Discussion:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?New Jersey
Hello. I am new here, so first off, thank you for having this site.
I have a question about MANDATORY DEPOSIT, specifically for a music CD.
U.S. Copyright law basically states that 2 copies of a work distributed in the U.S. must be deposited with the Copyright office:
Note that one of two entities is required to make the deposit:
“Mandatory deposit (17 U.S.C. section 407) requires the owner of copyright or of the exclusive right of distribution to deposit...”
In this case owner of the Copyright being a U.S. based Music Publishing Company (New Jersey), and the owner of the exclusive right of distribution is a foreign Record Label (a EU member country who does distribute in the USA nonexclusively via US based distributors).
The law says one or the other must deposit. But does not indicate the preferred source. The owner of the Copyright (Publishing Company) or the Owner of the Exclusive Right of Distribution (label).
Can someone please comment on which is the preferred depositor in a case like this? Especially if you have had real life experience in this.
On a related note, I am confused about the use of the word PUBLISHER in the music business. Is this the Publishing Company, or the Record Label? If I recall correctly. the “P” Symbol references the Record Label on CDs (and the “C” symbol the Music Publishing Company).
Thank you very much.
Mark
Answer:
The 'prefered' method is, in this case, usually a contractural agreement between the Foreign and Domestic distribution chain. Not a matter of law. One or the other agrees to copyright the recording in exchange for protection of domestic rights.
The publisher is a matter of record. Who owns the copyright is not necessarily the publisher. For example, While Bantam, Harper Collins, Random House, Putnam, Doubleday, Delacorte Press and Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd., are all 'publishers' of Robert Ludlum books, the copyright still rests with Ludlum himself, except for a few of the earlier works which were assigned to the Publisher of that volumn.
Answer:
On a related note, I am confused about the use of the word PUBLISHER in the music business. Is this the Publishing Company, or the Record Label? If I recall correctly. the “P” Symbol references the Record Label on CDs (and the “C” symbol the Music Publishing Company). The "P" doesn't represent the publisher necessarily. The "C" symbol represents the owner of the copyright in the musical work, while the "P" represents the owner of the copyright in the sound recording. Each recorded song has two copyrights associated with it -- one for the song, and one for the recording of the song. Oftentimes those two copyrights are owned by two different entities.