How to protect your own musical works
First, you must first prove that the songs you write are your own. This sounds easy to say, but it’s actually quite difficult. You can prove when the song belongs to you through your original creative manuscript, the track file of the song, the person who recorded the song, and the friends who first listened to your song. Of course, the best way is to register with the Copyright Office.
Secondly, the song licensing agreement must be in paper form to be effective. This is mainly aimed at musicians who like to upload songs to websites and share them with others. Everyone likes to upload songs to music websites. When uploading, there may be a step of "agreeing to the upload agreement" to upload the song. Although the agreement has a lot of content, let me tell you, it cannot prove that you have authorized the song copyright to Website, not to mention that the website can make money from your songs, the copyright of the songs is still in your hands. By extension, any electronic agreement related to song copyright authorization is invalid and will be considered an invalid overlord clause within China's legal framework.
Third, sign the copyright licensing agreement carefully and add the terms you want to add. If you want to license the song, whether you want to license the song to a ringtone company or a record company, you must remember that the terms written in the agreement have legal effect, and the validity of other oral promises is uncertain.
How to protect your original musical works
Original literary and artistic works are the fruits of the creator’s intellectual labor. This kind of labor product is original. A good literary and artistic work can bring people good audio-visual enjoyment, so it is valuable or has the possibility of realizing value. The Copyright Law affirms the copyright that the creator of a work enjoys over his or her work. This right includes two parts: one is moral rights, which mainly include the right of signature, that is, the right to indicate that one is the creator of the work; the other is material rights, that is, the right to use The work or the right to obtain economic benefits by authorizing others to use the work; before a work is publicly published, only the author or a familiar friend may know the work. At this stage, infringement issues generally do not arise. Here, the author introduces theThe first few more effective protection methods:
1. Register original music works through the China Music Copyright Association (with branches in various places) (this method is only applicable to music work). Registered works can serve as preliminary evidence against similar works in the future. As far as the author understands, the association does not charge a registration fee, but the creator needs to authorize the work to the association in a trust manner (in the legal sense of the word trust, once the author joins the association, he loses his independent rights to the musical works. Unless you cancel the membership first), future profits will be divided into 80% and 80% with the association. This method has discouraged the majority of music authors. The author recommends that the China Music Copyright Association reform this mechanism. Currently, the Music and Writers Association has launched an online registration service.
2. Notarize the copyright through a notary office. According to the author’s understanding, Beijing’s notary institutions are reluctant to do this business. The reason is very simple. The staff of the notary office have not personally experienced the author’s creative process and cannot confirm whether the work applying for notarization is necessarily the author’s original work.
3. Witnessed by a lawyer. This method is the most flexible. The lawyer accepts the entrustment of the copyright owner and uses his or her professional credibility to issue a certificate of copyright for the author according to the author's different requirements. At the same time, the lawyer can provide the author with professional and comprehensive legal services and support. In the same way, a lawyer has not experienced the creative process of the creator, and it is impossible to directly witness the copyright. The effect of the witness here is equivalent to the registration of works by the Copyright Society, but it can only produce the probative power of registering similar works after confrontation.
4. Other methods: such as registering the work at the Copyright Office, mailing the work, etc.
The protection period of music copyright
The protection period of music copyright stipulated in the Copyright Law refers to the period of music copyright protection. The songwriters, adaptors, translators and other creators of the work enjoy the exclusive protection period of the musical works they create. The term of protection expires on December 31 of the 50th year after the author's death. The deadline for collaborative works is December 31st of the 50th year after the death of the last author. Musical works that have expired can be used free of charge, but the author's personal rights such as the right to authorize the work, the right to protect the integrity of the work, and the right to modify are forever protected.
So the content presented above is the relevant suggestions and methods on how to protect your own original music works. I hope that everyone who is chasing their dreams can protect themselves rationally in their enthusiasm. Finally, if you have other questions that have not been resolved, it is recommended to come to the Legal Savior Network for targeted online legal consultation. gratefulread.
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