Copyright Your Music at DMusic.com!



We all know how important copyright has become in society. Whether or
not you want to let your music out there for free, you still ought to
consider registering a copyright. We have made it easy. Now you can
copyright your tracks right from DMusic! DMusic can get you a
federally registered copyright for your tracks. In order to use your
tracks online, to sell them at the DMusic download and CD store, to
sell them through DMusic on Walmart.com and Real/Rhapsody, to do
anything, they must be protected. For $99.95 plus registration fees
of $30, you can get your copyright registration reviewed by an
attorney and registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Click here
to visit.



Subscribers' Discount: Buy 1 get 1 Free!
For a limited time, DM subscribers can copyright 2 works for the price
of 1. The second copyright will require payment of the registration
fees only. Also, DMusic subscribers get a 10% discount on copyright
service fees ($90). Here's 10 reasons to start copyrighting your
recordings:

1. You get the benefit of the doubt in court. If you ever have to sue
or be sued, presentation of a copyright registration certificate
gives you an automatic presumption that you wrote what you say you
wrote on the application. Although that presumption can be
rebutted, it gives you a big procedural advantage in court - your
certificate is your first witness.

2. No statutory damages if not registered. One of the big advantages
of registration is statutory damages, from $75 to $25,000 per
infringement on each registered work. That is in lieu of having to
prove actual monetary loss. In the Mp3.com litigation, for
example, thousands of statutory damage claims were aggregated for
a $150,000,000 settlement.

3. No damages are recoverable at all for pre-registration
infringements. Even though copyright law protects your work from
the moment of creation, you can only collect damages for
infringements occurring after registration, whether actual or
statutory damages. So the infringer gets a free pass until you
register.

4. You have nothing to sell or license without registration. If a
publisher or investor or other third party wants to do business
with you, you are simply worth more with a registration.

5. You can get your counsel fees paid. Only if you have a registered
copyright.

6. It will make on line commerce easier if you have a registration.
Now that digital downloading is here, many services require
copyright information on each track or album.

7. Registration puts the world on notice of your claim. An infringer
is liable even if you can't prove he heard your song, but only if
you register.

8. Copyrights required for new online Dmusic services, such as Dmusic
Online Download Store and Online CD Store. Also, in order to sell
your music at other online music service providers (such as
Walmart.com and Real/Rhapsody) through Dmusic, you will need a
copyright for your tracks.

9. A federally registered copyright acts as a defense mechanism for
false copyright claims filed against you.

10. A federally registered copyright facilitates authorized sampling,
making it easier for others to get your permission to include
pieces of your registered work in their new works. The copyright
will also facilitate appropriate payment for such uses.


Why you need to use DMusic Copyright Service :

* Unlike other services on the Internet, DMusic's copyright service
uses real attorneys experienced in copyright law to review your
submission. In other words, we are not just "professionals", we
are attorneys.

* Our lawyers and staff are experienced in copyright litigation. Try
calling most Internet copyright sites if you have been sued for
infringements or wish to assert your copyright in court. You will
find that they cannot help you.

* Our competitors' fees do not include an attorneys' review.

* We have a toll-free hotline (1-888-766-2690) so that you can speak
with an experienced attorney who can guide you through the
application process.



THANKS from DMUSIC
evensteven@dmusic.com

So..what happened to Creative Commons licensing?

You're better off just paying the 30 and doing it yourself.

Shadowmom:
"You have nothing to sell or license without registration"

You still need to copyright your work, even if you're going to license it through Creative Commons.

Creative Commons is merely an alternative distribution/identification method that marks the music as authorized for sharing on the Internet and p2p.

Also, registering a copyright requires a physical copy of the work that goes into the Library of Congress. Someday, someone is going to go through and listen to that stuff.

"So..what happened to Creative Commons licensing?"

Ditto.

Okay, so one is a licensing scheme and one is actually an ownership scheme. If there is no physical copy, it can't be copyrighted?

You can't license without ownership. You can't even give something away you don't own.

"You're better off just paying the 30 and doing it yourself."

Your right. It's not terribly difficult. I've registered several copyrights to various software of mine. The time it took to fill out the paperwork (it's one form, plus samples of the first 10/last 10 pages of your work, or computer program if it's exceeded 10 pages. If not, the whole thing source code wise gets mailed to the copyright office. Then you wait, a long long time.

I'm unsure as to why a lawyer at $99 needs to review it. if you follow the instructions, you shouldn't have any trouble.

Bad advice, RaidHHI. Ever been in a copyright lawsuit? You'll find out. You don't need a lawyer to get a divorce or draft a will or start a lawsuit either. Just in order to succeed at it. As a matter of fact, you don't even need a doctor's prescriptions to get potent drugs on the internet or from Canada. You can also mow your own lawn and tune up your own car engine. What else is new?

