Photo from Wix
If you are a writer or musician getting your work copyrighted is essential in the Entertainment and Music Business. When it comes to your art, you want to protect yourself and your art. First off, Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the owner the exclusive rights to make copies of the creative work usually for a limited time. Copyright is intended to protect the original form of a creative work, however, this does not include the idea because ideas are not tangible.
Understand that as a creative entity, extra research is necessary to understand copyright. However, if you don't want to concentrate on that there are people that can offer assistance in getting your creative works copyrighted. There are distribution companies that provide a copyrights and sites that will only do copyright or allow you, as an artist, to file your work for yourself.
Photo from Wix
The "poor man's copyright" that gives you a time span while you have sent off your work to be officially copyrighted. You send a copy of your original work in an envelope and mail to yourself. However, to be able to file it for your records, don't open it once you receive it back. The Post Office might stamp it for you and let you keep it. This is for you to have protection, while the other one that you sent to be Copyright Office goes through the process which could take up to 6 months.
If you are filing a copyright for yourself with the Copyright Office in Washington D.C., you can either mail it in or file online. If you decide to mail in your creative work, there is an application process with filing fee, and you have to provide a copy of the creative work. If you filing online, you can copyright 10 songs at a time under a "Group of Unpublished Work". There is also a fee for filing online, however, you can upload the creative work you want to copyright. For instance an album with more than 10 songs, you can copyright the creative work under Group of Published work. Take note that "Published Work" means released.
Photo from Wix
As I mentioned before, when you do it yourself please research some more and talk with the personnel at the Copyright Office if you have any questions. The website for the Copyright Office is https://www.copyright.gov and you can register for an online account on the website. One could also hire an attorney to handle obtaining copyright for creative work. Remember, an attorney's will charge a fee along with the fee that Copyright Office charges. If you want to access legal forms to file copyright, the Copyright Office's website is always good. However, you can also the forms at LegalZoom.com. When in doubt, call the U.S. Copyright Office to answer any questions you may have. It's important having a copyright on your music to help you control what you’re able to do with your song or recording. You also want to control who can and can’t exploit your work for profit.
There is more to obtaining a copyright for your creative work, here at 3300+Climbing, we want the artist to succeed. Music is 90% Business and 10% Talent.
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