Discussion:
What is the name of your state? New York State
Hi Everybody --- here is a doozy for you. A friend of mine wrote lyrics and a melody for a song that she is going to get copyright on. She would like me to make up an arrangement for Piano, Drums, and Woodwind. We have already spoken and decided that I would keep the rights for my arrangments of her music, and I will be writing up a contract to that effect that we will both sign later this week before I begin any work. My question is what rights do I have to copyright my work - can I only copyright the orchestrations, or do I copyright the arrangment of the song and give her credit as the copyright owner? I know this is normally considered a work for hire, but we are both poor people with a love of theatre and we decided she would not pay me for this usage but if it were used again it would be dealt with in the future. Any suggestions?
Answer:
Hi Everybody --- here is a doozy for you. A friend of mine wrote lyrics and a melody for a song that she is going to get copyright on. She would like me to make up an arrangement for Piano, Drums, and Woodwind. We have already spoken and decided that I would keep the rights for my arrangments of her music, and I will be writing up a contract to that effect that we will both sign later this week before I begin any work. My question is what rights do I have to copyright my work - can I only copyright the orchestrations, or do I copyright the arrangment of the song and give her credit as the copyright owner? I know this is normally considered a work for hire, but we are both poor people with a love of theatre and we decided she would not pay me for this usage but if it were used again it would be dealt with in the future. Any suggestions? The general rule is that when two or more people collaborate on a work, there is a single copyright that is vested in the two or more people that created the work. I'm not really sure what you are trying to do here -- is there a reason why each of you needs a separate copyright? Is there some reason why you can't have a single copyright on the collaborative work, and then spell out contractually what each copyright holder is allowed to do with the work?
BTW, this would not be a "work for hire" -- work for hire is limited to an employer-employee relationship, not a contractor relationship.
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Hi There. This is my first time doing a collaborative copyright, so I don't know exactly what to expect. Your recomendation would be to simply copyright my arrangments with her lyrics and melody and say (in writing of course) - if you want to use thsi music outside of what im writing it for, you need to contact me for my permission, or set up a fixed royalty percentage?
Answer:
recomendation would be to simply copyright my arrangments with her lyrics and melody Well, not necessarily -- I guess I am still not quite sure what you are doing. If her lyrics and melody can exist on their own, and your arrangements can exist on their own, then I guess you could copyright them seperately, and then license each other to use the other's work however you wanted. If the two works are really inseperable, you'll need to copyright them as a collaborative work under a single copyright.
and say (in writing of course) - if you want to use thsi music outside of what im writing it for, you need to contact me for my permission, or set up a fixed royalty percentage? You could probably work out some sort of contractual arrangement for something like this. It would be easier if each of you had your own copyright, because then it would simply be a form of a cross-license, but a lawyer would likely be able to draft something that would be enforceable later if you have a single copyright.