuscript of the music and a lyric sheet will do.
04 Your Rights as the Owner
As the owner or owners of a copyright, you have a number of rights set down in law. Among them are:
The right to perform the song in public or for a recording of it to be played in public or broadcast (the performance rights)
The right to make copies of the song for sale (the mechanical copyright)
The right not to have your music treated derogatorily - e.g. it being used in the soundtrack to a porn film
The right to be credited as the owner (so no-one else can claim to own it)
The last two of these are moral rights, which we'll cover later.
Money
The first two rights are what generate money on behalf of the songwriters.
Every time a song is performed live, recorded, or when a CD or vinyl copy of a recording is made for sale, the writers are due some money, known as a royalty.
This applies whether you perform or record the song yourself or if someone else does a cover version.
Over time, various societies have been set up which collect these royalties communally and distribute the money to the rightful owners. MCPS and PRS are the main societies in this country, to find out more about them have a look at their 'How To...' sections.
Groups
When writing with other people, each of you has a claim on the copyright of the song and you will need to agree how to divide the royalties, so it is important to confirm in writing what share each of you has written.
Two broad rules of thumb have developed to help you work this out. The first and most common is that the words/lyrics of a song attract 50% of the copyright and the music attracts the other 50%.
The second school of thought says that the words attract one third, another third goes to the writer of the melody and the remaining third goes to the writer(s) of the rest of the music.
It is up to the writers to decide what they feel is fair.
Problems
When it comes to bands, this sort of thing can cause huge tensions.
The copyright in the songs is what generates most of the money in music. You can end up with one or two members who are raking it in, while the non-writing members are still broke.
It's especially contentious with a band, where the bass player, for example, may write the bass-line but not get a credit as a writer.
Some well-known bands have credited every member on every song so that each receives an equal royalty. Others have used voting systems to decide how big a contribution each member made. And some, famously, have chosen not to be so generous.
05 Publishing and Copyright
When the writers sign a publishing deal , they sign the rights to their songs over to the publishing company.
The publisher will then collect the mechanical royalties on behalf of the writer.
They will also collect some of the performance royalties.
They'll then deduct a commission and pass the rest on to the writers.
How much they keep and how much they pass on will be set down in the writers' publishing agreement.
06 Moral Rights
As the writer of a song, you also have moral rights.
The main ones are the 'paternity' right, which is the right to be credited as the author of the work, and the more contentious 'integrity right'.
This is your right not to have your music treated in a 'derogatory manner'.
That means things like alternative lyrics or parodies which 'mutilate the work in a manner prejudicial to [your] honour'.
It can also extend into uses of the song as background music for a controversial film scene or perhaps in an advert for a product you're not happy to be seen to be endorsing.
Problems
The integrity right is messy for two reasons. Firstly, although you can't sign away your moral rights as such, most publishers will want you to sign a waiver which gives them the right to put your song forward for pretty much any use, which can effectively be the same thing.
In practise, all of the publishers we've spoken to say that they would always check with an artist before authorising the use of their work in a questionable film or advert. But it very much depends on your contract and the publishing company.
Secondly, big users of music, like the BBC have blanket agreements with collection societies and publishers. This means that they can use whatever music they need and report the usage for royalty payments afterwards.
There is a clause built into these agreements saying that they must seek permission if the usage is 'contentious' - perhaps it's an exceptionally violent scene - but it's rather a vague term.
For the most part, broadcasters are responsible and will ask if there's any doubt, but it can come down to a difference of opinion. If you're vehemently anti-smoking and your song is used in a way that's apparently endorsing tobacco, you might feel that's a derogatory use. But if the programme producer smokes, they might not think twice and use it without seeking permission.
Even if you feel there's a derogatory use under this kind of agreement, there's probably not much you can do anyway. You would have to prove that you've suffered some kind of financial loss in order to take it to court and some publishers might be reluctant to challenge a potentially huge client and so won't pursue it.
07 Copyright in Recordings
The second form of copyright is the copyright in a sound recording, which is separate from the copyright in the song.
Example 1
An example of how this works is a Radio 1 Session. If you go into the BBC's studios at Maida Vale to record tracks from your album for Zane Lowe, the BBC then own the copyright in that recording.
So if you wanted to release one of these recordings as a 'B' side you'd need the BBC's permission, even though the actual songs are yours.
You can still go off and record the songs again somewhere else and release those recordings. It's only the recordings that the BBC owns the rights to that you can't release.
Example 2
Or, to think of it another way, if a band records a song and releases it then there is a copyright in that recording.
If they then record and release another version - maybe a live version for a B-side - the new recording is a separate copyright.
But there's still only one song - one set of music and lyrics - and hence only one copyright in the song, even though there are two copyright recordings.
Who owns it
The copyright in the sound recording automatically belongs to the person or organisation that 'made the arrangements' for you to make the recording.
This will usually be the record company which paid for the studio time, or in the case of the Peel session above, it would be the BBC.
That's not 100% guaranteed, though and there'll usually be a clause in the recording contract stating this, just to be doubly sure.
If you are a label owner, you should make sure that you include such a clause in your contracts.
This is how the record companies make their money - by paying for recordings and then exploiting their rights as the owners of them.
08 The Difference Between the Copyrights
The main difference is the way that the two copyrights generate royalties.
Example 1
Let's go back to our Zane Lowe Session example. If Radio 1 plays a band's single on air, then the writers of the song (or their publishers) get a royalty for the use of their copyright work.
Their record company will also get a royalty for the use of their copyright recording.
If Radio 1 brings the band in to record the single at Maida Vale Studios, then a royalty is still paid to the writers of the song.
This time, though, the record company get no royalty because Radio 1 hasn't used the label's recording.
Example 2
To explain this further, think about two recordings of the same song made by two different bands and released on different labels.
If Radio 1 play the version by band A, then their label get a royalty for the use of the recording.
And if Radio 1 play band B's version then their label get the money.
But the writers get a royalty in both cases because it's the same song.
Live music
Now, if either band goes on tour, the writers are due a royalty when their song is performed live by either band. But this time, there's no recording and so no royalty is payable to a record company.
09 Performers' Rights
So far we have two areas of copyright. The creative bit - the words and music - and the physical bit - the recording. There's also a third area to think about.
These are Performers Rights - as opposed to performance rights.
They are owned initially by the people actually playing the instruments.
In order to use your performance on a recording, the person who is making the recording needs your permission.
If you are an artist or part of a group your contract may include a royalty payment for each use of the recording (but do not assume this!)
Waiving this right
Often session musicians and backing vocalists are asked to sign a standard consent from (drafted by the Musicians Union and Equity respectively). This waives their rights to be paid each time their performance on a recording is used. Instead they get a one-off payment for the session. This has been an area of dispute in the past - where a really interesting performance by a session player has radically changed the direction of a song.
Public performances
However, performers of any sort are entitled to a small royalty on public performances of the recording (on radio stations, in shops, or in a video for example), which you can't sign away and which will always be paid to you.
This is collected at the same time, and by the same organisations, as the royalties due to the record company for the use of their copyright recording.
You can claim this royalty by joining or registering with one of the public performance collection societies, AURA, PAMRA or PPL.
10 The Actual Law
Just so you know all of this is covered by the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 ("CDPA 1988"). This was passed to put into force international agreements on the laws of copyright and other intellectual property.
This act gives protection to the creative product of an artist and writer. Record and publishing companies are paying for the right to copy and distribute sound recordings and songs/compositions and in turn they make the public pay for this.
In short, that is how the money is made.
source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic...rightp01.shtml 
How To Copyright
How To Copyright -
30-05-2006, 09:41 PM
