HOW DO I COPYRIGHT A SONG?

 Although the Berne Convention, which the United States is a signatory to, creates a “universal copyright” or copyright upon creation and publication of a work, the work is not “registered” until it has, in fact, been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. This means that all of the benefits of copyright ownership are not available in America until the Copyright has been registered.

Registering a copyright is as easy as preparing and submitting an application to the United States Copyright Office with the appropriate filing fee and copies of the copyrighted material. Once the work is registered and the certification is issued, the benefits of the registration begin immediately and are retroactive to the initial filing date.

A formal registration of the creative materials with the U.S. Copyright Office within three months of public release provides additional, valuable benefits to the owner of the work. Some of these benefits include that the work now becomes a matter of public record and is available for search within the U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress. A work must also be registered in order to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit (17 U.S.C. § 411(a)).


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