"All Rights Reserved"

[Jitters]

As I understand it, this little phrase on the back of my cd jacket is really all I need to claim full benefits of copyright protection for the music and the artwork. In fact I?m led to believe that you don't even need that and that the right are implicit.

Yes? No?

What is the bare minimum of legalese you are comfortable with?

In my specific case this isn?t a barcode type thing, but we can call a barcode ?legalese? for the sake of the discussion.

[frans_13]

So what do you want to get out of your copyright? To whom you want to proof what? Or just as a statement like "this is my art, I did it."?

[fossiltooth]

Yeah, if you just put a circle-c or "all rights reserved" on your self-release CD, you'll be fine. If average listeners want to pay for it, they will, and if they want to steal it, they will.

As far as licencing and publishing rights go, as long as you can reasonably show that you created your song by such-and-such a date, you're pretty well covered. I wouldn't worry too much about Zack Braff or Kanye West stealing your song and trying to not give you money for it. You should be so lucky!

In most cases, anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is trying to sell you something. If you're hyper-paranoid you can register it with the library of congress or mail yourself of a copy of a CD. However those oft-repeated words of advice were rarely that necessary and are now clearly vestiges of another age. Your dated invoice from a CD duplication provider or your contract with a digital retailer like iTunes or CDBaby would serve the same purpose.

Don't worry too much about what people do with your music at first. If you're lucky, they'll listen to it. Then take it from there!

[vvv]

IMO, a clear statement of what/whether you claim copyright is a good idear, especially with options like creative commons out there.

In the event that you ever have a reason to claim authorship, you don't want anyone saying you gave rights away that you did not intend to.

And even if the odds are high against money being a real issue, well, doya buy lottery tickets? This is cheaper.

[Gregg Juke]

You want circle c, _circle p_, and "All Rights Reserved."

Like this:

(C) & (P) 2011 (insert copyright holder here), All Rights Reserved.

(C) is for the musical and other content, (P) is the copyright for the actual recording thereof, not just the music embodied in it.

You want both plus the "All Rights Reserved" phraseology.
Yes, the rights are implcit, but in this case you want to be very explicit.

GJ

[Gregg Juke]

>>>>In most cases, anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is trying to sell you something. If you're hyper-paranoid you can register it with the library of congress or mail yourself of a copy of a CD. However those oft-repeated words of advice were rarely that necessary and are now clearly vestiges of another age. Your dated invoice from a CD duplication provider or your contract with a digital retailer like iTunes or CDBaby would serve the same purpose.

Don't worry too much about what people do with your music at first. If you're lucky, they'll listen to it. Then take it from there!<<<<

BTW, I have to WHOLEHEARTEDLY DISAGREE with Justin here. The law is the law, international agreements are international agreements, and it's a simple matter of a few extra lines of text on your disc and jacket. take the time to spell it out. Theft is also theft, whether or not we collectively turn a blind-eye to it or call it "the new way."

Protect yourself with a very short sentence. Better yet, use that "vestige of another time" the LOC, if you really think your music will be played on the radio, TV, in films, or on major Web-based content providing sites. It's the minimum thing to do, and in no way indicates paranoia or old-world fuddy-duddyism...

GJ

[fossiltooth]

>>>>In most cases, anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is trying to sell you something. If you're hyper-paranoid you can register it with the library of congress or mail yourself of a copy of a CD. However those oft-repeated words of advice were rarely that necessary and are now clearly vestiges of another age. Your dated invoice from a CD duplication provider or your contract with a digital retailer like iTunes or CDBaby would serve the same purpose.

Don't worry too much about what people do with your music at first. If you're lucky, they'll listen to it. Then take it from there!<<<<

BTW, I have to WHOLEHEARTEDLY DISAGREE with Justin here. The law is the law, international agreements are international agreements, and it's a simple matter of a few extra lines of text on your disc and jacket. take the time to spell it out. Theft is also theft, whether or not we collectively turn a blind-eye to it or call it "the new way."

Protect yourself with a very short sentence. Better yet, use that "vestige of another time" the LOC, if you really think your music will be played on the radio, TV, in films, or on major Web-based content providing sites. It's the minimum thing to do, and in no way indicates paranoia or old-world fuddy-duddyism...

GJ

Hey Gregg! I'm not sure you read that post closely. For the record, I "wholeheartedly *agree*" that all you need are "a few extra lines of text on your disc and jacket". I believe that's the first sentence in there.

It goes on to say you don't need anything more than that simple little phrase and circle-c to explicitly claim copyright and show your intent.

I do a lot of dumb things, but I'm pretty sure the only flaw in that post is my complete failure at brevity as per usual). Sounds like we're at a consensus so far... Or is anyone gonna suggest he register with the library of congress and mail himself a wax cylinder by carrier pigeon?

Anyway, my apologies if you were paying close attention but it wasn't clear on my part. I'm sure that can happen when I don't edit myself.

[wren]

To go off on a brief tangent: as someone who isn't yet registered with ASCAP or BMI but really, really should be, I'm curious as to how the "just slap these lines on your CD to signal your copyright intent" law works with an ASCAP/BMI account. Is it basically the same, just adding another line/bit of registration info, or does it become more administratively complex? To my understanding you have to register individual compositions with ASCAP/BMI, but is that all? (If you register a composition there is that totally separate from a Library of Congress registration? If so, why?)

This is the stuff that's always made my head spin...hopefully the way I'm asking the question(s) makes sense.

[dfuruta]

Registering a song with ASCAP/BMI isn't copyright, exactly. In order to register something with ASCAP/BMI, you already have to own the copyright?what you're doing is giving ASCAP/BMI the legal rights to license that song's use on your behalf, and to go after venues/people who try to use the song without having a license from the rights group.

[wren]

OK, I think I see how that works.

So, if "you already have to own the copyright," I'm guessing that "owning the copyright" requires more than just slapping the (C) and (P) on your CD...

[dfuruta]

well, you have to write the music.

my understanding is that slapping on (c) and (p) and "all rights reserved" is a way of letting other people know that you aren't giving anything away. but, as i understand it, those are not technically necessary to have the copyright for a work. it's a good idea to put that text if you're concerned about people stealing/misappropriating your stuff, but one automatically has the copyright once the recording has been made/score written/whatever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Conv ... ks#Content

[Jitters]

Thanks to all for the feedback.

You want circle c, _circle p_, and "All Rights Reserved."

Like this:

(C) & (P) 2011 (insert copyright holder here), All Rights Reserved.

(C) is for the musical and other content, (P) is the copyright for the actual recording thereof, not just the music embodied in it.

You want both plus the "All Rights Reserved" phraseology.
Yes, the rights are implcit, but in this case you want to be very explicit.

GJ

One question on the (insert copyright holder here) part though. I feel a little cheezy using my name as it's a group project, yet wonder about the technicalities of using the group name if we don't actually own the name in any legal sense.

[cgarges]

... and the copyright does have to be registered if any action is taken.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[TapeOpLarry]

Copyright registration is affordable and holds up in court if need be. Slapping (c) on there is pretending you registered.

But in all likelihood it won't matter in the end. But if it did turn out to matter, by not registering it you may screw yerself.

[goose134]

Larry is right.

+1 on creative commons. The band I play with uses it largely because we have a rotating cast of characters. The way we've structured it basically says if you can figure a way to make money on any of the songs you've performed with us, great. But we get a small cut. There are many aspect of the licscence and I would recommend reading up on it.