I'm quite ignorant of the process of copyright in application to music, so if anyone could point me towards a comprehensive (i.e., not jargon-filled) guide, that would be excellent. Something along the lines of "Copyrighting Music For Dummies" or "You're Stupid And Want To Copyright - Read This First" would be ideal - if such titles even exist. Heh. I also have a few basic questions I've been pondering: 1. When attaching "© Year" to a piece, what year is to follow the copyright sign? If a work took more than one year to complete, are the first and last years to be included? For example, © 2006-2007. 2. When composing music for a game or film, does one need to sign a contract or agreement of any sort, or are copyright and ownership automatically retained by the creator? 3. What steps should be taken to preserve all of one's intellectual property? Are there any guidelines to follow, or dangers one should be aware of? Thanks in advance!

Quote: Original post by Lily
I'm quite ignorant of the process of copyright in application to music, so if anyone could point me towards a comprehensive (i.e., not jargon-filled) guide, that would be excellent. Something along the lines of "Copyrighting Music For Dummies" or "You're Stupid And Want To Copyright - Read This First" would be ideal - if such titles even exist. Heh.

You might want to try the Australian Copyright Council's website as a first stop. They've got the general info for copyright in Australia, as well as specific guides for a whole bunch of specialist areas such as music.

Quote: I also have a few basic questions I've been pondering:
1. When attaching "© Year" to a piece, what year is to follow the copyright sign? If a work took more than one year to complete, are the first and last years to be included? For example, © 2006-2007.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure of this one. I think the date is that of first publication, but I'm not sure whether you use the first or last year in that case. My guess is it would be the last year as you are incorporating changes, but I'm not sure on that one.

I do know that in Australia you don't have to put the copyright notice on your work for it to be protected (it is protected automatically), but it is advisable to do so to remind people of the copyright. Check the website; I'm sure it's got some answers there.

Quote: 2. When composing music for a game or film, does one need to sign a contract or agreement of any sort, or are copyright and ownership automatically retained by the creator?

By default the copyright is owned by the creator. The only case I'm not that sure about is in the case of an employee doing work for a company without having signed the standard IP transfer document; I have a vague recollection that it could be argued that the employee was working under the implied condition that their work would be owned by the company. But that might be an issue for the courts. In the case of contractor the IP issues should be clarified in the contract to get around any future unpleasantness.

Quote: 3. What steps should be taken to preserve all of one's intellectual property? Are there any guidelines to follow, or dangers one should be aware of?

I'm assuming you're only concerned with copyright with respect to music? In that case, your work is automatically covered by copyright when you create it in a tangible form.

The only thing you might be concerned about is if you need to prove that you are the creator. Australia doesn't have a registration service for copyright, but if you can prove that you're the copyright holder in any other way (rough notes, copies with date stamps, reliable witnesses to your creation of the work, etc.) then you should be fine.

Note though I'm not a legal expert, so I might have got some those things wrong. You should check that website for more details. Good luck!

Thanks in advance!

Thanks, Trapper Zoid! That was extremely helpful, not to mention conveniently country-specific. I have one more question, though; regarding the "© 2006-2007" issue, does the term "publication" imply a professional release or does it simply refer to the date of completion? What if the piece in question was never "published" as such, but is more of an amateur piece completed by a paranoid composer? Does the "© Year" addition still hold for non-published, private works?

Oh, and just to clear a point up, is work considered the creator's by default, except in the case he or she signs a transfer document? In the case of the composer being an employee of a company rather than a freelance artist, would intellectual property still be considered safe unless part of the joining contract indicated that it would be under the organization's ownership?

There seems to be an overload of questions in the above two paragraphs, so let me know if any of them were unclear or poorly stated. Thanks once again!

EDIT: I browsed the FAQs of the Australian Copyright Council website and stumbled upon this:

How do I work out whether something is “published” for copyright purposes?
You will see from the duration tables that in many cases, the event that triggers the “copyright countdown” is
the publication of the material. In this context, something is “published” if copies have been made available to
the general public, whether by way of sale or otherwise. (As noted in the tables, in some cases the countdown
can also be triggered by the material being “made public” by being performed, broadcast or recorded and sold.) In
many cases, if something is not “published”, copyright continues indefinitely.
The material has to have been made available with the permission of the copyright owner. If the material has
been circulated without permission, or copies have been made by an educational institution, government or
library relying on the Act, the material will not have been “published”.
The fact that something is held in the collection of a library or a public institution does not mean that it has
been “published” in the sense relevant to duration of copyright.

Although it doesn't directly answer the questions I have, it's still useful to know. It also seems that once copyright expires, it cannot be revived. Out of interest, doesn't that allow people to effectively steal slogans and logos from large, established corporations such as McDonald's, or are the circumstances very different for companies (as opposed to individuals)?

I would read Aaron Mark's book "The Complete Guid to Game Audio". Not only does this book have great info regarding the entire process of making music for games, it has several sections about how to make a good deal, forms needed (contract and NDA) and the uses for each, and even includes sample forms that you can look over and learn what goes in them.

I personally, only work under contract. It is amazing what some developers will try to do. For example there was one game that I was writing music and producing sound design for early in my career. This company didn't offer the employees contracts or anything- just a promise they we'd get paid. Well, 7 missed deadlines later (and over two years of development) I decided to leave. The leader of the project actually tried to say that he owned my music. I told him:

1) Show me the form where I signed all rights to your company.

