John L., you sure know how to stir things up... and you are so right. Copyright is a topic as well as a target... and the U.S. Copyright Law(s) are being assailed on a broad front by those who would squeeze the meager potential profit of humble songwriters even further.

Your idea of doing your own version of an "Old Standard" is a great approach and if it is still covered by a formal copyright... you can "cover" it as long as you take care of the royalties involved. Like you, I doubt if "The Way You Look Tonight" has found it's way into the realm of "Public Domain."

Jim's point about writing so many songs without formally copyrighting is disputed by many writers regarding copyright law and most of them state that "The moment the lyric is put to paper" or the "song is recorded"... it is, in fact, copyrighted.

Real protection in the United States is only afforded by application for a Statutory Copyright with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress... and even that will depend on the outcome of a legal challenge... and the strength of your Copyright Attorney in winning your case. Having a Statutory Copyright is certainly stronger (and more expensive) than a de-facto or unpublished copyright. Either "method" must endure and survive a legal challenge in a court of law.

The problem is proving the actual date it became such property in the case of "The de-facto Copyright." This leads to the age-old argument of mailing a lyric, melody or song to one's self and not opening the envelope. This has been proved to be invalid on many instances, I am informed.

Baskerville's "Music Business Handbook" indicates that there are no statutes in place anywhere to guarantee world-wide protection of a copyright. Only the country of origin and the binding agreements between consenting nations are able to provide a modicum of protection.

Although I agree that Copyright Law needs to be streamlined and revised to provide clarity and protection of the Copyright Owner, I'm not at all sure our Senators or Congressmen are capable of hammering out a document that will not unbalance the scales in favor of the Big Guys versus the lowly Creator of the work.

As always, my caveat is to advise that I am not a qualified Music or Copyright Attorney.

Finally, the Copyright Process here in the U.S. is much too expensive and complex. Having said that, I have never tried the "on-line" process Ray mentioned.

Happy New Year! ----Dave

Last edited by Dave Rice; 01/01/16 10:16 PM.