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

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

2) You write ‘Copyright by’ [YOUR NAME] and the date at the bottom. And voila! That’s it. This is now your copyright under the law in more than 160 countries. Nobody can use this without your consent. But there is a problem with this. A big problem…

The Problem is… Try 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 around the world are full of cases of copyright infringement.

The United States Copyright Office provides the most well-established copyright service. (Many other countries, including the UK, do not offer any government copyright services.) In fact, if you copyright using this US 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 copyright. That’s not much for successful songwriters like Diane Warren or authors like JK Rowling, but it’s a lot for creative people who often struggle to pay rent. But it DOES prove that you copyrighted your stuff when you said you did.

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

Intellectual property (copyright) theft 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 worth of copyright was stolen.

58 billion is such a huge number that it is difficult to understand. 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 the final Copyright Law is well covered and established 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 obtain copyrights to your songs is to publish them yourself on the Internet. This creates copyright (as long as you say it’s copyright!) but it’s also very dangerous; just to say 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 publish your music using a ‘Third Party Witness’, someone or some company that can independently attest to the date and place you published your songs, then you are in a very strong position. This is, of course, something provided by the US and Canadian governments, but it’s not cheap, costing around $50 per song.

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

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