Copyright Protection 

Copyright protection - Some ground rules!

1. Ignorance can be used as a defense in a case of infringement, so....
   • Mark any copies of your work you produce with a copyright notice.
   • The copyright notice should take the form of; 
     the actual term 'copyright', the copyright symbol [not just a 'c' in brackets '(c)' -as some countries do not recognise this], the year [normally when first published, but for unpublished work, use the year it was written]
     e.g. 'Copyright © 2000 Joe Smith'
   • You should also include a disclaimer of some kind expressing your wishes as the copyright owner.
     A simple 'All rights reserved' is normally sufficient but a more explicit declaration is recommended such as, 'Any unauthorised  public performance,  copying or adaptation will constitute an infringement of copyright'. There are many different wordings, mostly saying the same in different ways, for more examples, check out your book collection!

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2. It's no good saying someone's stolen your work if you can't prove it!
   You may find yourself up against a multi-million pound company with a swarm of retained lawyers on their payroll, and let's face it you won't impress the copyright tribunal by saying; 'yeah, I wrote that play/story  years ago, me mate Barry remembers, don't you Barry?', and worse you could be the one not only looking like a opportunist con-artist, but also having to foot legal costs. Oops!
   So what are the golden rules?
   • Anything you write, keep as much of the background work as you can, e.g. rough notes, synopsis, discarded sections, in fact any rough work. This proves evolution of a work, and if there's one thing you common or garden court likes to see in copyright cases, it's evolution of ideas. Makes sense really, if you wrote it you should have some rough ideas etc. before you came to the finished work.
   • Find a way to prove your work was authored before a certain date.
     To my knowledge there are three generally accepted way of doing this; Posting a copy to yourself by registered post. Lodging a copy of your work with a bank or solicitor. Registering with a copyright registration organisation such as UK Copyright [www.copyrightservice.co.uk] (UK), or Copyright Witness [www.copyrightwitness.com].
     Now all these methods have pros and cons which I shall discuss further on but personally for my money I would opt for registration every time.

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3. Joint ownership, how to avoid problems if you fall out with a joint author!
   You should have some agreement, whereby you are clear what will happen to the copyright of your works.
   • If one person writes the bulk of the work, they may wish to take it with them, but this needs to be agreed beforehand.
   • If the work is written as a group effort, what rights will each of the authors have over the work they have been involved in creating?
   • Oh, and don't forget, what happens to royalties if any works are published!

Don't Worry! There is a key to simplify all this; Just think of the collective or principal writer /writers as a business, or if you prefer an employer who the other writers work for, so therefore..

• Normally if work is written by a group of authors they remain the joint property each writer with any royalties etc. to be split, and any decisions to be voted on.
• If work is written by a principal person, then they may wish the work to remain in their name. In which case that person would be in essence an employer and the co-authors employees with no claim over the copyright of the work, although they may well want to be paid for their efforts.

The key thing is to think ahead, even if you think it will all end amicably it may not, and it may cost you your friendship as well as music. The time to decide these things is long before someone leaves.

3 Ways of proving copyright -The pros and cons.