Wow, cool thread.

I was just about to happily join in and share something created a few years back but then asked myself, "what about copyrights?" What if your song is in a crude unpolished state currently but someone takes it away and does well with it? Most people would not have copyrighted their material at this point and stand to lose any hopes of dreams or ambitions for the future.

Am I just getting too frazzled over nothing? What are the implications? Open source is one state of mind but when it comes to music, unless it is a collaboration then maybe we're just setting ourselves in danger. There's no way that what I was about to share is theft worthy but it just got me thinking. What do you folks think?

Interesting point.

Many bands out there have MySpace's up, and are not signed, and probably haven't technically copyrighted their songs.

However, getting the music out there helps promote, which leads to signings, etc.

I wonder if the act of posting something on a time-dated site would help to prove ownership.

What a world we live in....

[QUOTE=Munk;294386
What if your song is in a crude unpolished state currently but someone takes it away and does well with it? Most people would not have copyrighted their material at this point and stand to lose any hopes of dreams or ambitions for the future.
[/QUOTE]

copyright exists in a musical work pretty much at the moment of its creation - there is no real official "copyright process". When it is recorded, released, published, registered with a collection society (PRS in UK, ASCAP etc in USA), shown on tv, played on radio etc, all these things are really only "time stamps" that can show it existed in a particular form at that particular time.

Even then, as many lawsuits show, that work can be accused of being ripped off something else (currently that Coldplay tune, biggest ever probably George Harrison 'My Sweet Lord')

So, as for worrying about your own stuff being ripped off, well, a) - it does happen, sometimes! but b) the best way to stop it happening is to get it out there as much as possible, so people know you made it, and if it does happen, at least you might get something out of it via a legal claim

in that spirit, here's a youtube of my own recent single

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YxpNqtvTQw

I'd like to share, too

Beware, though... Sax is my forte, not classical guitar and bamboo flute...

Dancing Funeral

Enjoy!

i play piano and alt-saxophone

I guess a little of everything... But, I was really interested in hearing whomever was up for it.

Oh, and to be honest, I recorded everything into my MacBook using the built-in mic. All of the eq was done in post. Funny what you can do with nothing these days, eh?

Tim

Why, thank you.

Tim

This is true. But, it's helpful to add some sort of notice (I use CC for everything) if you publish an album.

But, my opinion was always that if someone liked one of my songs enough to copy it -- especially someone who actually has a name and would benefit financially from it -- it's sort of like flattery. Usually, though, if someone is famous enough (signed, contracted, etc.), they usually always take legal measures to ask the songwriter for permission to use, etc. I know several people who this has happened too. (Once I paid a fairly famous punk rock legend $100 to use a song, because no one could get in touch with the publishing company!)

Tim

Nice work, Jay... I like it a lot!

Tim

Cool. I like ambient, experimental stuff. Nice addition of some "orthodoxy" into the noise... You might like some of my older stuff:

http://myspace.com/adifferentkindofcop

Tim