Copyright Copyright for songs

[ohburymenot]

Jurisdiction

Pennsylvania

I am a singer / songwriter who has written and preformed several original songs on my YouTube channel. I have also recorded the songs onto CD's and given them out to relatives. This was about 5 yrs ago.

I have never gone through the process of filing copyright applications with the Gov't.

I have recently come across the website Fiverr and am considering hiring a professional artist to "cover" several of my original songs. Now, most of these artists have taglines in their profiles that "you will retain rights to your songs", etc., but I am concerned with releasing my original material to another performer without it being copyrighted.

I can prove that I wrote the songs and recorded videos of me singing the songs on time-stamped YouTube videos on my channel. Would that be sufficient to prove assumed copyright if another artist took lyrics to my song and used them in a commercially successful song without acknowledging me as the original artist? Or would I need to have the material copyrighted prior to pursuing legal action?

Of course, I recognize that my lyrics and performances have been out there for 5+ years without this happening, but I just wanted to get some feedback before I proceed. thanks.

 

[adjusterjack]

Your songs have had copyright protection since the day you wrote them. Registering them with the US Copyright Office makes it public record and provides additional protection.

Learn about copyright at:

U.S. Copyright Office

As for how you protect your copyright with other artists, you write a contract that says so.

Consult an intellectual property attorney about that.

If your work is important to you, then you go the extra mile and spend some money on registration and legal help.

Whatever you spend now will be nothing compared to what you'll have to spend on filing lawsuits when there is widespread infringement of your work.