There can surely be few things worse than working really hard, using your individual talents to create something special, personal and unique only to have someone steal your work – or even just a part of it.
Many artists, especially in their early careers, don’t take advantage of the copyright facility to protect their precious work and sadly copyright infringements do occur. The main reason this can happen is probably because to copyright a piece of work is seen as quite a daunting task, possible expensive and certainly time consuming. To protect any number of pieces therefore seems just too much effort – and so it’s left to chance.
Copyright itself is not always automatic, that’s reliant upon the work being original. Copyright Protection however, assuming the piece is original and valid, is in essence automatic and immediate, as long as the creator of the work puts them down in a tangible form, and the work is of course ‘original’.
Copyright is assigned to the creator of the work at the time of creation, it lasts the life of the creator and, depending on the type of work they create, up to seventy years after they die. It gives the creator of a copyrighted work ownership rights to grant third parties permission to copy their work, or sell or licence their work to a third party, and in the event of infringement, block the sale of infringing works and seek restitution from the infringing party through legal action.
It is the actual proof of copyright ownership that is the important factor. If you wish to commercially exploit any of your work, then you need to establish ownership and so you need to register your work for copyright with PitchMyStuff promptly. If you cannot demonstrate copyright ownership of a disputed composition, then any claims you may have could legally be rendered null and void. It is the ability to prove ownership that is important.
If you become involved in a copyright dispute, the infringing party -or more likely it will be their lawyers, will attempt to discredit your claim to ownership, not least by suggesting that any alternate and often used self-copyright (aka ‘Poor Mans Copyright’ i.e. where you post a copy to yourself) is suspect and easily abused.
PitchMyStuff Copyright Registration provides unbiased, independent and verifiable evidence of the work itself, the creator(s) as well as the date and time lodged within the PitchMyStuff secure archives. It is the secure nature of our Copyright Service and secure file retention, together with the inability to alter any file once uploaded means that our Copyright Service provides the means by which, in the event of an alleged infringement, you as the creator are able to provide the evidence you need to back up your claim.
That’s why here at PitchMyStuff one of our main objectives is to provide you hard working musicians, DJs and lyricists with the ability to protect your work, quickly, easily and inexpensively.
PitchMyStuff Copyright Registration is a ‘means to an end’, a tool to support action against infringement and not in itself of course a guaranteed solution to future potential infringement. We provide you with independent evidence of exactly what you lodged and when it was originally lodged so you can prove your case of ownership.
You MUST copyright your work, it’s a no brainer!!
Our facility allows you, as a PitchMyStuff member, to upload any number of works with only a small one off fee for lifetime cover or an even smaller fee renewable every three years – which fits some users requirements.
How good is that! Check out the link here
Note : We have to take any copyright submission on face value and in trust. We cannot and do not assume validity of your own claim to originality of any works. Our Terms & Conditions contain reference to this and by using this service you are accepting responsibility and absolving PitchMyStuff of any blame or responsibility for misuse or incorrect claim to originality.
