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Topic: Publishing (Read 2133 times) previous topic - next topic

Publishing

After writing a piece of music (saving as NWC, then Midi), how could you copyright and publish the music as an actual song.

ex: arranging Metallica music saving as NWC, then Midi and publishing as "MP3" with lyrics

Re: Publishing

Reply #1 –
Copyright law depends on the country where a copy is made.  Publishing is simply making your material available to someone else.  In my country, simply composing music is sufficient to own the copyright, there is no need to register it anywhere.  The law might be different where you are.  Normally, just using the circled c symbol would indicate you are claiming copyright.  However, arranging someone else's work would likely give you only a copyright in the part of the work that is your own - new chords or chord sequences, extra melody, whatever.  You probably would also have copyright in the page layout and in any performance you recorded.  It's very complicated; start by looking up your country's copyright laws on the web.

Re: Publishing

Reply #2 –
To the best of my understanding in the US, the copyright owner also has claim to any arrangement of or derivative work from their song.  So you cannot copyright your arrangement of Metallica's songs or any other songs that you did not write, except those that are in public domain.