Question About Putting Your Music On MySpace

O.P.H

When you set up a MySpace page and upload your music to that page, is that a form of copyrighting your music, as in would it hold up in a legal matter. People have said that if you dont want to spend the money copyrighting your music the proper way you can send your music to yourself via registerd mail and that will hold up in court and I was wondering would putting your music on a MySpace page kind of work in the same way, cheers.

Creamy Goodness

as far as i know you surrender all rights to any songs you upload to myspace to ruppert murdoch.

O.P.H

LMAO......I think

O.P.H

Anyone got more advice?

YeVaD

Thats actually what I had heard too. Rupert Murdoch is quite the ****e in that regard. I haven't copyrighted music myself but a friend of mine did for his bands demo and it didn't sound like too much work, but even if it is copyrighting it is probably best for you in the long run.

BrianD

No, you don't hand over the copyright to Mr. Murdoch at all you effectively grant him a licence to have it available on the site and modify it (as it needs to be compressed).

There is actually no formal means of copyrighting a piece of creative work. Copyright automatically exists once you put a piece of creative work into material form e.g. a recording on a CD or lyrics written on paper. Arguably the only time copyright comes into use is if there is a dispute! So you do need to put your work into material form and prove it exists at a certain time.

In theory you could argue that the date of posting a song on MySpace is a digital stamp and a record of the transction just like sending it as a registered mail item. It's not foolproof (nor is the registered mail method) but I would suggest that you spend the few quid and do it the old fashioned way.

Here's the T&C's from MySpace regarding copyright

Myspace wrote:

Proprietary Rights in Content on MySpace.com.
MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the MySpace Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content on and through the MySpace Services. Without this license, MySpace.com would be unable to provide the MySpace Services. For example, without the right to modify Member Content, MySpace.com would not be able to digitally compress music files that Members submit or otherwise format Content to satisfy technical requirements, and without the right to publicly perform Member Content, MySpace.com could not allow Users to listen to music posted by Members. The license you grant to MySpace.com is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to MySpace.com), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that MySpace.com is not required to pay you for the use on the MySpace Services of the Content that you post), sublicensable (so that MySpace.com is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide the MySpace Services), and worldwide (because the Internet and the MySpace Services are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the MySpace Services. The license does not grant MySpace.com the right to sell your Content, nor does the license grant MySpace.com the right to distribute your Content outside of the MySpace Services.
You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the MySpace Services or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of your Content on or through the MySpace Services does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, intellectual property rights (including copyrights), contract rights or any other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the MySpace Services.
The MySpace Services contain Content of MySpace.com ("MySpace.com Content"). MySpace.com Content is protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other laws, and MySpace.com owns and retains all rights in the MySpace.com Content and the MySpace Services. MySpace.com hereby grants you a limited, revocable, nonsublicensable license to reproduce and display the MySpace.com Content (excluding any software code) solely for your personal use in connection with viewing the MySpace Website and using the MySpace Services.
The MySpace Services contain Content of Users and other MySpace.com licensors. Except for Content posted by you, you may not copy, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, transmit, distribute, perform, display, or sell any Content appearing on or through the MySpace Services.

-Freebird-

To copyright music, print out tabs, lyrics etc etc and post them to yourself... Date it and keep it sealed...

YeVaD

Its not good enough for you to date it and seal it yourself, whats to say you didnt do it the day before as opposed to 5 years ago? Thats why registered mail works, as its an official thing and isn't done by yourself, it can stand up as copyright so long as the seal isn't tampered with.

O.P.H

"but I would suggest that you spend the few quid and do it the old fashioned way".

What do you mean by this, are you talking about registered mail or is there an official way to copyright because if there is I dont know it.

BrianD

The old fashioned way is 'registered mail' and in the absence of any formal or official means of copyrighting there is no other way. All you need to have is your creative work in material form and evidence that it existed at a point of time and registered mail provides a receipt that the envelope containing your work was posted at a point in time.

I would hazard a guess that somepublishing houses probably have store rooms full of such envelopes!

O.P.H

What exactly do you mean by material form because all I have posted to myself by registered mail is a cd of my music and a dated note explaining the cd. When you say material form do you mean tab form etc because I was told before it is better if you have your work copywritten in written form aswell.

BrianD

A CD would be your work in material form. Obviously the more information you put together the better. BTW I am not a copyright advisor so if this is really important to you the best thing would be to consult with IMRO or one of the other music bodies.