Copyright and Royalties in Music {Question}

[dimigo]

Hello,

I recently decide to make my first step in music industry.

I found that the first step is to copyright my music. The way i decide it to do it is by registering my music to copyright. gov and pay the 35$ fees. After this i will get by mail the certificate of registration. In this point i would like to ask... I am from greece... should i register my music through usa? Can i? This will cover me for every country?

After this i should register for "performance copyright" at one of these websites:

1. ascap. com
2. bmi. com
3. sesac. com

In this point i would like to ask... again, this will cover me for every country? should i register in greek performance copyright company called AEPI ( aepi. gr) or in this usa version? this type of copyright will cover me for youtube plays and radio plays and everything that evolves my song?

Is there anything i have missed? In my country this stuff is a little bit chaotic. here they have no idea. here in greece they register their music through the "pour-man's copyright" by mailing the song to themselves. But i have read that this method cant protect you at any court. Also i have hearted that they only registering their music through aepi... i think this is wrong.... And another question... because i am from europe is there any site, service or anything from england or germany?

Give me some tips in this area. I cant find a way out of it....

Thank you for your time!!!! Thanks for reading my post!!!!

 

[quincy]

First of all, Greece is a Berne signatory country. The Berne Convention is an international treaty with over 100 member countries. What this treaty has done is standardize basic copyright protection in countries around the world. Member countries have agreed to provide authors from other countries with the same protection for their copyrighted works that authors in their own country would receive.

Music is copyrighted as soon as it is fixed in a tangible form - as soon as the music is composed and written or recorded, it is copyright protected. It is copyright protected in the U.S. even if it is not registered. However, for U.S. works, federal registration of copyrighted music gives the music added protection and benefits, and federal registration of U.S. copyrighted works is necessary prior to pursuing any copyright infringement action.

The major benefit to federal registration of copyrighted works in the U.S. is that, should someone infringe on a copyrighted work (use it without the author's permission) and the copyrighted work has been registered prior to this infringement, the author is eligible to collect statutory damages.

Statutory damages are those set by law. In the U.S., a copyright owner with a registered work can collect in damages from an infringer $750 to $30,000 per infringed work (based on the evidence of infringement presented in court), or up to $150,000 per infringed work for especially egregious infringement.

That said, registration is not required to file an infringement suit if the work is a non-U.S. work and the author is from a Berne signatory country and the work was first published in this Berne signatory country.

Because you are in Greece and this particular legal forum handles U.S. law questions only, I suggest you consult with an Intellectual Property attorney in Greece who can help you understand the rights you have in your copyrighted music and how best to protect this music when publishing it and marketing it worldwide.

For more information on U.S. copyright law, you should visit the U.S. Copyright and Trademark Office official website at http://www.copyright.gov.

For information on the copyright laws in Greece and for resources, you can go to http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/details.jsp?country_code=GR.

I wish you good luck.

 

[FlyingRon]

If you are in the US, signing on with one of the US performance rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) will be sufficient. These organizations will collect on the foreign stuff (note however, these organizations are slanted against the small fry. Unless your use is one of the specifically noted things, like it is used as a TV theme, your "computed" share of the bulk stuff such as normal radio airplay, background music, etc... will be tiny.

As Quincy points out, US is finally (as of 1989 or so) a signatory of Berne and securing your copyright rights here covers you in all the other countries.