:o ohhh, cool. I’ve got to check out all those posts in depth later. Tommy thanks for the info. Hmm, music programs might come of some use. Lol, as of a couple of days after my initial posting on this topic, I started composing my own song on my keyboard. Lol, just notes that sounded good and flowed. Ehhh, how else are you supposed to compose music? Anyone who can give tips or pointers.
Jason Lin
I think that when you get close to a commercial, or even public, release of anything you should bite the bullet and pay a copyright research firm to “bless” what you have selected for contribution. For example, http://www.copyright.com is the first one that popped up on Google (keywords: copyright research service clearance).
What this buys you is what a lawyer calls due diligence, and the paperwork to prove it. This will clearly show (the Honorable Court) that you did not merely “assume that it was okay,” but rather that you respected the law enough to pro-actively look for possible violations, and that you proceeded with your publication in good faith. Any claims of infringement subsequently made against you would almost certainly be seen as innocent infringement, all other factors being equal.
(BTW: “INAL.”)
The financial reason for this is simply: you cannot afford not to. Even the allegation of copyright infringement, brought by a duly registered copyright holder, can shut you down immediately through a court injunction, even before the court rules on the case and the plaintiff moves in for the kill with triple damages. While the cost of research can be expensive, the cost of a court battle is far greater. If you’re making commercial use of what even might be cause for infringement, “cover thy buttocks.” 
Hmm, would you even have to pay for the research. I asked about the copyright issue before, and I learned all I need to copyright any material, registered under the government is $30 to copyright whatever I submitted. I’m assuming that the government(or the copyright place) would do some kind of search to see if your piece or pieces of work are the same as someone elses. I’m just guessing cause it seems irresponsible for them to grant you a copyright on the thing you created if it had been copyrighted already by someone else. You see what I’m saying. So one might not need to pay a copyright research firm to do such things.
Jason Lin
C Fm G7 that is a standard chord series, you could try to learn some music, hmm wait…
Google is your friend.
Flash tutorials to music theory.
If you think it’s overkill to learn a lot of music just because you want some music in your games, remember that you will have big use it in other occasions as well!
And don’t stop playing even if you realizes that you do something wrong or you get tired of reading tutorials, you probably train your ears anyway.
In sweden you get copyright at the moment you create something copyrightable, I think it’s that way in us too but I’m not sure.
Can I copyright my name and charge the IRS for using it ?
Woah Sebastian, that’s going to be a whole lot to memorize. Thanks for the site though. Lol, well so far I’ve think I’ve mastered the key of D so I’ve been creating a music piece with chords that are used in the key of D. Sounds okay so far, but still not finished. Chord music doesn’t seem so hard, but I was wondering how composers like Mozart and Beethoven came up with their music. Lol, their Gods in music like some members here are Gods in Blender (so to speak).
Lol, Al_Capone and his funny statements. Actually you can copyright a name if you’re a company. You know the law firm Binder&Binder. That name is copyrighted along with IBM and a long list of other companies.
Jason Lin
Well, what about my home address ?
Goldentaji: The copyright service will NOT check if someone else has copyrighted the material first. It is entirely possible to register a copyright on material that someone else already owns, and if it goes to court the first person to copyright it will win.
Here in the US, music is copyrighted when you record it or perform it in public. However, good luck proving ownership in court unless you REGISTER the copyright with the appropriate agency.
I am a songwriter with over 100 songs written (most of them suck!) and firmly believe there is no “correct” way to write a song. My best stuff ussually starts with one note or chord that sounds good. Then it’s just a matter of experimenting to see what sound right next. While learning music theory can help you find the “right” next note/chord, don’t be afraid to try things that go against theory or you’ll end up just sounding like everything else.
The only true rule is: If it sounds good, it IS good.
One other thing, it helps to try to create a “mood” by using variations of chords, like minor chords, Major sixth chords, etc.
Fornunately for us, there has been an explosion of Open Source an freeware music apps in the last year or so. Much of it is equal to the heavy commercial software, and many (like Buzz and Synthfont) have no commercial equivalent. For instance, the only way (I know of) to use Soundfonts is to use Synthfont or buy a Soundfont capable soundcard like the Soundblaster Audigy ( or use a Mac, most newer ones are Soundfont capable AFAIK).
Tommy
PS the easiest way to ruin a good song idea is to overdo it. Adding more instruments or effects can quickly muddle up the best songs. Keep it simple and avoid “audio overload”
If most of the song sucks, why publish them in the first place ?
al_capone: What you mean?
Is it called copyright when you register a trademark, I thought it was called “registered trademark” Therfore you can’t copyright a name or an adress, but sometimes you can register it as a trademark.
Maybe Tokabola knows better about that, and I agree on what he said too.
Few things I noticed in the thread:
About the copyright of dead artists work: I think the copyright is gone after someone’s been dead for ehm… what was it 50 or 100 years? I think it’s 50 but am not sure… there’s a rule on that.
And about copyrighting your own work… you can register your work at different places where they charge. In the end it really comes down to 1 thing only. Can you prove in court that you created it first?! There’s an old trick authors use… Put your data on a cd, go to the post office, have it sealed and send it to yourself using registered mail. By using registered mail you have a document that proves when you sent that package… and in case you ever get to court you can just walk in, show the document, open the still sealed package… and voila that’s proof enough. That is, if you can prove at all that the data you have is the same as the stuff the plagiarist has… which isn’t easy.
Tokabola thanks for the info. So how would one go about copyrighting music besides the publicity thing. That would not really win in court though. Since legally the first one who registered it would win (most likely). You wrote 100 songs, did you copyright all of them? Going by my price of copyright $30, you could have copyrighted those songs one at a time (lol, a whopping $3000) or you just simply wrote all of them and then copyrighted all of them at the same time.
Hey macouno, so what’s this about registered mail? Is it like sending regular mail or is it an extra service at the post office? Ok, how would you seal it so that no one would say you just opened up the package and then stuck the CD in after that package was sent to you. How much would it cost? Thanks.
Jason Lin
In sweden:
Art without especially signifance: 50 years after creation.
Epecially unique art: 75 years after the death of the creator.
Well if creating free software means getting rid of commercial software so be it. Sitting in a chair all day shouldn’t be job in my opinion
You think open source coders code standing up?! %|
Martin
Yeah, how brilliant. We don’t need no fancy book learning. Engineers, Scientists, Chemists, Politicians, Lawyers, the programmers who allow you to make these kinds of ignorant statements here, they’re all useless, really.
I must of said something dumb, oh well. But really, isn’t opensource software a threat to software developers that make close source applications ?