ION INDIE MAGAZINE September 2016, Volume 28 | Page 104

SONGWRITING SERIES

By Paul Bordenkircher
As we continue on your responsibilities as a publisher, we cover one of the most banal, trivial--but also one
of the most important--aspects of managing your catalog. How important are proper song credits and
copyright notices? Oh, I don’t know…if you do them wrong, you can potentially LOSE THE RIGHT TO ENFORCE
YOUR COPYRIGHT.
It’s true. If you ever get into a court case over one of your songs, and your copyright notices were incomplete
or otherwise incorrect, they can argue they were unaware WHICH rights were protected, and your notice
makes it impossible to know. If you lose the case, you may lose the ability to stop other people from doing
the same infringements. Important enough for ya?
My biggest shock when it comes to copyright notices is not that a lot of individuals don’t understand it. I’m
often stunned to find even see major corporations get this stuff wrong. Don’t believe me? Check the credits
on iTunes sometime--AFTER you read this, or course!
Now sharpen your pencils, this one’s worth taking notes.
Copyright Notices
Copyright notices declare to the world who owns the copyright, when it was copyrighted, and (usually) who
to go to when you need a license. And they have to be written a certain way in order to be enforceable. Here’s
a couple proper examples: