Poor Man's Copyright

[JustJono]

I thought you needed a patent in order to sell albums.

[djaero]

You do not need anything to sell special to sell your music. A copyright is just to make sure nobody steals your material, or if they do steal it, you can prove its yours.

[JustJono]

So I can copyright a CD, then.. sell it? I don't have to cover any legal issues?

[SpookG]

If Squarebear could clear this up for everyone, i think that'd be great

[squarebear]

Ok, if you wish to sell an album then it is highly advisable to copyright your material. This will give you legal protection if anyone tries to rip your music off. Oh and by copyrighting, I don't mean send it to yourself in an envelope. Do it properly via ASCAP or whatever the copyright body is in the US.

You cannot patent your music, as patents are designed to protect inventions rather than intellectual property such as music, books, movies etc.

If you had been the first caveman (or whoever) that had invented music, you could have patented it but it would mean that no-one else would have been able to make music without paying you!

Hope that helps.

[djaero]

So I can copyright a CD, then.. sell it? I don't have to cover any legal issues?

Yes

[Jello]

patents arent just for ideas.. its also for the way things are made like producing a certain material like a special steel for instance. if you have a certain process for making the steel you can patent it and have people pay you for it if they want to make the steel, but yea its also for ideas. theres also patent pending which you can say you have. which means that its not very advisable to copy whatever you plan on copying because if the patent goes through and you copied it you can get in big trouble.

[DJCynispin]

The only problem you would have with selling CDs is if you had sampled material, or if you had made enough money from the music that Uncle Sam wanted a cut...