How do i copyright a song with my band if the person who wrote the song didn't register the songs?

Question

MY HUSBAND HAS A BAND AND THEY WANT TO GET A CD OUT WITH HIS OWN RECORD LABEL COMPANY BUT SOME OF THE AUTHORS OF THE SONGS DIDNT REGISTER THE SONGS (COPYRIGHTED), AND HE CANT GET A HOLD OF THEM EITHER, HOW CAN WE DO IT TO COPYRIGHT OUR CD.?

Answer 1

There are two types of copyrights regarding music. One is for a song you wrote or co-wrote. The other is for a sound recording. One copyrihgts the entire albulm or CD and the artists version of the music contained on it. For instance if Joe Blow puts out a CD of Clapton songs, he can copyright that CD, but that doesn't mean he now owns the rights to those songs. Just that CD.
Either way, you have to have permission to use someone elses material, whether or not they actually submitted a copyright for it or not. If it's not yours, you can't use it without permission.

Answer 2

If it hasn't been registered by the other writers you can register it yourself. Now if they can prove that they wrote any part of the work they can sue you for copyright infringement. I would recommend not releasing it until you get the copyright issue taken care of. What if the song went big? You could get sued for all of the money it made because you left some of the authors of the work out of the copyright.

Answer 3

The one that you simply wrote, you'll be able to sign up them within the Department of State (get the copyright for them). You can do the equal for the one who you support write, by way of effectively simply acknowledging that there's multiple writer to the music. This is the one means that you're going to be legally blanketed.

Answer 4

The above is one option, or you can put the others down on the form as cowriters when you copywrite it. If your husband has his own record company, he should already know this.