There are a lot of rules involved in music copyright laws. Between legislation and contracts by distribution companies, it’s very important to do your research. After all, no one wants to have their music stolen and see their hard work not getting paid. Even though there are a couple of organizations protecting music copyright, the wrong deal could ruin things for you or your band. Keep reading this article to get the full scoop on how to copyright music against plagiarism. We’ve created a thorough guide to help you out on this journey.
Why you should know how to copyright your music
When it comes to the music industry, it’s very easy to forget that your releases are not owned by the listeners. Once a song breaches into the mainstream, it’s likely that a lot of people will cover it. It’s also common that a successful body of work ends up as an inspiration for upcoming releases. Even though this is somewhat ordinary, there are boundaries that should never be crossed. There is nothing wrong with having references or even paying homage to your favorite artists. But it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that being inspired by something shouldn’t equal intentionally copying it. In this sense, copyrighting your music is the only way to make sure you will get paid for your work in all cases. Each country has different laws for that process – we’ll get into that later. But the one thing that remains the same is that such laws should give you rights of intellectual property over your music. It’s your legal proof that you wrote, produced or performed in that track. You might be interested on how to copyright music in Brazil, since music market there is in constant rising. You should look for info on what is ECAD. That's the main difference from brazillian laws to other countries. ECAD is a national agency managed by a collective of the majors PRO's.How the business works
Whenever we talk about copyright, some artists can get defensive thinking it will limit their art. When push comes to shove, this legal document does the opposite: it secures artists’ rights over their own work. All over the world, many musicians know how to cover a song legally and have been doing that since forever. And lately, sampling music laws made it possible for artists to use excerpts from other artist's songs in their songwriting. There’s also sync licensing, which allows for that song to be used in a video format. All that with the proper credits and royalty’s payment. So, in the current climate one can wonder what is music plagiarism, anyway. According to a Buzzfeed article from 2015, it’s a pretty fine line. In interview, the copyright lawyer Paul Fakler clarified it can be about lyrics, rhythm or even progression. The dispute will often not go to court. But when they do, they’ll be judged by how innovative that stretch of alleged plagiarism is. It all comes to resemblance and how unique that sound is to the “original”. Even the lawyer admits the terms here are a bit hazy and the laws can border the metaphysical.Legal terms of copyrighting
In the United States, the rights for copy are stated primarily by the Copyright Act of 1976. According to the law – that took effect two years later –, copyright automatically exists from the moment a song is created. You can register music with U.S. Copyright Office, but that is completely optional.
Besides comparing similarities, there also has to be an argument for access. The judge should consider if the artist being persecuted ever heard or could have heard the song they allegedly plagiarized.