Intellectual Property 101: For all you Kats out there who don't understand the important nature of copyrights, here is why they are so important.
Say you just got a deal with a major label and you go in and record a hit song. However, you are the one who paid for the studio time and everything. You even packaged your music, meaning you made it ready for market purchasing in other words it store ready (artwork for album cover, mixed and mastered, CD professional printed etc.) You give this product to the label you are signing with and remember you never got copyrights on your music. So the label runs an audit on your product, meaning they are checking to see if you have this copyrighted. They find out you don't and copyrighted themselves.
hit but somethings wrong you
haven't received a check. You call the label and ask what
happen to the money I supposed
to get for my song. The label say, "Well its our song and we
don't have to give you
anything." You say, "Huh?" The label says, " Well we ran a
audit on your music to see if it
was copyrighted and we found that you didn't copyrighted.
So we copyrighted under our
name and since you never signed any paperwork with us
then we don't owe you anything."
Now this kind of thing happens more then you think with big labels, so protect your music and get copyrights before you hand it to someone. You can get help on how to fill them out at http://www.copyright.gov/ make sure you protect your intellectual property or in other words, your creative work.
by DJ Todd Bladz
