Marc and John,

I have written 600+ songs, far fewer than you Marc, but nonethe less, a significant number, I have never once registered one with the U.S. Copyright Office. If I were commercially competitive with my writing (don't we all have our dreams!!!???), I might reconsider at that point.

I think what many of the newer entrants into the songwriting arena, as well as a few old-timers, do not realize is that registering your song with the U.S. Copyright Office does not make it any more "legally" protected. The only benefit of that registration, as far as I know, is that should you ever find yourself in court on a copyright infringement litigation/contest, the U.S. Copyright Office is just another tool to help substantiate your claim, assuming your claim is valid. You simply have the U.S. government as one of your allies. They are another voice for you case...nothing more, nothing less.

The second you enter a work onto a tangable medium (disk, hard drive, paper, sheet music, napkin...anything that reveals the content and context of your effort), it is automatically and "LEGALLY" copyrighted once you apply the copyright insignia and your name. It is no more legal, whatsoever, if you register it with the Copyright Office. I always date my copyrights, too. It doesn't hurt to do so.

So, unless you have written the song of the year/decade/century, and suits in the business have agreed to that ascription, I think copyrighting your song is probably a waste of time and money until you have a deal for a "CUT" in ink. However, if you're financially secure enough that the money for registration is insignificant to you, there's certainly no harm in doing so.

Just one guys opinion. Contrary to what my wife says, my opinions are sometimes accurate.

Alan