Registering Songs

What is the name of your state? TX

I know you can register several already published songs as a collection.

But the problem is that the individual titles of the songs do not appear when you serach for any particular song in the collection at Copyright Office database.

What does appear is the title of the collection but not the titles of the songs.

I already have all the circulars and forms from the Copyright Office pertaining this matter but no where does it say how to acomplish individual song title registration for songs in a collection.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks in advance,

What exactly are you trying to do? It's not clear from your post.

TX

Ok, what i want to do is to have each title in the song collection to show up when I search for it at the Copyright Office's records.

Since you can register a collection of 20 songs published or unpublished with form PA or short form PA as long as you give the collection a title I thought there should be a way to have the titles of each song in the collection individually recorded or filed. I was told by a friend that maybe that could be acomplished by filing form CA after receiving the registration copy from the Copyright Office but since I've never done it I'm not sure if it will work out.

Thank you for your help on this,
Isaac

My response:

Music and Movie titles cannot be copyrighted. That's why the Copyright office doesn't have any title information.

If you wanted to make a movie, for example, called "The Titanic", you could and you wouldn't be infringing on anyone's rights. By the way, there have been about 5 or 6 movies, by different makers, called "The Titanic". The same thing goes for the various versions of the movies called "Phantom of the Opera".

IAAL

I'm still not clear on WHY you would want to do that, but I am not aware of any way that you can do what you apparently want to do. What you are trying to do is essentially equivalent to registering a copyright for a book, and being able to find your book in the search field by entering a chapter title or phrase from the book. The copyright office isn't set up that way.

If you wouldn't mind, I am curious as to why you would want to be able to have someone search by a title to find YOUR copyrighted compilation?

Individual Titles

TX

Ok, here's an example:

I record a 10 song CD: Song1, Song2, Song3, Song4, etc., and now I want to register the 10 songs and since they're all on the same album it makes sense to register them as collection.

The title of the collection would be "My Songs Vol 1"

After receiving confirmation from the Copyright Office that my app has been received I wait the required time so that I can look up my registration on the Records database (just to make sure it is there).

If I enter the title of one of my songs (song1 or Song2 or Song3) it won't show any results. But if I enter the title of the collection it will show the collection's title "My Songs Vol 1" but not the names of the songs.

And the reason that I want to know if this is possible is because it could make it easier for others to know if a certain song by somebody is already registered or prove to others that that particular song has already been registered.

Thanks again,
Isaac

And the reason that I want to know if this is possible is because it could make it easier for others to know if a certain song by somebody is already registered or prove to others that that particular song has already been registered.

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Maybe it depends on which paperwork you are using, but I don't think that registering a compilation ALSO registers the underlying songs. My understanding is that you have to register the songs seperately. A compilation registration says nothing about the copyright status of any of the component parts.

So, if you register "My Songs Vol 1" and I make an unauthorized copy, you can come down on me with all of the powers that a registered copyright gives you. But if you only register the compilation, and I only make a copy of, say, Song1, then you DON'T have a registered copyright on Song1 outside of the compilation, and the only thing you would be able to sue me for is actual damages.

You need to make sure that you are really getting the protection you expect. Generally, people register compilations when they are protecting a compilation THEY made of OTHER people's stuff -- if any single component of the compilation is infringed, the owner of THAT piece goes after the infringer. If the compilation as a WHOLE is infringed, then the owner of the compilation goes after them. But the owner of the compilation cannot go after the infringer of just a component, at least in this case. Magazines are a common example of this -- the magazine is a compilation, but the copyright in any stories or articles submitted to the magazine likely still belongs to the author.

TX

So, the best thing to do would be to register each song individually for it to have its own registration number, that way each song would have its own entry in the Records, right?


Thanks in advance,
Isaac

For maximum protection, yes.

TX

Thanks for all your help!

Just one more thing on this, when submiting the material (app, lyric sheet, recording) to be kept on records for 25 already published songs, do I have to send one original CD with each application? or is there a way to save on this?

Hopefully my last posting on this thread and thanks again,
Isaac

Just one more thing on this, when submiting the material (app, lyric sheet, recording) to be kept on records for 25 already published songs, do I have to send one original CD with each application? or is there a way to save on this?

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I don't know the answer to this question -- I'm sure if you contact the copyright office, they'll be able to get the right info right away.