Copywriting

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L. Soul

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Depends if they are sampled or not

I believe it's $30 you request the forms, fill em out, pay for em, send em in.

http://www.copyright.gov/

However, you cannot copyright sampled work without permission from the sample owner or it's coypright infringment. However, if you were to mangle a sample beyond the point where it's recognized you can get it in. The only problem is if somebody oneday figures it out and sues you. Odds are it won't happen though.
 

GRAFIK

Vinyl Addict
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
well all my beats are sampled, so i'm sure for those producers that sample then if anyone listens to your tracks and likes them, they can steal them, let's say you send them to a record label and hope they will buy them and end up stealing your beat, because how many producers espcially unknown producers get permision from these artists to use these samples, i'm guessing less than 5%
 

L. Soul

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Well it depends, are you sampling really well known artists? If not you can probably work out some agreement with the people. (if you can find them)

Also, this encourages producers to get off the net, because if you personally are getting out there getting your beats around you'll know who has what of your stuff and it becomes very easy to track thieves. Also, you can just start shopping beats to MC's (once you personally feel they are ready) and then once you've reached a sale with them you guys go and get it copyright along with sample clearance, or you and the label you're working with. If anything the system encourages producers to work harder and start getting outside they house to hustle they beats. Bad side some of the sample owners will demand just some greedy ass rates
 

5th Sequence

Hip Hop Head, Certified
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 198
I disagree guys. You can copyright works that contain samples. Your not copyrighting the sample itself but your copyriting how you've used it. The "arrangement" of it. I filled out a copyright form but never sent it off becuase I made so many more beats it was almost useless to do it. I researched this thing to death a year ago. You don't need permission from the artist but you do need to list it under the derrivative works part. This can make it difficult for copyrighting lots of sample based beats becuase your derrivitive works part will be huge and you wont be able to fit a lot on there. It's best to send off the copyright immidiately after someone wants to buy it. You can have them wait if you want but it usually takes a month or so for it to get back.

When you sell a beat, make sure it's clearly stated that the buyer holds all responsibility for clearing the sample. This means you have to just provide the correct information about the samples you've used so they can make the contact if they wish to. If they don't get it cleared, you hold no liability but you've made your money for making the beat. Make sure this is clearly explained on your site and that you tell them before they buy it.

The best way to protect your music from being stolen is to put vocal tags on it (for the love of hip hop dont make them cheezy, seriously). Put vocal tags on it or degrade the quality a little so its noticeable (this can work against you though).

I wouldn't be too concerned with labels stealing your material. If they are trying to release something professional they arent going to be stealing mp3's. think about it, they need the beat seperated track by track so they can make a professional recording with vocals and all that. If someone does jack your shit, they'll be jacking a slightly lower quality beat with vocal samples on it. Even if they sample around the parts of your vocal tag and reconstruct it, they'll be chopping an mp3 and thats horrible quality. They have to reconvert that to mp3 AGAIN for the final thing after they've recorded their vocals, resulting in the lowest quality shit ever lol. Who the fucks gonna get rich off that?

Chill.

Peace
 
A

Authority

Guest
thats crazy .......now days you can sample somebodys work and not get sued.....
 

Lazy Eyes

The Beat Konduktah
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 7
Word @ 5th i feel the same way bout that... and if they do jack your beat u know you are on the serious tip with your beats...

If u land on some major label artists album u know u got skills and then i might be a good idea to start copyrighting em.. But let's just make beats for the love of the game at first...

but still it's good to think bout those things Graf...

One,

Lazy
 
O

open mind

Guest
that shit will make u poor before u make any paper imagine if u got more then 100 beats and u want them copyright and shit.u betta do what 5th said.
 

StressWon

www.stress1.com
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 68
TACTIK said:
ASCAP or BMI


naw Tac,,,those are two differnet things,,in a sense.

Yo Graf,,it goes like this homie,,,you can sample any piece of work and copyright the work. You only have to worry about samples if ya have a hit record on MTV and the radio,,,then sample clearence comes into play,,,this is why "Sample clearence" exists. Beacsue YOU CAN copyright other material. But like mentioned above, if ya sample aint recognizable,,its all gravy,,but you on that level where sample clearance wont be anm issue,,feel me? Actually no one here should really worry about sample clearence.
 
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