Posting Mp3's Online

I've been under the impression that the moment you post something electronically on the Internet that is your intellectual property, you have in effect copyrighted it. Couldn't it be proven if necessary that you originated it based on the date is was posted?

Stealing from an unknown is safer than stealing from a renown.

I've been under the impression that the moment you post something electronically on the Internet that is your intellectual property, you have in effect copyrighted it. Couldn't it be proven if necessary that you originated it based on the date is was posted?

So, you're telling us that the instant you claim something to be your piece you should gain profit if anyone else uses it/sells it? How does that work with law and stuff?

You have to register your piece/intellectual property in a patent office or a similar service, I assume, if you want it to be legally yours. Otherwise, if you want it to be legally yours and still free, you can use one of the creative-commons licenses, which are incredible because they offer basic stuff you allow other people to do or not do with your music

I'm not sure whether it's the same in all countries, but generally you are automatically the holder of all legal rights for any piece of art you create, the moment you create it. You don't have to register or patent your piece, they automatically belong legally to you and in almost all cases you will never lose basic rights on your art until your death, even if you sell it to a publisher etc.

Of course it may at times be difficult to prove that it -was- you who created this piece of art, but technically once you wrote a piece you don't have to worry about copyrights.

What he said.

Even so, I'm in the process of copyrighting most of my publishable stuff and sending the obligatory first-run copies to the U.S. Library of Congress. It's not expensive, but not cheap either - but I have no illusions anymore that I will be very well known in my lifetime, and if there are copies of my stuff in the Library of Congress, there is a better chance that I will not be forgotten utterly. We wouldn't have a lot of good stuff now if people hadn't gone digging in libraries and archives.

Copyright is copyrighted the moment you create it in countries that have signed the Berne convention (mostly every country I believe). The (c) symbol is not required, the "All rights reserved" is not required (as that was for South American countries prior to their signing of Berne Convention)

In Afghanistan however, no copyright law exists.

Personally I use creative commons. Right now I would rather my pieces get known (and take the risk of it getting stolen). Later, if I get known, I may be more careful, but I'll wait and see.

Or just give it away so that the world gets to know you ;-)

http://http://arstechnica.com/news.a...c-is-free.html

Originally Posted by nikolas

Nothing to worry about really.

I don't know how harsh it will sound, but your melodies, or my melodies for that matter, are NOT that good... So relax and enjoy the Internet life.

Some of us are just lucky that no-one has found the million dollar tunes we keep posting on the internet.

LOL!