The Music Industry (Part 5) : Explaining Copyright

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What Is Copyright?
Copyright means the owner of a work of music or otherwise. In Ireland and most other countries, that property is considered automatic at the moment of writing down, preferably in manuscript form with the words. It’s not necessary to have worked out all the parts and arrangements.

Copyright can be “reborn” when a piece of music for which the right has expired receives a totally new arrangement. The creator can copyright this arrangement, although the original tune may remain out of copyright.

The duration of time before copyright expires is usually around seventy years after the end of the year in which the author dies or seventy years after the year of release, if this takes place after the author’s death.

Note the word ‘author’. Copyright, as property, can be sold, assigned or licensed to a third party. But even if it is administered by or owned by someone else, its duration hinges on the author’s lifespan. And the composer cannot lose his or her moral rights, established under the Copyright Act of 1987.

The Copyright Act of 1963 provides protection for the copyright owner, in respect of:

Copying work
Issuing copies of work to the public
Performing, showing or playing work in public
Broadcasting (On most broadcasting mediums, you have to remember Irish law can be a bit slow at times)
Adaptation

Moral Rights And What They Are
Moral Rights apply during an author’s lifetime, irrespective of who is the copyright owner, however there can be certain qaulifications to be met first. The moral rights of an artist are:

The right to be identified as the author of the work
The right to object to any derogatory treatment of the work
The right not to have work falsely attributed to you
The right to privacy

Establishing Copyright
You can register the work with a bank or solicitors but the easiest means of all is to send yourself a manuscript/ recording of the work and a signed list by all of the contributors to the work detailing who contributed what by registered post or recorded delivery. When it arrives, DO NOT OPEN IT!

The receipt of postage, which you should retain, establishes a date of copyright. In case of dispute, the envelope should only be opened under the direction of your legal representative.

Heres a few simple tips when undertaking this method:

Establish your copyright as quickly as possible after you have created a work
Ensure that the date stamped by the Post Office Clerk is clear.
Write the title of the work on the outside of the envelope.
Write your name and the names of all other contributors CLEARLY.

You should include the copyright details on every copy of your work, whether in manuscript or recorded format, as follows:

“© (insert year) Copyright Holder’s Name”

The Internet And The MP3
Most people do not think of it but downloading music constitutes as a performance/broadcast and a replication. Despite most peoples opinions the law DOES remains the same on and off the Internet: ‘you can’t copy (a sound recording) on to a server, download it, upload it, stream it or play it over the Internet, save it on your hard drive or burn it on to a computer disk or CD-R’ without permission.

A conviction for an infringement of copyright will more than likely lead to fines (the amount of which would be dependant on how much/many works you have infringed upon). However, to date there has not been one conviction for this in Ireland altough things do look set to change with IRMA announcing their intent to pursue and prosecute a shortlist of persistent offenders.

Licensing

Having established your copyright, you are then more free to go about marketing your work. If you sell it outright, you recieve a fee, however this practice is fairly uncommon unless it is a commisioned work such as a film score or radio jingle etc.

Alternatively, you can register with IMRO and have them do most of the leg work for you, collecting royalties for performance and so on from bars, shops, restaurants and so on. Your publisher, if you have one, will more than likely liase with IMRO provide accounting for you and may well be in a position to help you with your marketing.

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Damien Gill (For Goldenplec.com), © 2009
UN-AUTHORISED REPRODUCTION, COPYING, RE-POSTING PROHIBITED WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION

DISCLAIMER: While the author (Damien Gill) has written this article from professional experiences as well as taking all reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of this article, such information is not guaranteed. Therefore the author and Mantra Music will not be held responsible for any individual decisions taken as a direct / in-direct result of this article or any information contained within this article which is intended for general information purposes only.