How to Register with the US Copyright Office
Although copyright protection occurs immediately from the time the original work is created by you in a fixed form, there are added benefits to registering your song with the US Copyright Office. (See Copyright Circular 1.)
For instance, one obvious benefit is that registering your songs with the US Copyright Office helps to confirm the date of creation of the song by a recognized authority. This is extremely useful if there's a copyright dispute as to who owns what and when. Even more importantly, registering will give you certain statutory protections and rights not available to you if you do not register. For example, you get the right to collect attorney's fees. If you know anything about their fees, registering is pretty well worth it for this fact alone.
Below are step-by-step instructions for registering your songs with the US Copyright Office. It contains practical information as well as more information about the nature of copyright.
STEP 1: Make a recording of your song on a CD or CDs.
Yes, we know we said the CD was dead but, as you see, it still plays a role. That is, until the US Copyright Office goes completely digital, of course.
You will need to submit two(2) copies – not one - of any songs you made available to the public. In Copyright Law Speak that's known as the "published work." To be considered a published work, the song(s) must be made available to the public in some way such as being put on an album that is sold at shows. However, being published does not mean you need to make money off of it, it simply means available to the public. So, even if you uploaded your song to the Internet freely for download, it's considered published. You will need to include two copies of the song so the Copyright Office can file it correctly as a "published work."
Why do they make a big deal about whether the song was published? Because once they know the public is aware of your song, then, by statute, anybody (and we mean anybody) can rightfully perform and record a version of your song. That's right, the other people who want to record your song don’t even need to ask permission (although out of courtesy they typically do.) US Copyright law allows anybody to record a published song for a set fee of 9.1¢ (after January 1, 2006) for every copy made if the playing time for the song is under five minutes. (To verify the current rates, as well as the rates for longer songs, head here.) So, if your song is published and someone covers your song, you're owed money. Of course, you can negotiate less or let them record it for free if you want.
STEP 2: Fill out the appropriate form.
**August 2008 – Note that the US Copyright Office is now going electronic, so these forms are being phased out and thus, so are these instructions. See Copyright.gov or IndieBandSurvivalGuide.com for updated info.**
You will need to fill out FORM PA if you want to protect the underlying musical expression of the song you wrote. That is, the notes, melody, and lyrics that compose your song.
You will need to fill out FORM SR if you want to protect the actual recording of the music. That is, the particular series of sounds that is "fixed" or embodied in the actual recording. If someone decides to do use your recording either in a film on the radio or to sample and incorporate in a loop, then this copyright is the one that makes them have to contact you to get permission.
Instructions are included on the Forms to help you fill in all the blanks.
In general, as a songwriter, you'll be using Form PA a lot more than Form SR. Form SR really is limited in its scope since it only protects the actual recording. Generally, a copyright using SR extends to two elements in a sound recording: (1) the performance and (2) the production or engineering of the sound recording. As a songwriter, you tend to want to protect the song itself (the music and lyrics,) not just the recording. Therefore, experienced copyrighters will copyright a bunch of demos and songs using Form PA, while only copyrighting the actual recording of a song once the music and lyrics are completely locked in place, it's fully recorded at a studio, and ready to be or is published. This is only a rule of thumb, however. Of course, for better information as to what you should do, you should always contact one of them law-talking guys.
If you're the sole author of the work, then fill out the form in your name, not your band's name. You're an individual with certain inalienable rights. Your band probably isn't unless you incorporated the band by talking to one of those law-talking guys. If that's what you did, return to the person who told you to incorporate and ask them if you should copyright it in the band's name or not.
STEP 3: Send the items + $ to the US Copyright Office.
Send the CD (or CDs if it's published) plus $30 (or whatever the current fee is these days) to the US Copyright Office. We recommend sending it via registered mail with return receipt so you can confirm they received your package.
You can save money if you bundle a bunch of songs on one CD rather than pay $30 for one song. Bundling a bunch of songs on one CD is known by the Copyright Office as a "Collection." Instead of writing your song title as the title of the work on the form, you make up a collection name. However, there are a few rules to this.
The first rule is: you can make a collection if all the songs on the CD have the same author or authors. You cannot mix and match songs with different authors or groups of authors because they have no way of tracking this.
The second rule is: you can't make a collection if the songs on the CD are a mix of published and unpublished songs since, like the author problem, the Office cannot track the different publication statuses within the CD.
If you decide to make a collection, make sure you catalog what songs you put on that collection, because otherwise you’ll forget. The Copyright Office just takes your CD, stamps the date, does some other menial bureaucratic stuff to make sure they can stay employed, and then files it. They never listen to or look at your CD ever again. They have no idea what's on it and like all good governmental workers, don't care.
STEP 4: Sit Back and Wait.
As long as you filled out everything correctly, submitted the requisite number of CDs, and your check doesn't bounce, you should expect the form you filled out stamped and returned to you in the mail anywhere from 2-6 months. You will not get your CD or CDs back since they need to have it on file there at the Office.
STEP 5: Document & Verify.
Save the returned PA or SR form as proof of when you registered the copyright. Put it wherever you put your other important documents. After all, this is evidence of your property; your intellectual property. And it's important!
At this time, if you’re so inclined, you can also head to the Copyright Records Page and look yourself and official registered work up, and look your registered work up, secure in the knowledge that you not only have enhanced statutory rights but also have helped support the US Copyright Office and its employees.