Stopping people ripping you

[swomp]

Alright, me and my mate have got a tune ready for some publicity.

Just need some tips on stopping any random guy claiming it as theirs or whatever, any suggestions?

Does a simple copyright text work? Or do I need to register it? I've never had to do anything like this. Any advice apreciated. Thanks guys

[clubroot]

I've heard you should put it on a CD and post it back to yourself. Don't open it, just keep it if you need to use it (say as evidence in a court of law). When it gets back round to you It will have a royal mail stamp with a date. I've heard that this is a quick and easy way to copyright your work. May be wrong though, seems a little too simple?

[fixation]

I've heard you should put it on a CD and post it back to yourself. Don't open it, just keep it if you need to use it (say as evidence in a court of law). When it gets back round to you It will have a royal mail stamp with a date. I've heard that this is a quick and easy way to copyright your work. May be wrong though, seems a little too simple?

yeh i heard this is the way, check the producing section at www.globalhardstyle.com, theres a good section on copyrighting

[swomp]

cheers, much appreciated. Will find out more about more about this. Peas x

[djake]

I've heard you should put it on a CD and post it back to yourself. Don't open it, just keep it if you need to use it (say as evidence in a court of law). When it gets back round to you It will have a royal mail stamp with a date. I've heard that this is a quick and easy way to copyright your work. May be wrong though, seems a little too simple?

i heard that so many times and just thought to myself that the person that was telling me was chatting shit.

[Tangka]

I've heard the same...

and while on the subject, i may be entering a contract and I have nobody to ask and not enough time to read a book on the god damn subject so...

does 50-50 net profits and 70-30 ownership (me having 70), aside from the small print, sound good for a digital release contract?

[robot redford]

I've heard the same...

and while on the subject, i may be entering a contract and I have nobody to ask and not enough time to read a book on the god damn subject so...

does 50-50 net profits and 70-30 ownership (me having 70), aside from the small print, sound good for a digital release contract?

I can only tell from dnb side that 50/50 deals are standart. This goes for 'physical' releases (CD/vinyl) as also for digital releases.

Greetings,

Robot

[docwra]

In it copyrighted as soon as you've made it to yourself? To be honest you got the original project files so you always got that evidnece that it's yours

[__________]

become a member of the musician's union

http://www.musiciansunion.org.uk

do the post-it-to-yourself method. if you ever get into any copyright battles, the MU will represent you and fuck over whoever is trying to claim ownership of your music.

its not free to join, but it'll be worth it!

[alan]

I've heard the same...

and while on the subject, i may be entering a contract and I have nobody to ask and not enough time to read a book on the god damn subject so...

does 50-50 net profits and 70-30 ownership (me having 70), aside from the small print, sound good for a digital release contract?

50-50 profit is standard.

i wouldn't be happy with anything other than 100% owner-ship tbh.

re; copyright. posting it to your self is something i do, im 90% sure it will stand up in a court of law but not 100%.
make sure they stamp it over the seal.

[kwality]

50/50 is pretty much the norm with physical, often 60/40 or 70/30 with digital.

The ownership is an interesting one. To be honest if giving up 30% means the label is gonna push the tune onto comps/film/tv etc I'm more than happy to give it.

As far as copyright goes, as soon as you create you have it, and the post is a good back up. I've never worried about it too much really, seems way more prevalent in hip hop than other genres. Good old Timbaland is pretty good at it too!

[setspeed]

the post thing is just a method of proof: in the UK, if you write something then you automatically own the copyright.

the reason people post stuff to themselves is that if it gets to a court situation, you can hold it up and say 'look, i can prove i had a copy of this last year, and this is the earliest copy that anyone has of it' (it's best to send it recorded post. but in this day and age, the fact that you've got a computer with all the individual files and can show how the thing was put together would probably also stand up.

personally i don't bother any more. you only get a couple of hundred squid at best out of a single and that's probably not worth going to court over anyway!

[buzzy]

In this day and age wouldn't you think that if somebody was the first person to upload a tune on a forum, that in itself should be evidence that it is their own music, considering that the date it was uploaded would prove that anybody who later uploaded a ripoff of it would need to have done so at a later date?

[twatty vagitis]

In this day and age wouldn't you think that if somebody was the first person to upload a tune on a forum, that in itself should be evidence that it is their own music, considering that the date it was uploaded would prove that anybody who later uploaded a ripoff of it would need to have done so at a later date?

But no one would upload a tune to a forum they were considering selling would they.

[Tangka]

50/50 is pretty much the norm with physical, often 60/40 or 70/30 with digital.

The ownership is an interesting one. To be honest if giving up 30% means the label is gonna push the tune onto comps/film/tv etc I'm more than happy to give it.

As far as copyright goes, as soon as you create you have it, and the post is a good back up. I've never worried about it too much really, seems way more prevalent in hip hop than other genres. Good old Timbaland is pretty good at it too!

60-40 70-30 in who's favor?

hmm looks like I've gotta look into this ownership thing a bit more too

thanks guys

anyone else?

[kwality]

60/40 in favour of the artist - this is digital mind you, so the outlay on the labels behalf is nowhere near what it is pressing wax. The best label situation though is one that's straight with you, tells you whats happening and supports your work. All the numbers are just a distraction to that I reckon.

[Tangka]

ok, understood

thanks kwality. stay up bro!

guess that's all I'll bother you guys about

[buzzy]

In this day and age wouldn't you think that if somebody was the first person to upload a tune on a forum, that in itself should be evidence that it is their own music, considering that the date it was uploaded would prove that anybody who later uploaded a ripoff of it would need to have done so at a later date?

But no one would upload a tune to a forum they were considering selling would they.

Yes true, but I was coming at it more from the angle that you might want to deliberately give a freebie away to people, but you don't want somebody else trying to rip it off you and profiting from it themselves.
You might just want to get your music out there and distribute some tracks for free, but don't want someone to come along and take credit for it and profit from it.