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Songs, Lyrics and Music Theft is a Fast-Growing Problem.
Songwriters, Musicians, Composers and Authors are unwittingly putting their Intellectual Property at risk from online digital theft.
With somewhere in the region of almost 3 billion people now having easy access to Internet, the incidences of IP theft – ‘Intellectual Property Theft’ – have never been higher.
Part of the problem lies in the very technology that modern, creative individuals use, on a daily basis, to record, store and distribute their work.
It’s estimated that millions of dollars are being lost every day by artists whose songs and music has been ‘lifted’, illegally, without the owner’s consent, to make money with no intention of sharing the profits with the creators of these often-valuable works.
The application of the internationally-recognized Copyright symbol – the ‘©’ – no longer carries any protection at all from many millions of unscrupulous individuals – and business owners – prepared to steal songs, music and lyrics using the latest digital technology. And more often than not, a simple ‘right click’ of a mouse is all that’s required.
The US Copyright office offers a very good copyright protection system, although it can prove expensive for speculative composers and songwriters at $45 per work. It can also be labour-intensive and slow, taking (sometimes) up to 4-6 months to receive registration.
The alternative, so-called ‘Poor Man’s Copyright’ offers no protection from the Internet ‘Pirates’ who illegally use and distribute other people’s copyright material on a daily basis.
An added danger is that many Songwriters are now using Social Networking websites to ‘showcase’ their material to the world. Again, many do so in the belief that by simply marking their pages ‘Copyright by…’ or applying the ‘©’, they’re protected.
One of the most effective ways to protect songs and music from illegal use (theft) is to have the material published. But it’s a competitive market, and these days, Music Publishers are very selective – even though, unlike most industries, Music Publishing Companies’ profits are still on the increase. And 2009 is predicted to be another boom year for Music Publishing. Deals are being signed hand over fist for digital distribution of songs and music. Musical Ringtones are another huge earner.
So what’s a Songwriter to do? The simple step is to self-publish material, ensuring an effective ‘paper trail’ that establishes a history and trackable existence of his or her songs. And using the Internet, this can be easily done too, although care has to be taken that the actual ‘publishing’ can be verified by an independent third party – which in turn, establishes and endorses an effective, demonstrable form of copyright.
Plus by self-publishing, the songwriter retains all rights to the songs and music. So later, if a deal with a Record Label or Music Publisher is offered, the songwriter ‘goes into the meeting’ with full control of his or her material.
This puts the songwriter in a better, initial position – self-publishing illustrates that the songwriter has already taken the first step in ‘taking care of business’ – ‘TCB’ as Elvis’s belt buckle so rightly pointed out.
It seems likely that with the thousands of websites being created every day, plus the constant, 24/7 theft of songs and music through the Internet, the need for on-line Publishing and Copyrighting services can only increase.
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Source by Norman MacLeod