QUESTION
What rights do i have if someone copyrighted a song i wrote? even if i have recorded performances before they copy-wrote the song? what can i do?
Asked on May 02nd, 2012 on Entertainment Law - New Jersey
More details to this question:
i created a band 6 yrs ago. hired the musicians through auditions. then began writing and performing together. i wrote 90% of the songs on our first cd. we released that low budget as a handout EP. in that time i wrote a song guitarwise in its entirety(Start to finish). it did not make it onto the 1st because we werent finished with it at the time of recording.over the next yr we performed that song. and also rewrote a song from the first ep.heres my issue. 2 yrs ago we underwent a line up change. we ended up finding a new guitarist and bassist. i taught them the songs i wrote with rest of the band.. as a guitarist i showed them how to play the songs. we finally recorded the song i wrote and the redone song from the first cd. well long story short i decided to leave the band 5 months ago. upon leaving at the time i was unaware that the bassist copy-wrote the songs under him and the other 3 members of the band. i am now told i legally i dont exist on the current cd and songs i wrote.
1 ANSWER
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Nancy J. Flint Attorney at Law, P.A.
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Generally, the authors of a creative work, like a song, own the copyright in the work. If multiple people co-wrote the song, then there are multiple copyright owners and each of them can do whatever they want with the work. When you say the band members "copy-wrote" one of your songs, are you saying that they registered the copyright with the United States Copyright Office? If they did not list you as an author, their registration could be invalid for fraud. That means if you continued to play or publish or do anything else with your song, they would not be successful on a copyright infringement claim against you on the grounds that their registration is invalid. There are a lot of other facts that could change the result, though, so you should consult an attorney knowledgeable in this field to discuss your particular situation.
Answered on May 27th, 2012 at 9:11 AM