Talking points on Copyright basics presented at the Plea for Peace Center's Band Business Crash Course, Nov. 3, 2012. Presented by the Pacific Music Management Club, faculty and alumni.

1. COPYRIGHT BASICS
Band Business Crash Course
November 3, 2012
Dana Myers, Esq.

2. COPYRIGHT: WHAT IS IT?
 Copyright is a limited duration monopoly that the government
provides to people that create original works.
 Bundle of Rights
 Reproduce the work
 Prepare derivative works
 Distribute copies by sale, rental, lease, or other transfer of
ownership
 Perform the work publicly
 Display the work publicly
 Perform the work publicly via digital audio transmission (audio
recordings)
 Copyright only extends to the intellectual property – not the
physical work itself.
 The sale of the only copy of a painting of the Golden Gate Bridge
does not transfer ownership in the copyright
 Why is copyright important?
 Without copyright, anyone could exploit (and profit from) your
own work

3. CREATING COPYRIGHT
 What can be copyrighted?
 Original works of authorship
 Fixed in a tangible form of expression
 Things that cannot be copyrighted
 Ideas (as opposed to an expression of an idea)
 Words, short phrases, slogans, band names…
 Genres of music
 Copyright exists the moment the work is created in a fixed form
 Copyright immediately becomes the property of the author who
created the work
 If more than one person created the work, the “default” is that both parties
hold an equal share in the ownership of the work.
 Songs have 2 types of copyrights involved
 Song Copyright
 Sound Recording Copyright
 Albums are considered “collective works” – several individual
works (which can all be copyrighted) arranged or assembled in a
special way. Collective works are copyrightable.

4. ENFORCING COPYRIGHT
 The copyright owner must enforce his or her own
copyright
 Limited exception: federal prosecution/FBI
 Copyright is enforced by suing the infringer
 You must prove that you created the work first
 Proving Copyright Ownership and Creation Date
 Notice
 © , Copyright, or Copr. (or ℗ for sound recordings)
 Date of first publication
 Owner
 Registration: www.copyright.gov
 Application
 Filing fee (basic claim is $35 online or $65 in paper form)
 Deposit copies for the Library of Congress

5. BENEFITS OF REGISTRATION
 Establishes a public record of the copyright claim
 Required before initiating an infringement lawsuit
 “Prima facie” evidence of the validity of the
copyright if made before or within 5 years of
publication
 Establishes the right to recover statutory damages
and attorney’s fees if registration is made within 3
months of publication

6. EXERCISE
 What elements must be present for a work to be eligible for copyright
protection?
A. Original work of authorship
B. Fixed in a tangible medium
C. Approval from a copyright judge
D. All of the above
E. Both A and B are correct
 Which of the following are exclusive rights in copyrighted musical
works:
 The right to reproduce the copyrighted work
 The right to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work
 The right to defame another individual or group with the copyrighted work
 The right to distribute copies of the copyrighted work
 The right to perform the copyrighted work publicly
 What are the various copyrights involved with the release of your
musical act’s debut album onto CD, for which you designed all of the
artwork and produced the accompanying music video?