A way to copyright your works

[sorohanro]

The discussion is quite old here on forum and until now, the best cheap way to protect was to send by post to yourself an envelope with a CD containing your works.
This is not really a legal proof in some countries.

I stumbled upon another solution, a free one.
https://myows.com
Myows is probably the easiest and fastest solution.
"Myows has been created for designers, photographers, bloggers, writers, musicians and anyone who creates copyrightable work."

[loansindi]

Interesting but I'm curious how their service is any more authoritative than simply hosting your files anywhere with a datestamp.

Also a 500mb size limit is kind of a style-cramper.

Definitely something I'm gonna check out though.

[InGenius]

They claim there is a "unique hash date" written into your file on their site which negates the ability to change the upload date and that even their people can't change it once it's in the file. Don't know how much that helps really, but that's how their program supposedly works.

[Usernamemyarse]

Well, if you have uploaded your songs to newgrounds, you are kinda protected since its under CC copyright claim, it means that people are free to use your songs unless they make money using the product containing your song, unless of course you allow them to on your behalf.

in short: people are free to use your song unless its comercial.

[PaulStetich]

But you know people are just gonna steal it anyway and call it theirs.

I get people all the time stealing my stuff and saying they made it. It's a pain in the ass.

I would have to say that posting on Newgrounds IS part of it . . . but you gotta make sure people know it's yours. Promote yourself, get people to listen to it. Make people recognize that YOU made the songs and not some assclown pizzaface nerd who's just a fanboy.

I'm sure there's more to it than that, but this is basics

[InGenius]

Well, that argument comes back to the "commercial usage" aspect of CC licensing. As it stands now there are artists on NG who have had their music used in commercially released Flash and the administration has yet to reprimand and follow-up with the flash authors for not negotiating for commercial licensing of the tracks or payment for leasing. So the CC is only as powerful as it's administration by the ownership/admin/mods, which means not very powerful in this case.

[PaulStetich]

Yeah man, true true. As a matter of fact I remember seeing a few people who posted other songs, famous songs like Pink Floyd and Jim Morrison claiming them as their own. I remember this one guy who said he was some sort of producer who produced for a few 70's bands and somehow oddly was 28 years old. This was last year.

[Usernamemyarse]

In my opinion if you are stupid enough to upload your hard work to newgrounds, its your own fault if people use it for their own.
after all, you are the one who make it available for the public.

[Khuskan]

Every creative work is automatically covered under a copyright, regardless of if you apply for one or not - the only advantage of applying for a copyright from a copyright office is that they keep paper records for you.

It's true mailing to yourself is one way to prove that you own a work, however simply having the source files and materials of a rendered song is more than enough.

When you upload tracks to the Audio Portal, you agree to upload them under a specific Creative Commons license that specifically allows people to use your work however they please, as long as they credit you and aren't making money off it.

[InGenius]

At 1/5/10 05:59 PM, Usernamemyarse wrote: In my opinion if you are stupid enough to upload your hard work to newgrounds, its your own fault if people use it for their own.
after all, you are the one who make it available for the public.

In the same respect one could say "If you're dumb enough to ever put your music on CD it's your own fault people steal it." Or, let's go a step further, "If you're dumb enough to leave your house, it's your fault someone mugged you." Doesn't sound so appealing anymore, does it?

There are rules, which people are supposed to follow and, if they don't, other people are supposed to uphold and police. I realize this is not a perfect world, criminals get away with much more heinous crimes than using CC licensed music for profit without negotiating terms with the original author. BUT there is a system in place on NG that can and should remedy this problem but it doesn't because of a) apathy on behalf of the administration, b) said administration is too overwhelmed by the sheer size of the site, and of the problem, and has never come to grips with the beast they created, or c) some unknown reason why administration can delete stolen flash, ban audio users with stolen audio, etc. but cannot seem to enforce it's own, quite clearly written, rules about CC licensing support and how it applies to every aspect of NG.

I'm going with a little from column "a", a little from column "b", personally, but you can make of it what you will. There are rules, we are asked to follow them (no samples, no loops, etc.) but we are not protected by the same ruleset when it's inconveniences the powers-that-be. That's how I've looked at it and why I rarely post any audio anymore. I am lucky enough to work in genres which rarely get looked at for flash in the first place, but if I ever find my music in a flash with mochiads, sponsorship by ArmorGames, or any other form of monetary recompense, believe me when I say I will do what I can to have the problem alleviated. I don't make squat from listens on the AP so why should a flash author make anything from something featuring my music when there is a CC license barring such?

