Share Insights for Copyright and Publishing Directives for Songwriters and Composers

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Charles Wolff on July 25, 2009 at 2:45am

Glyn -

Should be an interesting topic... will also be interested in your observations on copyright issues from the perspective of the worship leader, since there seems to be a bit of a chasm between what CCLI claims to cover and what most of us feel we need to be able to do in order to run a worship band, and everybody draws the line where they need it to be drawn.

I guess I'm on the far end of the copyright spectrum from you... I've been writing for 40 years now, closing in on a thousand songs, and have yet to officially register a copyright... the cost, the forms, etc. etc. And I've never really tried to pursue this as a money maker, so I guess I'm still of that (naive) opinion that "hey, the day somebody steals one of my songs and has a hit with it, I'll be honored..."

I know the "poor man's copyright" isn't worth the cost of the registered letter (although I will say that there is one song I wrote years ago, and at some point I realized the only copy of the lyrics I had was in that sealed envelope, and since, by that time, I'd heard it didn't really work, I opened it up and there were my lyrics...), What's the cost of copyright up to these days, $40? But I guess there aren't any options in between...

But, anyway... let's say that over the past year or so, I have written a dozen new worship songs, maybe sung them at my church but haven't posted them online anywhere, and put (c) (me) on all the chord charts and lyric sheets we used at my church. How do I get from there to an official registered copyright? Does the copyright office accept recordings on a CD now? (I know they started taking cassettes at some point).

Charles

Permalink Reply by Glyn Michael Hall on July 29, 2009 at 7:43am

Brother Charles, I appreciate your great comments and questions for this forum. I hope our topic… will capture the interest of the thriving Christian artists who need to know their business behind the scenes of operating their artist based ministry, as creators of inspired works derived from their skills, imagination, and talents they have a vested interest in the fair ownership benefits of their works. Publishing Companies and Recording Labels earn royalties on these works by several forms of licensing rights for producers of CD and video products; there are royalties to be paid to authors and composers of songs, for music compositions and to publishing companies who represent works for commercial use.

Some artists want no part of the business of their ministries and avoid protection of their works, and they provide the works for the public good, which then becomes public domain. When this happens artists forfeits the lifetime + 70 years benefit of royalties from their publishing rights leaving recording companies and sheet music manufactures, movie sound tracks and products manufacturers earning the benefit as a result of the songwriter and composer’s works.

It seems apparent artist based ministries should benefit from their works, so they may fund their ongoing development. Like every industry there is industrial art and there is art. Think of how much we all appreciate the music we listen to. We buy CDs, download songs over the Internet; we attend concerts and watch video of our favorite Christian Artists. All of those attractions we have to support art is paramount in earning income for many industries. Writers, composers, and the artists who perform these works should develop art based ministries to fund their ongoing services by creating new songs and music compositions and they should be funded as any inspired ministry for their outreach of the greater community with artistic exposure of their works.

I will have to study the attributes of CCLI. Although I aware of their services and their licensing agreement to establish rights for churches, to use protected songs and music in their ministries, I am unsure as to what you mean in regards to your saying; “what CCLI claims to cover and what most of us feel we need to be able to do in order to run a worship band, and everybody draws the line where they need it to be drawn,” I have personally not been involved in the business of contracting with CCLI because we perform all original works I have written and self published as a BMI songwriter and owner of a BMI Publishing company since 1991. On the other hand if our music become a staple for praise and worship band in the church ministries then perhaps I will consider CCLI as the being the contractor for our licensing agreements for works we contribute to their network for collections. That is a good point that needs to be addressed in this forum, which is why this forum can be popular to help us all examine the issues facing not only the protection of our works, but the nature of contractors who represent the owner’s licensing issues related to their works.

No mater what end of the educational spectrum you are on whether looking back or forward on the issues relating to registering copyrights, publishing works or licensing questions? We all need to be better informed as to the options and requirements to deal with the common practices of our trade. In fact I believe it is good stewardship to understand these business principals in order to secure the financial blessings of our labor to care for the growth of our ministries just as church fellowships need to work within their budgets, though you first have to secure the income to have a budget. It is one thing for praise and worship bands that are performing CCLI licensed songs and it is other issues altogether for composers, songwriters and performing artists who need to secure multi-faceted strategies that will provide the protection and revenues the deserve for their creative works. As it was said in the movie the Filed of Dreams “Build it and they will come.” It does not mean their going to pay for it, but they will come and use it without thought of the laborers who created it. It is all about perspective as to how you want to handle the works you create, but I believe stewardship of your creative enterprise is good business for everyone. And actually if someone steals a song from an artist and has a hit with it; the fact is it is unlikely the originator of the work will feel honored, rather the person who registered the song will become wealthy from ownership, with or without honor, and the person creating the work will most likely feel used and ripped off in the process because they will be unable to prove the work was theirs; unless they had taken the time to properly protect the works through dependable channels available to them to ensure their rights and benefits of ownership are protected. It is one thing to claim ownership and quite another thing to prove it.

