To anyone following this thread...
I will say this with ZERO intent of being a smartass, that between Tony and myself we have collectively over 100 years of experience in most facets of the music industry. Neither of us wants to lead anyone astray and never would intentionally. We do not know everything but what we do not know we can get access to find out faster than many people because of who we have met on our respective journeys.
What Tony is giving you some people pay lawyers a fortune and get less than what he has offered you. It does not get much more meticulous.
The industry as DoubleTake, Tony and myself have said at times is pretty much non-existent in the form it used to be. To navigate what remains in a self-serving environment at the best of times is a nightmare.

What Tony is giving you is what is in place. He is not saying it works perfectly, or that it does what it is designed to do all of the time or that it should or should not be something else.
He is saying: "Here it is, this is what is in place, if you want to cover yourself, get everything of yours where you want it to go, then here are all of what's around", and helping you to navigate it.

Cheers

 

Left humor? Not exactly sure what you mean by that, but maybe i'll take it as a style warning

 

It's a compliment. A left of of center humour is a lateral one that thinks outside of the square. I suppose with all of the political BS going on people might think it is related to that but it is not.
Cheers

 

Thanks for jumping in on my defense. I usually do not ask members why they did not like a contribution I authored but in this case I did it for three reasons. Firstly, the member, @Audiozer , is new and may not be aware that the rules of this site state in pertinent part that :

All your ratings (especially negative or neutral) should be meaningful - so when you're asked to provide reasons for such rating, you should have one. Giving out lots of negative ratings for no obvious reason can get you into trouble. You don't have to rate any posts, it's completely voluntary.

Secondly, my reply to the OP was objective and based on facts. Finally, entertainment law and intellectual property law are two legal areas for which I have received formal education and dealt with for more than 30 years.

 

Your wording from the experience of my journey being spent with people from all walks of life indicated this by how you described the processes.
I felt it was important that people knew neither of us were making any of it up.
Besides that, the most obvious common sense being that if either of us were intelligent enough to speak with such articulation, we would not be wasting that gift by spouting bullshit on a forum where people asked for assistance.

 

So pretty much all i have to do is create an ASCAP account and i can copyright my music on the website and that'll be it? I seem to be having a tough time figuring out copyrights and trademarks, Also how do i get an ISRC code?

 

@tonyg0499 @Voltus76

Thanks for the question but before I start, if you require more on a legal and procedural level if you have any questions, Tony is the Guru there.
Having done this many times you have several options. I will relate the most practical ones for anyone that has no benefactor behind them to release their music and limited funds.
For a start to repeat what Tony said which is 100% accurate, there is no "International Copyright" technically. However, if it is registered with any major royalty collector, it is Globally registered with all of the royalty collectors: ASCAP, APRA,GESAC etc etc.. so every one of the global collectors knows that a song written by you on that date if played in another country and turned in as a royalty received that was played on Internet radio, a jukebox, in a barber shop etc etc etc the royalties get sent to the home base and each year you get a royalty cheque/check. That is the overly simple layman's explanation. The in depth version is far more complicated.

ASCAP | APRA etc....
You register, get a confirmation, then a login and there are forms online where you enter the song|work title, the author or authors and the percentage each contributing author gets and any other details they ask for about when it was written, who the publisher is if there is one so on and so forth. 99% of the time what you do not know or possess to fill in, they tell you to leave blank and then you submit it. If you missed something important it won't let you submit it generally. Most of the time is is a ZIP code or something simple.
This means that you have lodged the song and they have a record of it on that date. In saying that, if someone else of the 7 billion on this planet registered a song with the identical title yesterday it means someone else has the same song name. They might be country music and you a classical concerto as an example, so there will be no complications. See Tony on this part because that heads into legal territory and he knows a shitload more there. It is rare for there to be problems unless contested and this provides you with one method of "proof" of many.

ISRC Codes
There are many places. It can be done inexpensively and mostly for free. For example in Australia & New Zealand they have sites that only require you to join and they give you the codes for free. I know there are some in the U.S.A and Tony is better equipped to give you those because he is North and I am South.
I have enclosed a link to download a FREE ISRC embedding facility into your mastered files. I cannot stress this enough that it is better to put them into the master files because you cannot second guess what format a website will ask you to upload in. By doing this it means you only have to do it ONCE. It will pass to the *.MP3, *.FLAC, *.OGG or whatever format you are asked for from the master to output conversion.
I have also enclosed a pretty close description of why and what ISRC is too.
Free ISRC Embedding tool:
http://www.sonorissoftware.com/catalog/isrc-editor-p-59.html
Southern Hemisphere IRSC example
https://www.recordedmusic.co.nz/portfolio/isrc-codes/
ISRC Description:
http://isrc.ifpi.org/en/get-isrc

There is a good and valid reason NOT to try and do your own. I have an understanding through IT engineering how to write ISRC codes and all anyone has to do is misspell one word in the AXML code and it fails. That is why a generator takes the headache out of the process.
See the ISRC description why it is so important not to make a mistake because it is there for the lifespan of your music.

Wavelab and Sequoia and many mastering programs have the facility internally to create the ISRC codes too. Check your manual if you have any major mastering application.
I hope this helps, but as I mentioned on a legal level see Tony he knows the semantics of what I have said above.
Cheers

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 11, 2018

Copyright and patent and trademarks are different Copyright protects original works of authorship, while a patent protects inventions or discoveries. A trademark protects words, phrases, symbols, or designs identifying the source of the goods or services of one party and distinguishing them from those of others.

Copyright is a form of protection for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works. Thus technically, in order to copyright a song, it just needs to be yours and written it down or recorded. If you wish to copyright your work all you need to do is visit the U.S. Copyright Office's online registration site, the eCO System at https://eco.copyright.gov/eService_enu/start.swe?SWECmd=Login&SWECM=S&SRN=&SWEHo=eco.copyright.gov

For your convenience I have attached 3 PDF files from the USCO that will ease the registration process by answering some questions you may have.

EDIT: I have attached a fourth PDF from the USCO which is a registration tutorial.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 11, 2018

Again - everything you need is pretty much there between two posts

 

There is a couple of things that need to be explain here. An original work in a tangible form automatically creates a copyright. That means that you do not have to register with the USCO to avail yourself of those rights. However, you will have to register if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. Keep in mind that if registration occurs within five years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law. See Circular 1, "Copyright Basics",attached below.

 

That makes sense and is great to know, thanks. Fortunately for the majority of musical artists trying to create some form of art, they do not outwardly try and plagiarise anything. Some do and they tend to be the minority with many being obvious and getting caught. I remember the whole "Pharrell" business and thinking why did you outwardly say: "We were listening to Marvin Gaye when we wrote it". - they may as well have just settled out of court and automatically transferred the royalties to the original authors. That might be one of the dumbest public statements I have ever seen.

 

I'm just dropping my name here to follow a glorious conversation.

tony and the Dude of the BaSs...

...sweet soul music of knowledge...

genuinely