What is a Sound Recording copyright?
"Copyright" literally means the right to copy. Copyright is a form of protection provided by International laws given to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is "automatic", and available to both published and unpublished works.
Sound recordings are “works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds, but not including the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work.” Common examples include recordings of music, drama, or lectures.
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SEAL™ files allow you to securely date-stamp and redundantly archive your Sound Recording's copyrights online instantly! Real-time international copyright protection! Learn how |
The US Library of Congress defines "Sound Recordings" as follows: |
Make sure your work is a sound recording. Sound recordings are “works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken, or other sounds, but not including the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work.” Common examples include recordings of music, drama, or lectures. | Copyright in a sound recording protects the particular series of sounds that are “fixed” (embodied in a recording) against unauthorized reproduction and revision, unauthorized distribution of phonorecords containing those sounds, and certain unauthorized performances by means of a digital audio transmission. The Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995, P.L. 104-39, effective February 1, 1996, created a new limited performance right for certain digital transmissions of sound recordings.
Generally, copyright protection extends to two elements in a sound recording: (1) the performance and (2) the production or engineering of the sound recording.
Please Note: In order to register a claim in a sound recording, the description of authorship in space 2 of the Form SR application must include the term “sound recording,” “performance,” or “production.”
A sound recording is not the same as a phonorecord. A phonorecord is the physical object in which works of authorship are embodied. The word “phonorecord” includes cassette tapes, CDs, LPs, 45 r.p.m. disks, as well as other formats.
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Why do I need to protect or register my Sound Recording copyrights?
Problems can arise if you are required to provide credible evidence of when you first created your sound recordings... The sooner you can produce credible evidence of your copyright ownership, the better able you will be bring, or defend any copyright infringement action.Read more
| No matter what, your SEAL™ file will always credibly represent the earliest moment in history that your sound recording was in your possession... |
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