Copyright Free Music Resources

There are a lot of different musical components that you can get for free. Sound loops, drum beats, vocals, sound effects, sheet music, ring tones, and even entire songs. These can be valuable resources for an aspiring musician who doesn't have the money to drop on libraries or a record label to provide these tools. Let's go over these in a bit more detail.

The main components of a song are an intro, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, collision, vocal run, instrument solo, outro, and breaks. All of these elements that go into song making can be constructed from the copyright free music resources listed above with the exception of instrument solos and vocal components. It is entirely possible to make a complete song with free materials. So, don't underestimate the value of these materials.

However, when looking for these free song elements you should be aware of a few licensing terms. If something is copyright free or in the public domain it means you can do whatever you want with it. Creative commons means that the author is retaining some ownership and you'll need to read the specific terms but usually they're pretty open if you give them attribution. Royalties are when you have to pay for every use of a given work. Therefore, royalty free simply means you won't have to pay after an initial licensing fee. Then of course there is copyrighted which means you'll need permission or have to pay to use something.

There is a lot of free material out there so start looking and save everything you can. You never know if you'll need something in the future that is no longer available. Always save the things you find and build up a library of musical components. Recording studios and labels have hundreds or thousands or even millions of sound samples and effects at their disposal but that doesn't mean you can't do well with a few thousand of your own.

Why is it So Important to Copyright Your Work?

Anyone working in a creative industry will be fully aware of the pernicious extent of the crime of copyright infringement. Anyone who has been victim to such activities as plagiarism will know that it is a crime that affects the victim in a way not dissimilar to being burgled. Creative workers often put a lot of their emotion into making their work as enjoyable for the reader, viewer or listener as they possibly can, and to see someone else get credit for something into which you have put blood, sweat and tears is as galling as you can possibly imagine. It is worth taking every step possible to protect your work in such cases.

In recent years there has been a boom in the Internet-based pursuit of making images using PhotoShop in order to create a satirical image or a parody of something in the public eye. The amount of work and creative intelligence that goes into such images is variable, but in many cases the feedback given to such images puts it very firmly in the camp marked "creative art." These images have proven to be so popular that communities have built up to showcase them, and this has attracted the attention of other areas of the media, including printed magazines and newspapers. It is not unheard of for these publications to take the images and compile them into a story. Although this could ordinarily be considered to be a positive for the creators - recognition is good for any artist - it is not quite so simple.

The standard practice where these works are concerned is to reproduce them without giving any credit to the person who created the image. This is all the more prevalent because the people creating the images often work under a screen name which gives them a level of anonymity. Proving the work to be theirs is often far from simple. One solution to this is to "watermark" your images. Often, however, the watermark needs to be placed on the fringes of the picture in order to keep the integrity of the image. In cases like this, newspapers have been known to "crop" the images, thus removing any identifying watermark.

In many ways, the crime of plagiarism is like every other premeditated crime - as soon as a new way of combating it is discovered, the criminal changes their tack and finds a way around the problem. This has led to a number of frustrated artists, seeing their work getting the recognition it deserves, but with the credit going to a corporation who had nothing whatsoever to do with the creative process. There are also issues surrounding media appropriation of popular trends, which can lead to a loss of overall quality control and damage being done to the art form. A lot of thought is required if plagiarists are to be thwarted in their efforts to pass off other people's work as their own. It is to be expected that this will include the artists becoming more aware of, and more prepared to exercise, legal solutions to the problem.

A Look at the Three Strikes Plagiarism Rule in Your Children's School

Why are so many kids cheating these days in school? Are they under too much stress to succeed, are we teaching them the wrong way, are they just bored, pissed off and don't care? Or is it their role models taking steroids in sports, business men involved in fraud or our political leaders who lie to us to get the votes? Worst of all, since we draw on society for all these jobs and other jobs like policemen, military, government workers, etc, soon these kids will be adults and will they thus, still be cheating then?

What is wrong with our society? And speaking of cheating most kids now go onto the Internet and lift someone else's work, plagiarize it, and turn it in. They are doing this in grade school, junior high, high school, college and many go on to do important research and cheat there too? Some schools and colleges have adopted a "Three Strikes Rule" for plagiarism, and yet one has to ask why?

Why grant kids 3-strikes?

Why not kick them out of school on the first strike, or offense, or suspend them from school the first time, and if it happens again "See Ya" you can never come back and you forfeit your tuition. Personally, as a writer I am constantly contacted by professors and teachers across the country asking me about something I wrote to make sure I actually wrote it, because some student swears they did not plagiarize it. We have copyright laws in this nation, and they ought to apply to everyone. Please consider this.

Finding Copyright Free Materials

Finding copyright free materials depends on which media you're looking for. The best way is to make the material yourself if it happens to look like copyrighted material you will need to change it "enough" to be legal. You can search for copyleft materials though they are rare compared to materials that have an unknown copyright status. Materials that have a copyright mark on them can sometimes be contested if the image or media is universal and is being used by everyone everywhere. You could say a negative of an image is its complete opposite though sometimes people copyright the negative.