[lantaren]

you could easily put infront of A song, copyright to "in my case" lantaren all rights reserved. duplication of this copyrighted file without written permission will obtain you punishible by law. enjoy, lantaren." while music was playing, but not the kind where its going into youre song.just some backround music, then quite it for a second and play the music. easy as that.

[xKore]

At 1/5/10 06:39 PM, lantaren wrote: .just some backround music, then quite it for a second and play the music. easy as that.

all that would do is piss off listeners.

[vanguard182]

yeah that'd be pretty horrible

[CWN]

At 1/5/10 06:46 PM, xKore wrote:

At 1/5/10 06:39 PM, lantaren wrote: .just some backround music, then quite it for a second and play the music. easy as that.

all that would do is piss off listeners.

I've heard that a lot on pre-released samples...

[vanguard182]

you would find that acceptable on final master tracks? and on every single one you wanted copyrighted?

[JackRocker]

At 1/5/10 09:18 PM, vanguard182 wrote: you would find that acceptable on final master tracks? and on every single one you wanted copyrighted?

if that's the first thing i heard when i listened to a song, i'd 0-bomb it and never listen to that guy's music again. and if anyone ever hears that on one of my songs, i won't be crying tears of sorrow if i get 0-bombed. simple as that.

[Khuskan]

At 1/5/10 06:39 PM, lantaren wrote: you could easily put infront of A song, copyright to "in my case" lantaren all rights reserved. duplication of this copyrighted file without written permission will obtain you punishible by law. enjoy, lantaren." while music was playing, but not the kind where its going into youre song.just some backround music, then quite it for a second and play the music. easy as that.

Nope, not on the Audio Portal at least. When you upload, you agree to the terms to use the NG copyright, regardless of what you say in the track title or comments.

[TMM43]

Added to the list

Cool stuff dude. I might take a look at it.

[vexdj]

no sorry dosnt work..why dont you just copyright it... it will take you the same amount of time.if your going to mail it to your self.plus these days music is so fast to make..ppl will simply choose to make there own.the only way someone will steal your music if your music is making it in the scene.. then youll find followers and stealers..

but my advise is to go through the real copyright process

cheers

[bladerunner627]

Unless you have a lawyer on hand ready to hand out cease and desist letters then I see no point.. It's a losing battle. Holding rights to songs is much more difficult than that of images and paintings, etc well especially paintings because it's something physical. Songs can be easily manipulated, one could change a single sample (and when I say sample I mean a single sample point of the waveform) and make the argument that it is now their work. I know there are some laws regarding using copyrighted samples and breaks in songs but that whole area is still pretty grey.

Don't bother if it gets stolen I wouldn't really worry about it unless their making profits off of it without your permission.

Also, unless you're signed it's futile. If you get signed the record label will usually take care of all the legalities and stuff anyways...they do most of the suing.

[Krank]

Isn't your shiz autocopyrighted when you upload to newgrounds. I thought that stood up in court

[bladerunner627]

I do agree with the fact that Flash Artists shouldn't be making profits from our works but they could just as easily pick another song and unfortunately the Audio Portal was made to cater to the Flash Artists.

[InGenius]

I have no problem with them making a profit if they follow the rules set out by NG and CC licensing which says if you use this track commercially, you gotta renegotiate terms. And that's for every track held under the CC license that NG uses, so no, they can't just go get another artist's work because they'd still have to renegotiate with that artist, ad infinitum across NG. If the admins would simply police the flash as much as they have recently tried to police the AP (the YunVeroz ban and "sample stalking", I am talking about here), then they would be busy banning and deleting all the flash on this site with copywritten music and flash artists would actually have to come to the AP or another "free" music site. But almost every "free" music site on the net has it's own CC or other limited-use licensing, so it would come right back to "if it's for profit, then you gotta ask for permission to use it without giving royalties to the artist or negotiate a cut of the money to said artist".

Just because the admins don't do something right now doesn't mean it's legal. If anything, all it would take is a determined enough artist from the AP to make a case about their music being used ina commercial flash release and get a lawyer and suddenly NG's own rules are making it seem like they are duplicitous in the copyright infringement since they have failed to police this issue time and again. It comes down to: I own the rights to my music and it is only licensed for your personal enjoyment, remixing, remaking, etc. But as soon as you stand to profit from it, my rights to ownership supersede your rights to my music and you must renegotiate terms with me.

And to be honest here, if I were ever in the position where a flash author wanted my music for a commercial release, there's about a 95% chance I'd let them have it free and clear simply because they were nice enough to ask. But if they never ask, then they deserve every moment of litigious pain and suffering.