I am glad you found the lyrics to your song, poor man’s copyright is worth more than the cost of the registered letter, but by notarized originals of the work. They provide dated proof of prior publication whether by charts, with lead sheets or chord charts, and by CD, video or manufactured products, which contain the circled © for copyright of the circled (P) for publishing that provides proof of prior art work that testifies to ownership of works in general. As a songwriter and publisher by posting these 2 symbols on the works with notary ensure that copy right has been established and copyright of those works with the library of congress can be made a later date within in the life of the captured copyright, which is the author(s) and Composer(s) life time + 70 years. It is necessary to have the L.O.C. registration of copyright in order to file and win a claim for financial damages in court for the misuse or pirating of these works of art, whether songs with lyrics or music compositions.

The current cost of the copyright is $45.00 and may include just one music composition or song, or 1000 music compositions or songs, as long as you put them in a binder with a table of contents listing the page numbers and the titles of the individual songs or music compositions along with a title page for the collection which identifies these works by the songwriter or composer. This way allows you to copyright as many songs as you want at a time for the one current application fee of $45. with the filing of a PA Form for registering lyrics or a SR Form for registering Sound Recording of the works on cassette, CD or Video.

To get from chord charts and lyric sheets to an official registered Copyright requires the filing of the appropriate PA Form along with 2 copies of the written work, or filing the appropriate SR Form with 2 copies of the cassette or CD, which are both acceptable formats for deposit for registration of Copyrights with the Library of Congress

I hope this enlightens you Charles and I hope other will chime in on your reply to help us all understand these requirements for the protection and right to benefits from the ownership of creative works.

Permalink Reply by Charles Wolff on July 29, 2009 at 1:03pm

Glynn = thanks for the reply... I can tell this is going to be an information-heavy group :-)

To respond to or follow up on a couple of your comments:

- as far as CCLI... yeah, if you're dealing with "worship" music. CCLI is a major part of the equation; in brief, churches buy a license and that gives them permission to reprint the lyrics of covered worship songs (publishers sign agreements with CCLI and then CCLI distributes the license money back to the publishers). It started after F.E.L. sued the Catholic Diocese of Chicago over songsheets and won a $4 million copyright infringement suit.

Rereading your comments, it sounds like you're already familiar with that info, but what I was referring to in my comment was things like printing and distributing chord charts for songs to the worship band. Nowhere on the CCLI site can I find a clear statement as to whether a CCLI license entitles a church to print chord charts for the band. It's not exactly an "arrangement" of the song but it's more than a lyric sheet as well... so we make up chord charts, put our CCLI license number on them and hope we're okay. I did find one oblique reference in one of their help videos that suggests that you need to put your CCLI number on any piece of paper (or projection) that includes the lyrics, and if that piece of paper also happens to include some non-copyrightable information (phone numbers, etc.), you still need the CCLI number to cover the lyrics. Now, as I understand it, the two things you can copyright on a song are the lyrics and the melody, but... "you can't copyright a chord progression." But if you ask CCLI about this, the answer they tend to give is "this is not covered by your CCLI license" - but they don't really answer the question as to whether having a CCLI license is enough that our chord charts are "legal."

- you commented that "poor man’s copyright is worth more than the cost of the registered letter, but by notarized originals of the work" - have there actually been court cases where PMC was enough for someone to prove they had been ripped off (win damages)?

- my question regarding submitting a CD to LOC for copyright was specifically in regard to protecting the SONGS, not the WRITING. My understanding was that you could submit a cassette (or CD?) with the PA form, that you did NOT have to provide a WRITTEN (notated) arrangement of the song. You responded in terms of the SR form to protect the specific RECORDING of the song, but for a lot of people, having to provide written arrangements with the PA form is a big barrier to getting it done. So that was my question - if you're filing a PA form to copyright your SONG, can you submit a CD with recordings of the songs with the PA, or does it have to be a written arrangement? I understood that cassettes had been acceptable with the PA form for many years, just wondering whether they had expanded that to include CDs.

Or am I misunderstanding the purpose of the SR form, is it equivalent to filing the PA form, just with different media? Since all this copyright stuff really comes down to... "if somebody steals my song and I take them to court to sue them over it, do I have the right stuff in place to legally prove they stole my song?" ...well, that's why it can be confusing, and why it's so important to do it right even if you don't know what you're doing :-)

As you can probably tell, I have looked into copyright stuff in the past, and since I now have access to somebody who has been through the process lots of times, I'm taking advantage here to mooch off your knowledge :-) But I'm also kinda playing the dummy's advocate here, asking questions that I'm sure a lot of the new songwriters here have about copyright...

Charles

Permalink Reply by Steve McGuire on January 20, 2010 at 9:36pm

Thanks guys! This is good stuff. Be blessed!

Permalink Reply by Lewis Moore on July 31, 2012 at 2:06am

Thanks for your post and interest in songwriters. I have several songs published through SESAC. 2 years ago I became affiliated with CCLI and am pleased so for with the service they offer to songwriters who write worship songs. Any incites and tips on CCLI would be appreciated.