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What Rights Are In A Copyright? Compulsory Licenses

By Pamela Parker, Esq.

Copyright: the right to control the copying and use of a protected work.

Songs are copyrighted works. A song is considered as one whole work, so if it consists of both music and lyrics, and if one person wrote the music and one person wrote the lyrics, there is only one copyright and both authors are holders of that copyright. Each person who was an author of a song is a part copyright owner, no matter how many people there were. However, songs that were written under a "work for hire" agreement belong to the person or company that paid the writer to write the song, and the actual writer has no interest in the copyright.

It's important to understand that there is a distinction between the song itself, and any particular recording of the song. Recordings are separate works, and a separate ownership right exists in the recording. Recordings will be discussed in future posts.

Generally, a copyright holder completely controls the right to use a work, other than narrow exceptions for reviews and educational use. But songs have an extra peculiarity. Once the song has been recorded and publicly released, any person can acquire what is known as a compulsory license to record the song again. The compulsory license includes a statutorily determined mechanical royalty, so although the copyright holder cannot keep someone from recording the song, the copyright holder must be paid for that use. Right now the mechanical royalty fee is 9.1 cents per song manufactured. This means that if 1000 copies of a CD with your song on it are manufactured, then the recording company or artist must pay you - usually through the Harry Fox Agency - $91.

Digital downloads are now the purchasing medium of choice for many people. They are covered by the same compulsory license rules and royalty rate as the traditional CD recording. The only difference is that the seller pays periodically based on the number of downloads sold.

Uses of the song other than making a recording are not covered by the compulsory license and statutory royalty rate.

Full post as published by After Writing on February 01, 2007 (boomark / email).