Registering Copyright
on the Internet
It takes only a little time to register copyright on the internet. The only completely legal, official, secure and irrefutable way to do it (in the US) is through The Copyright Office, and more specifically their eCO Online System.
Why Should You Do the Copyright Registration Online?
✓ It costs less money.
✓ It's faster.
✓ You can track its status online.
✓ You can pay by credit card or debit chard, electronic check or make a deposit to the Copyright Office's account
✓ You can submit your work electronically (.aif, .aiff, .au, .mid, .midi, .rmi, .mp3, .ra, .ram, .wav, .wma or many other video, text or compressed formats) or in the form of a hard-copy deposit.
There are some other sites which offer some kind of copyright protection. You can submit your work to them and this way they (their website) can prove the date of the work's creation. It is not the safest way to go, however, so I suggest that you do the official registration on The Copyright Office's website first, then consider adding these alternatives for even more protection. My favorite site for this kind of copyright protection is Myows. You can register your work electronically by uploading text, audio, etc. Then you can get unauthorized copies of your work removed from sites, send cease and desist letters, takedown notices and build cases against infringers. And the best of it all is that the "freelancer account" is free! (There are pro accounts for $5 and $50 monthly).
There is another great site I've encountered, it's called Copyscape. It's more for lyrics and website content though. You can enter a webpage address then it will show you if there are any sites on the internet who copied the content on this page and what parts of it exactly.If you'd like to know more about copyrighting music and copyright on the internet, I recommend Allen Bargfrede and Cecily Mak's book, Music Law in the Digital Age. It's an important book not only because it contains information on copyright but also because it's a modern one. It deals with copyright questions in connection with modern phenomena like online delivery of music, MySpace, YouTube and more as well.
More on How to Copyright a Song
How Long Does Copyright Last?
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