Copyright Registration

Copyright registration;

Registration compared and evaluated; The pros and cons of the three methods available to UK residents.

1. Literary copyright registration by Registered post is comparatively cheap, but I seriously doubt if it would ever stand up in court! It is simply to easy to fake, [for example, I have some old demo tapes from my misspent musical youth still in the registered envelopes in a drawer in my bedroom, how easy is it for me to prise it open record somebody else's new song on the old tape and re-seal it? The answer is very easy, very easy indeed.] So I really think if I took it to court with just that evidence it would probably be laughed out unless I had some good background work and witnesses to substantiate my story.

   Marks out of 10; 3

---

2. Lodging a copy with a bank or solicitor, I  must confess I've never tried this method as it seems to me a bit like asking a dentist to fix your car! I mean bank managers, solicitors etc. pillars of society and all that, but would you really expect them to give a stuff about your music? Why should they it's hardly their core business, and they can't be set up for it.
   I might be misjudging and I mean no offence, but I have this picture of it being popped in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet somewhere and forgotten, and if you ever need it again who can remember where they put that tape back in 1998?

   Marks out of 10; 5

   ---

3. Which brings me on to registration, it seems amazing to me that there is no central governmental copyright registration body in the UK as there is in America, fortunately there are some very good organisations in the UK that will register your work,
   It must be stressed, these organisations can offer no legal assistance, but what they do offer is independent proof that you registered the music on a certain date and therefore anyone claiming to have written it at a later date doesn't really have a leg to stand on. It also gives you extra clout in a show down if you can say your work is registered.
   I may be biased but in my personal experience I have found UK Copyright [www.copyrightservice.co.uk] (or www.copyrightwitness.com if you don't live in the UK) to be both swift and efficient, they only charge on per item basis, i.e. per Manuscript-(up to a certain size) or if electronic media is your thing, they will only charge one fee for a CD regardless of how much material is on it (650mb on CD usually!), and that gives me plenty of room to include background material and still only get charged for one registration, and they also charge less than any others I've found (don't say I said that or they might put their prices up!)

   Marks out of 10; 10

   ---

The verdict;- 
Act like a professional register your work, do that and follow the points here, and there's little more an unsigned musician can do to protect their work.