Songs & Lyrics Copyright Registration

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Copyright Information and Advice

Songwriters - Composers - Lyricists

The purpose of copyright registration is to allow creators to gain economic rewards for their efforts and so encourage future creativity and the development of new material which benefits us all. Copyright material is usually the result of creative skill and/or significant labour and/or investment, and without protection, it would often be very easy for others to exploit material without paying the creator.

Copyright exists the moment a piece of music, a song or lyric is committed to any form of tangible media. For example; recorded on a CD or other recording media including a computer hard drive, written, printed or in manuscript form. However, once you have created your work and believe it has a commercial value then it is important you take appropriate steps to protect it by ensuring rightful ownership has been documented and all rights have been attributed to the legal copyright owner.

The best and most effective way of protecting your work is to register your copyrights with a government copyright Office, a reputable copyright organization or copyright agency.

Is there a need for copyright registration?

In general, copyright registration is a simple formality intended to make a record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright protection. Even though registration is not a requirement for protection, the copyright law provides several inducements or advantages to encourage copyright owners to make registration.

To Fully protect your rights in a court of law it is vitally important you have proof of copyright ownership to back up any claim should a conflict of rights to a certain piece of work arise

What is not protected by copyright?

Several categories of material are generally not eligible for copyright protection. These include among others:

Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression. (for example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded, or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded.)
Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans. Familiar symbols or designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or colouring; mere listings of ingredients or contents.
Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration.
Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship. (for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources.)

Are you a citizen or subject of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, The EU, The Russian Federation or a person ordinarily residing in any of the following?

A country that is a signatory or has ratified The Berne Convention. (This covers approximately 97% of all countries).
A country that recognises and upholds the principles of the Universal Copyright Convention.
A signatory of the Rome Convention. (for sound recordings, performer's performances.)
Or a country that is a member of the World Trade Organization. (WTO.)

If You can answer yes to any of the statements above, you can register your songs, music and lyrics with Songrite Copyright Office.

Song and Lyric Copyright Registration

To register copyright ownership of all music based original works, please visit our sponsor and see how easy and cost effective it is to register the copyright ownership of your songs, music, lyrics, poems etc. We can register the copyrights of intellectual property and all original works from single compositions to complete albums. Visit - Songrite Copyright Office.