The Guild's Copyright Service provides an immediate online service or mailing postal service for copyright registrations and provides the opportunity for songwriting and composing members of the Guild of International Songwriters and Composers to register FREE within their membership with the Guild's Copyright Registration Centre for copyright protection of their songwriting and composing copyrights, and any other intellectual property they own, and any co-written (with other Guild members) copyrights & intellectual property rights FREE of charge, Therefore helping safeguarding Guild members songwriting, composing copyright and other intellectual copyrights.
A Copyright Certificate issued to the Guild member outlines details of the copyrights registered on any specific date to help protect against any copyright theft, claim, infringement or dispute. Copyright protection through the Guild's members free Copyright Service can be used for the registration of songs, instrumental themes, manuscripts, lyric sheets, paper documents, poetry, traditional arrangements of songs/instrumentals, musicals, advertisements, spoken word, literary (consisting of or occupied with books), musical tutorials, manuals, literature or written composition, artistic, belletristic, poetic, dramatic, recorded works, sound recordings such as demos, commercial releases, library recordings as digital Mp3 audio files, digital Mp4 video files.
The Guild will supply where there is ever any copyright dispute, certified information and a copy of works titles and date of registration of a Guild members work(s) as registered with the Guild as an official declaration of a members registration, to solicitors, lawyers, courts of law or any member's other legal representatives in any country in the world where cases of copyright theft, claims, infringements or disputes arise, to support Guild members' copyright registrations and claims. Copyright protection through the Guild's Copyright & Intellectual property rights witnessing service is FREE to all members of The Guild of International Songwriters & Composers who wish to register to protect their copyrights / intellectual property rights.
Many have heard of 'a poor man's copyright' which some people allege to be a solution to copyright fees having to be paid to register your works with some, like the American government, or people setting up a copyright registration services that are here today and gone tomorrow. (The Guild’s copyright service has been running since 1986 providing a global service. The basic idea was if you recorded your song onto whatever medium, i.e tape, cd, cassette, mp3 etc, and posted it back to yourself by recorded delivery / certified post, you could prove that you were (1) the composer / author of the work, and (2) the date that you wrote the work(s). Regretfully this did not hold up in court to legal scrutiny and is not recommended as a way to protect your music. There is no alternative to copyright registration where a competent third party, can attest to knowledge of the owners right to their copyright(s), regardless of the incorrect opinions and advice given on this subject of 'a poor man's copyright'.
Answer. The Guild's Copyright service which is only available to Guild members is a free service within the songwriters and composers membership and can be used as many times as the Guild member wishes
Answer. Once you have registered your copyright (intellectual property rights) with the Guild, then you do not have to register the work with the Guild again (unless there is a significant change to the work - songs or instrumentals). Your certificate is proof of the registration and your claim is held on our files as evidence of your registration. Don't be fooled into paying for further copyright registrations after a few years to some organisations, companies or individuals who have set up a fee paying copyright registration service at an expense per song. There is no need to do this. In the UK for instance your copyright is valid for 70 years after your death where the work then passess into Public Domain. Your membership to The Guild entitles you to register as many of your works as you wish FREE of charge within your membership. The Guild's Copyright Registration Centre has operated its copyright service for its members for the past thirty (35) years
Answer. Registration is extremely simple and quick. All the information on how to use the FREE members copyright service is outlined in the membership pack you receive when you become a member.
Answer. ABSOLUTELY - YES. Registration is evidence of your claim to the fact that you wrote the work and that you have taken steps to identify yourself as the true legitimate owner of the work(s) from a certain date in time. If you have a copyright case to defend where someone has plagiarised or stolen your work, how are you going to prove that you wrote it and that you are the legitimate owner of the work. The Guild's songwriting / composing copyright certificate is evidence that you took steps to register your song(s) and composition(s) as your own and that the intellectual property rights and copyrights are yours. It is extremely important to protect your copyrights which could be a valuable asset where royalty income (money) is being generated.
Answer. Mailing a copy of the work(s) to yourself is not a good practice in itself. This type of evidence is problematic If the packet or envelope is sealed with sellotape or scotch tape, or stapled then it could be argued that it has been opened and resealed, and could be a fake or corrupted evidence. We strongly advise against this type of registration as a main registration, but may be good as a secondary back up to a main registration in support, but is questionable.
Answer. As soon as you have finished writing and composing your songs or instrumental (or any other copyright material that you have completed) and you are satisfied that the work(s) is finished then the moment it is written down (lyrics / manuscript / or any other copyright material that you have completed or recorded) then that is the time to register your copyright. You should do this as quickly as possible before it is given to anyone or promoted for any purpose.
Answer. International Copyright. Intellectual property rights of nationalities is recognised world wide under various treaties such as The Berne Convention, Treaty of Rome, The Universal Copyright Convention, The World Intellectual Property Organisation Copyright Treaty (WIPO Copyright Treaty), TRIPS Agreement etc., as qualifying treaties and conventions. Basically it could be argued that there is no such thing as international copyright, as there isn't a single governing body or international government body representing exclusively the world of intellectual property. To get a "one world" exclusive body to protect whether by registration or automatically intellectual property rights in every territory of the world is not going to happen, hence the qualifying treaties that currently exist to help protect copyright owners on an international basis and this depends also upon the laws of any specific country and how they interpret the international treaties and conventions, The Berne Convention, Treaty of Rome, The Universal Copyright Convention, The World Intellectual Property Organisation Copyright Treaty (WIPO Copyright Treaty), TRIPS Agreement etc., As long as you take steps to register your work and to at least make an effort to prove and claim that you created the work and it belongs to you on a given moment in time, then at least you can show that you have evidence it is yours and that you took steps to register your work in case of any infringement.
