How can you prove that you wrote and copyrighted your songs when you said you did?

Copyright Law is very simple: there are only TWO simple steps to follow:

1) Write something on a piece of paper: it could be words, a design, a logo, a piece of music, or a stream of data to create a ringtone or a program, for example. Or burn it to a CD or a computer file. So-

2) Write ‘Copyright by’ [YOUR NAME] and the date at the bottom. And voila! That’s all. This is now your copyright under the law in over 160 countries. No one can use this without your consent. But there is a problem with this. A big problem…

The Problem is… Prove it.

If someone steals your copyrighted material, they are breaking the law. As simple as falling off a log. But what’s not so simple is actually proving that you own the copyright to your story, your song, your music, your design, your data… when you claim you did, which is why the courts of law in all over the world are littered with copyright infringement cases.

The United States Copyright Office provides the most established copyright service. (Many other countries, including the UK, do not offer any government copyright services.) In fact, if you’re copyrighted using this American system, you may qualify for legal damages if someone steals your stuff, just like JKRowling, the lady from ‘Harry Potter’ did in September 2008.

But it is quite expensive – $45.00 for royalties. That’s not a lot for successful songwriters like Diane Warren or authors like JK Rowling, but it’s a lot for creative people who often struggle to pay their rent. But it DOES prove that you copyrighted your stuff when you said you did.

What the US Copyright Office is actually doing is ‘bearing witness’ to the fact that you are the creator of your property. Due to massive increases in copyright theft, independent companies have begun offering similar services that effectively (and legitimately) ‘bear witness’ to copyright creation.

The theft of intellectual property (copyright property) in the 21st century is of pandemic proportions. On a global scale never seen before. In the US alone in 2007 an incredible US$58 billion in royalties was stolen.

58 billion is such a huge figure that it is hard to fathom. But the reality is that $58 billion translates to more than $6.6 million worth of copyrighted material stolen every hour of every day of the year.

Although Definitive Copyright Law is well covered and laid out under the terms of the “Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works”, it can be difficult to prove that you copyrighted your material when you said you did, unless have a credible “witness”. .

A simple and easy way to get copyright to your songs is to publish them yourself on the Internet. This creates copyright (as long as you state that it is copyright!) but it is also very dangerous; simply than stating that your song is ‘Copyright by [your name here and the date]It is not a threat to people who decide to steal your music.

But if you post your music using a ‘Third Party Witness’ – someone or some company that can independently attest to the date and place you posted your songs – then you are in a very strong position. This is, of course, something that is provided by the US and Canadian governments, but it is not cheap, it costs around $50 per song.

There are internet companies now that offer a similar service but at a fraction of the price, considering that they are usually small, efficient and enthusiastic entrepreneurs rather than massive government offices with hundreds of paper-shuffling officials.

using now offers

This form of online copyright and publishing, if done correctly, can provide independent verification that copyright to your song existed when you say it did.