USCopyrightRegistration

5 December 2004

Registering that copyright with the Library of Congress gives you a pretty
good assurance of an easy court case if your rights are infringed. On the other
hand you could just talk shit on the mic about him, blow it up into a big war and get a lot of good press out of it. For both of you.

There is also the "Poor Man's copyright", mailing a cassette of the
works in question to yourself via registered mail, completly sealed and dated.
The idea is you strutt into court with the thing and the judge opens it up and
tosses the tape in his/her boombox. It has been said this is competely
ineffective. That is debatable.

Most techno etc. does not worry about this stuff. If you write songs, as in
House, you might feel the need to register your stuff. But then sampling is
flattery and if you do get sampled, it will just help you to sell your back
catalog. If you manage to copyright a 303 pattern, please write me. If you manage
to copyright a rearrangement of the Amen break.... You can register as many works as you like with the Library of Congress in one
batch for 20$. You send them a tape of stuff collected under a formal title like
"Collected Works of DJ Blah Blah" with a form known as an SR : Sound
Recording. This can be done every so often but is often not done at all. You
decide what the risk is. A form PA will register the Copyright of Composition, a
form SR will register the Copyright of Sound Recording. If you only fill out an
SR, it will automatically register both the Composition and the Sound Recording.
The forms are available at your public library. Or Library of Congress : You can now download ALL the U.S. Copyright forms (and INSTRUCTIONS!) that
you'll need to register your songs or sounds.
Available are:
FORM PA -
For registering songs
FORM SR - For registering sound recordings
(simultaneously registering the song)
FORM CA - For updating previous
registrations.
All available for free download at THIS www site: http://www.hitme.net/useful/index.html

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