copyright?

I did not think I would have to think about this for a while but there is a chance that I have a performance for one of the pieces I've written. Whats the best way to copyright music? How do you do it?

You put the little © symbol with the year of composition at the bottom next to your name. That's all.

Now, of course, to have that hold up much better in court, one should register the piece in the US Copyright Office.

As far as I know, in most countries you don't even have to put the @ sign... It's not necessary, although it helps.

You technically don't need anything. Copyright is an intrinsic right. You don't have to register a claim, you don't have to label anything.

Putting a little blurb on your piece doesn't mean much except as a good-faith statement telling others that you do indeed own copyright as per your statement. You could always lie. And they could always ignore it.

That's why it doesn't hold up in court.

Registering a claim (keyword CLAIM) to copyright is basically telling the US Copyright Office "Hey, I wrote this piece on such a such a date" and them telling you "Okay." If your claim is discovered to be invalid upon investigation in court (ie you LIED), then your claim doesn't mean anything. All the copyright office does is register the fact that you claim ownership on this day and you wrote it on that day.

As long as there is a paper trail (like if you get it published or performed or something), you can prove your copyright.

It's just that much more leverage in court if you register your work as soon as you write it (within 5 years is ideal).

The more proof you have on your sheet music and floating around the world that you wrote your piece, the better you can be awarded damages and such in court.

That's the deal.

There's a lot of misinformation spread around, so read this:

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

The end-all be-all to copyright.

Or you could read the posts in this thread which are like the website FAQ without having to dig through an FAQ to have your direct answers. :)

I just sat through a good chunk of a seminar on copyright. Everything in my post came from that lawyer's mouth. I already knew more than half of her seminar, which is why I only sat through a good chunk of it.