You can take an image and mirror it and then change the colors and place another image over it and it would be so different that it would no longer be the original image. As for audio it is more about the length of the audio and a recognizable voice and instruments or playing styles. You can warp the audio enough that it is kind of funny. Many times you can call the owner of the image and ask for permission to use the media. Discovering archives of work that is by unknown authors or work by this "anonymous" guy you can argue that it is impossible to get permission to use the work cause the author died years ago and did not leave the work to anyone else.

The one thing that is important to note with this is what the license says about derived works. If the source comes from their work then they still maintain rights over how it can be used. Some people still require permission to use their files.

When you copy something it is good for that thing as it will reach more people and promote that things existence. Any political messages can usually be copied safely because the authors want them to be copied. You can also edit things in a way that changes the context significantly enough to create a completely original work even though it looks the same you would never see something like that in a place like this or other such methods.

How to Copyright

Copyrighting, or protecting a written or recorded work as an author is much easier than it sounds. The Library of Congress has forms that can be completed on their website and sent in electronically with a fee to obtain a copyright. Whether it is a book, college thesis, music or film recording, or syndicated column, a copyright can be purchased to protect an author's intellectual property.

Owning a copyright grants certain rights to the author. For example, a copyright holder grants others permission to reuse intellectual material for personal use. The law does not however allow any reprinted material to be resold for profit, such as a homemade DVD or other video taped from the original source. Schools and other institutions that may require an individual to make copies for distribution through xeroxing to students or other individuals must also make sure that no money is received in return, or that the copies appear in another publication without permission of the original author.

After logging onto the Electronic Copyright Office on the Library of Congress site, a short registration form must be filled out before the online copyright form can be accessed. Once registration is complete, then a copyright application form can be filled out. Payment is next which can be made through a major credit card or electronic check. Lastly, the work being copyrighted can be uploaded. A link to the types of files that are readable by the Library of Congress electronic office is provided. Files for documents, data, images, audio and video are included in this list. The basic copyright fee for an individual work costs $35.00. A notarized copy of your copyright certificate is sent to you approximately two to three months after you send your application in.

Intellectual Property Rights and Code Writers

"Large streams from little fountains flow, tall trees from little acorns grow", most great Internet ideas start small from somebody's garage or front room. It is important to remember that what seems to be just fun for you may one day become very valuable.

When suddenly your good idea becomes a great idea like Paypal, Ebay, Yahoo!, Netscape Navigator you then suddenly become a target for others who are in the same sapce or think they got there first.

The problem of who owns what does not seem an important one until suddenly your concept is valued at millions of dollars. It should be important to you from the outset. When commissioning developers ownership of the intellectual property rights in the end product should be very specific. The developer will be writing the code using its tools, software and business methods. It may also be using third party software. So the developer may use its own methodologies, source code, object code, know how, trade secrets or inventions (whether or not patentable).

The client may not be entitled to the creative development process behind the developers work. The client will be entitled or should be entitled to the end-product. The client may be entitled to the object code underlying the creative work.

There is also the issue of the scrip code being secure enough to withstand the numerous attacks of hackers. The time where you simply put up a sleek looking website and start trading is past you now need to consider the issues involved more carefully.

Peter Adediran is a Web, Internet and Media Law Specialist for small and medium sized business. He has been practising Internet Law since the 90s. As well as writing one of the first text books for business managers on Internet Law he was Professor of Business, Law and the Internet at the European University in Barcelona.

Copyright For a Website - What You Need to Know

The question often arises whether or not placing a copyright notice on one's website is sufficient to protect against third party infringement. While placing a notice is better than not having one at all, it is important to recognize that the protection truly lies in the enforcement of one's copyright. Therefore, the best way to stop someone from infringing your copyright and/or recover damages and attorney's fees for such infringement, is to file a copyright with the United States Copyright Office. When filing a website copyright, there are several considerations. First, it is important to remember that the requirements for a website copyright are no different than those requirements to have any copyright. Namely, one must create and fix in a tangible form the website in order to be entitled to copyright protection. Unlike other copyrights pertaining to text, a photograph, a computer program and the underlying source code, a music recording, or some other material, websites often include all of these types of material. As such, when drafting the copyright application, using Form TX, it is important to specifically identify for what you're claiming protection.

In addition, those seeking copyright protection often overlook the fact that a filed copyright pertains to exactly that which was filed. Therefore, when an update is made to a website, ideally a new filing should be made. While a copyright for the original website may offer significant leverage over an alleged copyright infringer, ensuring that the exact copy of the website and material contained therein is subject to a valid copyright registration with the Library of Congress, you will be in an even stronger position to enforce your rights and qualify for statutory damages. While filing every day in order to protect your online work may not be an option, it is often recommended that a filing should occur upon redesigns and major updates.

Finally, filing for a copyright for a website does protect the website and offer some protection to the content. However, having individual copyrights filed for that content, such as a particular photograph, image, or other copyrightable work, is advisable so that there is no question about confusing similarity if the alleged infringer uses only a portion of your website. Ultimately, filing for a copyright is a relatively inexpensive process and one that can lead to more successful enforcement of your intellectual property and a greater return on investment should you seek damages for that infringement. The ability to pursue a copyright infringement action in a federal court is dependent upon you having registered or attempted to register and been refused registration with the Copyright Office. Therefore, if you are going to look to protect your exclusive rights to distribution, display, reproduction and any other rights, filing for a website copyright is worthwhile.