i am a struggling writer/artist, and have not yet dove headfirst into attempting to promote my work without first contacting either a publisher or lawyer, or some form of legal advisor, as i am mainly entitled to the responsibility and credit for my work and am concerned about the major legalities concerning the copyrights and ownership laws. i tried to work out a deal with a band, but i didn't want to get too involved and commited over my head without first making a definate legal agreement to the rights that declare me legal ownership over songs/lyrics. is it that hard? ok, here atleast is my question. for so long i've admired tool (or insert band of choice here, for your convenience), but just lately i've been curious as to how the band managed to legally release their entire discography without having any lawsuits concerning anything related to piracy (not very important, i see, basically bootlegs, etc) or more importantly, theft, or the lowest form of literal theft, plaigarism. i know my work is altogether new, and raw, and would like to introduce it to the public (with the helping hand of a great ol' band) sometime, but how to get my foot in the door without worrying about people thieving my creations? i don't want to see or hear about people mentioning my work without mentioning me, or atleast repeatings quotes or some such drivel without atleast giving me credit? one last thing: when tool joined the label, did that basically just cover all the copyrights? because i am aiming for something a bit less drastic, as alas compared to tool i am a bit unheard of (though they are a great influence to me) and underground. if i just brought it to the surface in court would they want to skim/brief it or anything? (i know they want to make sure it is completely different and original and you are being honest) but would they question the content and deny it if it was a bit obscene? because i know tool's content is amazing, and if i can get my message out to people i will be satisfied. my ideas are along the lines of biblical, spiritual, sacrifical and anarchaic, would they salute me or think i'm a joke? ps- thanks for your time.
Take any legal advice you get from this forum with a huge grain of salt, as you would with medical advice. That said, however, the copyright laws are far simpler than you probably think in countries that recognize the Berne Convention, which most do. All you have to do is place the copyright notation on the sheet music of your original composition. That's it. It's automatically copyrighted. What's more contentious is what constitutes "original". Obviously, you can't copyright something that someone else wrote, nor even closely resembles what someone else wrote. But if your music is unambiguously original, then it's very simple.
because i'm not signed with a label and technically the band isnt still together, theres no sense in trying to gain copyrights by just automatically giving a label the authority to release my work (since most copyrights would be taken care of that way anyway (?)) but what i meant more specifically was doing that beforehand, the liner notes, lyrics and album art that i dont want just open for anybody to freely use at their own freewill. i plan on using some discretion when selecting a lawyer, and i have read the canadian copyright law (the sections on music, which is more simple, and the art, more complex, but i feel my art should legally be classified as unique and original and creative) so i don't think the berne convention would be necessarily conventional, as i don't write sheet music (it's been years since ive taken music, i'm done high school, it'll look like birds on a wire instead of coherent notes to me) and i plan on finishing the book (which will be an ongoing thing, probably a series of consecutive books in the future) so therefore wouldn't i need to get the copyrights formalized before it's published? i'm using segments from the books for the lyrics, because some of the ideas for the book are song, that's why it's so important. it's kind of a dual project, just the copyrights for the songwriting and my artistic and writing talents.
lol maybe i should revise all the longhand original songs first and save the random obscure theory and artwork for later..?
I guess I don't understand what you're getting at. The Berne Convention applies to any artistic work ... books, music, art, etc. Regarding the sheet music, surely you can find someone who knows musical notation well enough to write it out for you. I could be wrong, but as I understand it, the copyright notation has to be affixed to the written form of the music.
I've released 8 albums on my own label [admittedly mainly because no-one else would ] and I've never bothered over copyright past putting a "copyright control" declaration on the sleeve, when I remember to.
