(Shouldn’t matter that I’m in Canada, since there’s all of those international copyright treaties, etc.)
I started working on a musical in late 1997, wrote some music and preliminary lyrics, and a bit of a storyline. I put it aside for a couple of years, then in 1999 wrote some more music & lyrics, and refined the story. This was all on my own, so everything would theoretically be © 1997-1999 scott evil. (I did some work in 1998.)
Fast forward to the present. I’m now working with CuriousCanuck on the show, and his contribution will be to the lyrics and the “book” of the musical (i.e. the script, dialogue).
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I don’t want to continue with © (whatever year) scott evil - I don’t think it would be fair to retain sole ownership of the copyright. Should CC and I register our own music publishing company for copyright (and eventually - hopefully - royalty) purposes? For instance, © 2003 (name of our company) Music Ltd.? We’d draw up a quick and dirty contract between the two of us, then register the company with the Canadian or provincial gov’t, depending.
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At what point is a piece of music “copyrightable”? For instance, I wrote most of the opening number in late 1997 - early 1998, and the rest of the song, musically, will basically be variations on the existing verse, chorus, and bridge. However, the lyrics will be mostly new. Is the song “copyrightable” only upon completion? If we were to put © 2003 (our company), then how would I prove - if required - that the music was essentially composed in 1997-1998?
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Regarding the show itself - probably regarded as a collection of songs and dialogue representing one body of work (i.e. the musical), would we then put © 1997-200x (our company), since work began in 1997 and won’t complete until 2000-something? Even if we did, “our company” didn’t exist in 1997. Would I then put © 1997-1999 scott evil and © 2003-200x (our company)?
Sorry if this is confusing. It’s just something that’s always bugged me, and I want to get it sorted out soon, since CC and I are working on this in earnest, and I don’t intend to put the show on the back burner anymore.
There’s also the possibility of doing this:
(name of show) © 2003-200x (name of our company) Music Ltd.
(name of song): Music © 1997-1998 scott evil
(name of song): Music © 1999 scott evil
and so on - calling out certain songs that were written earlier.
Or we could always wait until the entire thing is done and register it with the U.S. copyright bureau, with copies of the music and script.
There’s a great book called Canadian Copyright Law by Lesley Ellen Harris. My lawyer gave me a copy and it’s very good but keeps it understandable. It’s geared specifically for writers, musicians and meda folks.
I’m going to pretend your musical is an album for a second 9’cause that’s more what I know):
When working on albums, typically the individual songs have their own copyrights upon their completion (when they’re done even if it takes a long time, that’s mostly for simplicity) and then the entire album then has a copyright of its own. (Kinda like the album is a collective work.)
You can also copyright the work as one of joint authorship so Curious isn’t left out (kinda like when you see Beatles tunes registered as “Lennon / McCartney”) and you don’t need to register as your own publishing company to do so. Publishing companies essentially exploit the author’s copyright in exchange for a cut of the action (sorta, in a realy ugly nutshell). They don’t necessarily own the rights as much as have control of the rights assigned to them. So you can register the copyright together and then try to get an established publishing company to pimp the musical out for ya.
If you register it as a work of joint authorship, it can get complicated with respect to how the royalites are divided up. Example: If you wrote 75% of a score, you’d want to makes sure any royalties are divided accordingly rather than split 50-50. So lots of folks consult lawyers to sort out the way royalties get distributed and put together an agreement to that effect.
You can also look up the musical Chess to see what they did. I mean geez! The show was on Broadway before it was even finished. (Is it finished now or what?)
I’m not sure about Canadian law, but US law says copyright exists when a song is put in a “final form.” Thus, if you start writing a song in 1999, revise it in 2003, and add new lyrics in 2006, the copyright date would normally be 2006.
Songs and books don’t usually have multiple year copyrights. That’s primarily for software, where certain subroutines are released in a final form and then reused in another product.
Lot of works of art (plays, books, musicals, films) take years to complete, but have only one copyright date. When you register your copyright in the US, use the year you mail it to the copyright office.
As far as how you want to register it, it can be done in your name, in the name of the two of you jointly, or as an organization. I’d suggest doing it in your name. If your musical becomes a hit, you can create the corporation and assign the rights to it.
The royalty issue with regard to the authors’ percentage of the box office is established by the Dramatists’ Guild of America. You cannot get ripped off, because the DGA reviews all contracts for its members prior to them signing, and makes sure the authors are getting their minimum as well as their shares of other income.
Forming a publishing company isn’t for “publishing” anything per se, but just to have an entity that would own the copyright through its two owners (me & CC).
“Chess” is ©198x Three Knights Music Ltd. (not sure about the “Ltd.”) So there you are - a company obviously made up of Tim Rice, and the two Bs from ABBA (“three knights”).
I just want to know if a registered company can copyright something. The other questions have been answered; it’ll have to be ©200x (x being whenever we finish it). I can call out certain early songs with earlier © dates if needed.