The form may be deceptively easy, but the copyright field is difficult. Thats why they call it intellectual property. For example, here's some free advice. BAD IDEA TO COPYRIGHT AN ENTIRE ALBUM AT ONCE on a combined form SR and PA. Near worthless in court. Do it as a last resort only.

Don't kid yourself. You will live and die by the registration disclosures if you ever have to enforce a copyright or defend one. And if you never think you will ever have to enforce a copyright or defend one, then you don't need a copyright.

Even if you want to distribute your music for free or under Creative Commons licensing YOU MUST REGISTER IT somehow to prove it is your otherwise the RIAA parasites might try to steal it from you! Do not feed the tapworms!

tapworms are exactly like tapeworms, but with less e

Good point Major - you have to defend yourself from claimed infringments too.

"if you follow the instructions, you shouldn't have any trouble."

Each song on a CD requires a separate copyright, unless you have a batch wherein the words and music were all written by the same person. Then there's another one to protect the sound recording.

Make sure you're filling out the right form for the right thing.

Then you wait a long, long time.

Then they send you a notice back saying, dumbass, you didn't do this right. Try again.

Then you wait a long, long time.

Rinse. Repeat.

UNFORTUNATELY, these days the average artist/creator DOES NEED a "friggin lawyer" to do something as simple as registration of a copyright (and to ENSURE that it is done CORRECTLY!)

YES, it is very possible to do it on your own... IF you do the abundant research and spend an astounding amount of your life figuring out all the details on your own.

But things have gotten so damn complex these days that you often DO need a lawyer to do something as simple as register a claim that a song is your own.

============

But, Larry/leflaw, you are my FREIND and I must in all good faith say something about all this (even though this is a potential "revenue stream" ...albeit a very FAIR one in regards to the price you offer for the service you render...)

FOLKS,

I do NOT see much benefit in registering a song/work with the copyright office UNLESS you have a REASONABLE expectation that the song/work is gonna be garnering a LOT of money.

You SHOULD register EACH song/work INDIVIDUALLY instead of "as an album"

(YES, that much IS good advice when registering!)

I am NOT a lawyer and I am ONLY offering my opinion as a layman about all this...

But don't spend the $$$ on a US copyright registration UNLESS you expect to have dealings with an entity OUTSIDE your own (for example, signing with a label) in regards to the distribution/marketing of said song/work.

...otherwise, you are wasting money. (In MY opinion!)

(Ok, leflaw... you may now kick my ass for 'sounding' like I went against your advice/marketing pitch.)

...but, leflaw IS RIGHT folks about a old axiom that goes:

"cover your bets"

"You're better off just paying the 30 and doing it yourself."

ONLY if you know what the hell you are doing and can cross all the "t's" and dot all the "i's" correctly.

Sad, but true.

Again, in my own humble layman's understanding I will now RESTATE my OPINION...

SPEND the money to register the copyright to your song ONLY if you have reasonable hope/expectation that it will be exploited by an entity OTHER than yourself at a later date for commercial gain.

If you do NOT ever plan/expect to "translate" any of the rights of your song to another person/entity... then, you might not need bother yourself.

Using the Creative Commons, or having proof of your posting at a legitimate indie website, or even mailing an unopened copy of the lyrics/recording to yourself via dated/certified mail, etc. is probably all you will ever need.

...BUT, if you DO have hope/expectation of other than self exploitation of your song/work in the commercial realm...

DO consult a lawyer and/or take advantage of the Dmusic copyright representation beforehand!

(Larry/leflaw and company KNOW their shit! You can take MY word on it that DMusic Network L.L.C. is on the "up and up".)

Copyright your best two or three songs or the ones that you want to do business with. Creative commons is a separate issue.

...this is ALL advice from a BUSINESS standpoint of the issue folks!

Use your own BUSINESS accumen/saavy on this particular "nit-picky" issue!

(Thanks for not immediately jumping down my throat over this leflaw!)

Copyright law in this day and age is NOT a simple matter! (...even though it SHOULD be a much more simple thing, unfortunately it is NOT!)

"Cover your bets" is probably the best advice!

"Thats why they call it intellectual property"

If you ever find the need to shudder bring a legal action against some A-hole that rips off YOUR original tune and calls it their own, and is marketing it on TV, the internet, etc., and making bucks from your hard work....

you have to register it.

Let the flames against me begin for siding with the much hated Copyright system!

"You can't license without ownership. You can't even give something away you don't own."

TRUE DAT!

No flames, Code. We all know it's necessary to keep Sheryl from having to work at a menial job when she really only wants to create music. It's not the fact that it exists, it's just that it's so totally screwed up.

I think it's a good idea to spend money on a good song. I, too, think it's fair for songwriters to be compensated. It's the current LENGTH of the copyright (amended in 199 that should be changed. Copyright reform!

only copyright the good ones you want to market is what i think. i wouldn't waste money otherwise because the artists need to be compensated......