mechex :
I have a band and we’re about to finish recording our songs for our EP Album. We’re unsigned. We’re really eager to sell them online, but we want to get the copyright first. How long does it take to get the copyright from the moment you send the songs to the copyright office? How long does it take to get the confirmation? Do you know of any other way we can get the copyright as fast as possible?
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If the works are original and unpublished and you haven’t already sold or transferred the rights to someone else, then you already have the copyright (under Australian law, but this is based on international copyright conventions, so it’s much the same everywhere).
Whether you will be able to enforce your right to prevent people copying the tracks without paying you is another question altogether. Huge record companies spend millions to try and stop people copying their tracks, but it still happens, so your chances are small.
You can add something to your website, asking people not to steal your music, because you’re a struggling new act; or you can give the music away and treat it as advertising to raise your profile. You can then use the website to promote your shows (all those people who downloaded the music for free will now pay to see you on stage!) and sell things that are harder to copy, eg T-shirts, keyrings, caps (merchandising is where the money is).
Under United States law, you hold the copyright to any original material that you produce effectively from the minutes you produce the material.
Registering a copyright merely provides an easy way to prove your claim if someone violates your copyright. However, even if you did not register your copyright you can still win a case of copyright infringement against someone as long as you can prove that you created the material first and that the other person copied it.
To register your copyright, go to
There is a fee and, no, they won’t go any faster, but you don’t really need them to go faster. As already stated, you already hold the copyright on your material and can immediately put “Copyright 2008″ on your material.