2) Show me the receipt where I've been paid the agreed amount.

Further more, since I owned all of the hardware and software that the music was created on, and the licenses to those tools were all in my name, and I had created the audio myself- the rights were mine. He checked with his legal dept and they pretty much said the same thing.

Don't ever let a developer push you around and say he owns your material if the deal hasn't been sealed. Always work under some kind of contract, and don't be afraid to stand your ground. You're providing a valuable resource, and should be compensated for your efforts.

As far as what year to put down- I'm not sure, I've always just done the year it was completed. When copyrights have multiple years attached (i.e. © 2006-2007) I think that might mean various versions of the product or material has already been released and this is yet another version of it. I might be wrong in that fact, but for example when classical music is published it never has more than one date, even though the composer may have taken years to write it.

I hope that helps!

[Edited by - nsmadsen on March 12, 2007 11:52:31 AM]

Quote: Original post by Lily
Oh, and just to clear a point up, is work considered the creator's by default, except in the case he or she signs a transfer document? In the case of the composer being an employee of a company rather than a freelance artist, would intellectual property still be considered safe unless part of the joining contract indicated that it would be under the organization's ownership?

Copyright by default goes to the creators. I'm fairly sure that's still the case in the event of an employee at a company who has not transfered the copyright of their work to the company, but as Nathan wrote it's a legal quagmire and most companies would not allow that event to happen; there'd be a contract that says specifically who owns the copyright of whatever you produce.

It's one of the traps you have to avoid if you are working on an indie team; if you don't get everyone working on the team to assign the copyright of their code, art and music to the team as a whole and someone leaves, then you don't have the copyright to use the work that they've contributed. The safest thing to do is always have something signed that says who can do what with the IP.

Quote: Although it doesn't directly answer the questions I have, it's still useful to know. It also seems that once copyright expires, it cannot be revived. Out of interest, doesn't that allow people to effectively steal slogans and logos from large, established corporations such as McDonald's, or are the circumstances very different for companies (as opposed to individuals)?

Logos and slogans are covered by trademark, and trademarks can be kept forever.

Is it still worth creating a contract if I'm part of an amateur game development team that has also zero retail aim, even though I haven't signed any transfer documents? Since the members are based in different countries, is a soft-copy typed agreement allowed, or is only a physical hard copy valid?

I'm just wondering whether this is all necessary if I'm part of an completely indie team; although it's an important issue, it feels as though it would be quite obsessive-compulsive to be actually taking all of these steps against a developer who is just looking to have some fun.

Thanks again for the replies!

I'm not a lawyer, so I cannot definitely tell you about copyright issues cross various countries and if a soft or hard copy is needed. Contracts need not be super complicated. It could be just a simple one page agreement that details your working relationship with the company.

Is it worth it? That is really up to you. Even though the project may have no commercial aims, a developer may try and your use music in some way in the future. I'm not trying to say that all developers are evil, my point is just to cover your butt and protect your art. With some kind of agreement laid out in writing, you have more protection just in case something happens. You may never have to face that, but I was burned once and decided never again. I actually have contracts ready to go (minus filling in the blanks) so a company just has to agree and sign.

Professionally speaking, I've found many companies treat you more like a professional as well (because you respect yourself and craft enough to protect it).

I hope that helps!

Quote: Original post by Lily
Is it still worth creating a contract if I'm part of an amateur game development team that has also zero retail aim, even though I haven't signed any transfer documents? Since the members are based in different countries, is a soft-copy typed agreement allowed, or is only a physical hard copy valid?

I'm just wondering whether this is all necessary if I'm part of an completely indie team; although it's an important issue, it feels as though it would be quite obsessive-compulsive to be actually taking all of these steps against a developer who is just looking to have some fun.

Thanks again for the replies!

It's up to the team, but the danger is that the project could collapse if you don't have a proper IP assignment agreements signed up.

The problem is not so much having developers steal your work from you (although that can happen). If you have not signed an agreement then you still own the copyright, and so you would be in the same position as if they broke the contract.

The danger is if the IP is not assigned to the team as a whole and a team member decides to leave the project, as they would still own the copyright to what they contributed. If they cannot be contacted or if there is a falling out and they do not wish to assign their copyright, then in the best case you have to replace all their work, and in the worst it would cause the entire project to collapse.

I don't know enough about law to know whether a soft copy would suffice over a hard copy, but either would be better than nothing. At least with a soft copy you could argue that every team member knew what the conditions were. For serious projects I'd go with hard copy.

nsmadsen and Trapper Zoid, I heartily thank both of you for the amazing responses. The copyright issue is much clearer than it seemed before, for which I'm grateful. The only other question I have at the moment is whether uploading music to websites such as Soundclick is a reliable way of asserting ownership of the material. For an amateur composer such as myself, what's the best way to prove copyright, should the need ever arise? Is it enough to simply print out a score and splash a copyright sign on it, or would I actually need to join the Australian Music Centre, APRA or a similar organization?

Thanks once again!

Check the PDF called "Protecting your Copyright" at the Australian Copyright Council (available on this webpage).

I had a look at it myself as I wasn't sure at my answer. Basically, you don't have to register with any outside organisation. The protection they recommend is the testimony of yourself and to keep draft copies of the work at different stages of completion. If it ever gets as far as a court where two people are both claiming copyright then you'll just need more evidence than the other person, and they will be facing perjury and stiff penalties for false claim of copyright.