Song copyrighting

[DannLea]

Hey guys,

This doesn't necessarily have to with music itself, but more so the legal end of music. Hopefully this is the right section..

Anyways, I'm a singer/songwriter from New Brunswick, Canada. I perform locally, and have only played songs I've written. This said, I am working on releasing my own CD.. Before I do that, though, I want to ensure that I have all rights to the songs I've written so I don't end up getting sued for copyright infringement on a song I've written myself.

I know that under Canadian laws music is "Copyrighted as soon as you write it on paper", but I want more assurance than that. I'm looking to legally copyright my music.

Now, I know that you send your forms in to the government association by mail form or email, but in the interest of saving myself some money, (11 songs at $45 CAD each, do the math, it's not that cheap) I want to know if there's a way to copyright them all under one song.

I've heard people saying this is possible, but I don't want to do it and find out it is all wrong and I have to start over.

If I have to, I'll fork out the $495 to get them all copyrighted, but I want to know if it's it's legal/allowed to do it all in one shot.

Thanks!
Dan

[dbgtz]

Why don't you just take photos of the songs you have written as evidence of when you have written it etc, date everything. It's a cheaper method.

[Catzsy]

Well I would say if you can't afford to register them you should put the a copy of the CD (s)
and a copy of the lyrics in a package and send them by registered post to yourself ASAP.
The cd card should identify all the songs and say © Name and date. The lyric sheets should be titled and say Written by Name and at the bottom © Name and date. When the package arrives do not open it. In the case of a dispute it can then be used as evidence.

[DannLea]

Well I would say if you can't afford to register them you should put the a copy of the CD (s)
and a copy of the lyrics in a package and send them by registered post to yourself ASAP.
The cd card should identify all the songs and say © Name and date. The lyric sheets should be titled and say Written by Name and at the bottom © Name and date. When the package arrives do not open it. In the case of a dispute it can then be used as evidence.

It's not a valid method in Canada... It doesn't hold up in court due to the large amount of mail fraud that occurred . Thanks for replying though!

[IceNineKills]

make sure they're worth buying before sticking the 'C' mark on it.

[-Eyeless-]

Well I would say if you can't afford to register them you should put the a copy of the CD (s)
and a copy of the lyrics in a package and send them by registered post to yourself ASAP.
The cd card should identify all the songs and say © Name and date. The lyric sheets should be titled and say Written by Name and at the bottom © Name and date. When the package arrives do not open it. In the case of a dispute it can then be used as evidence.

I am studying music business and in the UK this would be acceptable but it seems that is not the case in Canada and I can't help you with that as we haven't covered that market. It seems that your best bet is forking out the money to the Government. If you don't want to do that however I would suggest having it written up on a program like Sibelius and date and time the savefile, then print it off. That way you have it written on paper and saved on your computer dated, timed etc. But this method can be risky being that times and dates can be written on after/changed so basicly. Best bet, pay up. :) Hope this helped.