Copyright My daughters song lyrics showing as owned by a company online

[ChasChel]

Jurisdiction

US Federal Law

I recently found several of my daughters copyrighted songs listed on a lyric site. The site showed the songs were written by my daughter, and myself, but list the lyric copyright as owned by the Aggregating company that submitted her songs to Spotify, Itunes etc. It also indicates the lyrics were licensed to them by the aggregator. In all of the FAQs this aggregator uses on their website they indicate the creator retains 100% ownership of their music. It just strikes me odd that they licensed the songs for printed lyrics, printed lyrics are offered for sale, they have never informed us of any licensing deal, and the end use company indicates the lyric copyrights are owned by the aggregator. By appearance they are representing a work for hire having been assigned, when in fact these songs are privately held by us. I'm wondering if this "sounds" acceptable on the part of the aggregator, or is it improper representation of copyright ownership. In the least I feel my daughter should be shown as the copyright owner. Please let me know how I should approach this. Thanks.

 

[adjusterjack]

Please let me know how I should approach this.

It's up to your daughter to approach "this." She wrote the songs. She starts by a thorough review of whatever contract (or terms of service) she has with wherever she placed her songs.

If there is big money involved in her song writing, she would be wise to consult a copyright attorney.

 

[mightymoose]

It would have to be determined what permissions your daughter gave when she provided the lyrics to any other party.

 

[flyingron]

Further, just because things are misattributed doesn't mean the rights were lost by her or even that she has any claim to the misattirbution. Most of the stuff in public lyric databases is wrong (listed by the publisher or even just the performer who was most famously known for performing it).

She's always free under the "plenty of perjury" (as Lin Wood would say) to file a DMCA complaint if she feels she's been infringed. It should get the material removed.

 

[Zigner]

How old is the daughter?

 

[zddoodah]

Any chance that this random website has bad information?

It's hard to comment without knowing any particulars, but if you and/or your daughter contracted with some company to administer your/her copyrights, you should start by speaking with someone at that company.