If this happens to you it will be necessary to prove that you wrote the work in question and this may be difficult if the song was not registered. Unfortunately this can happen to any composer or songwriter at any time and the risks today, with widespread access to music on the internet and mobile devices, are greater than ever before. If you don't register your song this may cause problems if someone copies your song and tries to pass it off as their own. But in order to enforce this copyright you need to be able to prove your ownership. As soon as you write down a song or make a recording, it's copyrighted. Under international law, copyright is the automatic right of the creator of a work. There are many thousands of different songs that share exactly the same titles.Īs discussed above: Under the Berne Convention there is no legal requirement for writers to register work with any official body as ownership is automatic. Anyone and everyone is free to write and publish a song with the title "Yesterday" or "Imagine" or "My Way" for example. Song titles are not protected under copyright law. People often ask if song titles are copyright protected. This protection applies to both published and unpublished works. So under the Berne Convention you officially and legally own the copyright in your work as soon as you express it in a tangible and verifiable form. It is not enough to compose a song in your head and keep it in your memory - it must also exist in a physical and tangible form, a form that others can see or hear, for the copyright rules to apply. This international agreement provides legal protection to the authors of original works where these works have been presented in a tangible, fixed and physical form of expression.This agreement makes it very clear that as soon as your song, music or lyrics are written down, or recorded as a sound recording, they are automatically copyrighted and the writer(s) has/have full legal ownership. A search on the internet will show a number of sites with up to date lists of the countries that have signed. The convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The current version of the convention is the Paris Act of 1971. It was first adopted in 1886 as an agreement to honour the rights of all authors who are nationals of countries that are party to the convention. Most countries have formalised the principles of copyright outlined above by signing up to an international agreement known as the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. This is the law under international legal agreements and it is the basic principle of copyright that is accepted throughout the world. This legal principle of ownership means that the writer controls and owns all rights relating to the use and reproduction of the song - including the right to sell or assign the copyright and ownership to another individual or company. The international laws relating to song copyright state that your songs are your creative work and your property.
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