4 Reasons Poor Man's Copyright Does Not Protect Copyright For Lyrics
Song lyrics are protectable under copyright law and can be registered as a "Literary Work"
. While lyrics are not required to be registered to attain the protection copyright laws grants, it's certainly recommended to register your work with a 3rd party to increase proof that you are the owner of your work.One known method to protect copyright for lyricists is "poor man's copyright". What this means is the author of the lyrics would try to protect them by sending registered mail containing the lyrics to themselves.
To break it down further, the method would be: create original song lyrics; place these lyrics in a fixed/tangible form (i.e. write them on paper, type them and save them on a hard drive); put the final lyrics in a sealed envelope; send them to yourself using registered mail.
Regrettably and counter to the popular belief, poor man's copyright is not a reputable method to copyright register your lyrics and is not recognized by the courts of law as evidence to prove ownership of the work. As such, it is not a recommended method to protect copyright, especially the copyright of your valuable song lyrics.
Why isn't poor man's copyright an adequate form of copyright registration for your lyrics? Well, there are actually a number of reasons:
1. You could mail yourself a number of unsealed envelopes to attain the valuable date-stamp on each one. Then, when you have finished your lyrics, you could put them into the envelope and seal it. In other words, you would be trying to register a song for a date that is prior than the actual creation.
2. A further method of tampering with the copyright registration is sending yourself a sealed envelope with your lyrics already included. Then, if amendments are made to the lyrics, you could steam the envelope seal open and insert the updated version of the work.
3. The post offices do not consider themselves to be copyright registries and do not accumulate or store the information required by the courts to prove ownership of the lyrics.
4. Additionally, post offices do not keep reports of the registered mail for very long periods of time. Should someone copy your work in four years, it is unlikely the post office will have a record of when you sent your lyrics. Thus, it could be very difficult to prove whether you really sent the envelope through registered mail or whether the stamps were phony.
As outlined in the four reasons above, "poor man's copyright" is not a valid resource to protect copyright of your lyrics.
Fortunately, there are many copyright registries available to protect your songs, whether it's through online registries, the government, or associations. Do your research and chose the one that best suits your needs.
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