Re: registering a composition

[Gilles Sadowski]

Hi.

Le jeu. 21 mai 2020 à 19:57, Francesco Petrogalli
<address@hidden> a écrit :
>
> OK, thank you all for the kind reply.
>
> Here is my understanding, just double cheking with you guys is my
> reasoning is right.

I can't follow the whole reasoning (see below), but the conclusion
seems nevertheless utterly unfair.

>
> Step 1: secure the copyright of the PDF of the composition.
> I am tempted to say that this is already done by the fact that I have
> stored all commits of the development of the PDF via lilypond in a
> private repo on bitbucket.org. If the originality of the piece will
> ever be challenged, all I need to do it either make the private repo a
> public repo, or, if bitbucket dies by the time someone challenges the
> originality, I just need to show the git repository I have stored in a
> second secure place.
>
> To make it even more safer than that, I can register the copyright either 
> with:
>
> 1. the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress (online)
> 2. copyright.co.uk
> 3. https://www.costozero.org/
> 4. patamu.com
>
> I have a slight preference for patamu.com, it seems quite easy and
> fully online, it also has international validity, the other options
> seems to be country-specific.
>
> Step 2: register to a PRO to secure the royalties (even if no
> royalties will ever come to me).
>
> I can register to ASCAP or BMI, as an individual who is both the
> composer and the publisher. It doesn't matter whether I upload the PDF
> or not, the royalties will be collected on the name of the song and
> the author/publisher, if someone will ever play it. If ASCAP / BMI
> will ask for a copy/link of the work, I can always upload the PDF or
> link an upload in, say, soundcloud, of the wave file generated from
> the midi.
>
> Then, say that the band I am giving this piece will decide to produce
> a recording, they will register their recording on their favorite PRO,
> simply saying that they are the publisher and that I am the writer.
>
> Step 3: publish the PDF on the internet
>
> When the prior steps are done, I can safely upload the PDF on my
> personal website, for anyone to download. I just have to make sure
> that I mark it saying "Copyright (C) 2020 by Francesco Petrogalli
> (ASCAP). All rights reserved."
>
> Thank so much for all the useful help! I just want to add a bit of
> background in case there are some details that might change the way I
> should do this.
>
> 1. I am a software engineer working on open source code. In the spirit
> of open source, I initially wanted to use a CC-BY license on the work,
> then I read this and completely changed my mind.
> https://www.ascap.com/playback/2007/FALL/FEATURES/creative_commons_licensing,

This link is not viewable unless one accepts this site's advertizing
and targeting cookies.
So please lay out why you changed your mind about CC.

> which somehow seems to contradict
> https://creativecommons.org/2010/06/30/response-to-ascaps-deceptive-claims/.
> I would have loved to use a CC license that would have guaranteed my
> royalties via ASCAP, but ASCAP doesn't seem to be happy about this
> license so I will not use it.

IIUC, CC licences aim to protect against others making money from
your work.  How is "ASCAP not being happy" related to that?

As a comparison, proprietary software publishers can be unhappy
about FLOSS, and FUD campaigns follow.  Would that make you
stop "working on open source code"?

> 2. The song has been written with my 7yo son. He is mentioned in the
> PDF as a co-author, but I don't think I can mention it as one of the
> authors in ASCAP because ASCAP requires to certify "you are 18yo or
> older" when registering. I will anyway publish a video on youtube of
> the "improvisation session" in which he came up with the melody. This
> plus the authorship claim in the PDF will hopefully secure his part of
> the copyright.
>
> Again, thank you for the help, this is being painful and interesting
> at the same time :)
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Francesco
>
> PS: lilypond rocks! :)

Unless I'm mistaken, LilyPond (GNU) and CC belong to the "eco-system"
where sharing is the norm (to enhance the common cultural pool) while
making it hard for "free-riders".  Using the tools offered by that alternate
system, and then bow to the arguments of those who smear it seems a
contradiction.

Regards,
Gilles


>
> On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 8:32 AM Tim McNamara <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > > On May 21, 2020, at 3:34 AM, Valentin Villenave <address@hidden> wrote:
> > >
> > > On 5/21/20, Francesco Petrogalli <address@hidden> wrote:
> > >> I have written it with lilypond, but it hasn't been performed yet. I
> > >> wanted to secure the copyright before performing it. Given that there
> > >> is no performing artist yet, there is no recording, so I cannot
> > >> register it with ASCAP. Have I got this right?
> > >
> > > No registration anywhere is needed to "secure the copyright". All you
> > > need to have is a way of proving your anteriority if anyone were to
> > > come and claim they’ve written it instead of you. There are several
> > > commercial services that can do that for you (though many are scams),
> > > but there are cheaper and simpler ways; a simple web search brought me
> > > to the following page:
> > > https://copyright.co.uk/legal-copyright-law.html
> >
> > Copyright law is nationally controlled, not internationally controlled for 
> > the most part.  There is a degree of reciprocity.  In the US, copyright is 
> > automatically granted to creators but copyright is also divided- the 
> > creator has rights but so does the publisher, which matters in terms of 
> > royalty payments if the work is recorded or performed.  As the saying goes, 
> > keep the publishing.  Thousands of artists and composers lost out on 
> > billions of dollars because they signed the publishing away in the early 
> > days of their careers in the fine print of a recording contract.  This has 
> > been standard practice in the recording industry since its inception and 
> > has beggared many a musician/composer.  I do not feel bad at all about the 
> > slow death of the major labels since the the internet made their business 
> > model basically non-viable; most of them have been right bastards to 
> > artists.  Create your own publishing company wholly owned by you.
> >
> > I don't know about ASCAP; I use BMI and songs can be registered with them 
> > prior to recording or performance.  ASCAP and BMI seem to work about the 
> > same as do all the performance rights organizations (PROs) in the US; these 
> > only cover live performance.  I register my songs when I judge them 
> > completed, even though no one else will likely ever perform them since I am 
> > completely unknown and they are usually weird.  I write to amuse myself, 
> > mainly.  Recording royalties through mechanical licenses in the US are 
> > managed almost universally through the Harry Fox Agency.
> >
> > As for proving that you are the originator of a composition, thankfully 
> > your computer records the creation date of your files.  That will almost 
> > certainly never be challenged unless you write a hit record and someone 
> > decides they want a piece of those royalties.  That has led to some truly 
> > bizarre examples of jurisprudence (suing an artist for plagiarizing 
> > themselves, for example; suing an artist for writing music that doesn't 
> > sound like stuff they've written before, etc.).
>