Does Poor Mans Copyright Work For Songs?
Trying to copyright register your song through the mail is known as “poor man’s copyright.” The steps to this type of process include: creating an original song; putting it in a fixed form (i.e. music notes on paper, sound recordings on a CD); placing the finished song in an envelope; and sending it to yourself using registered mail. Unfortunately, and contrary to popular belief, this method simply does not work in the eyes of the court. While in theory, “poor man’s copyright” seems like a great option to protect copyright, in practice, it’s not. The inspiration of sending the song to yourself through registered mail is that you will acquire a date-stamped record of the creation of the song. Should someone copy your song or a portion of the song, you would use this date-stamped envelope to prove that you had created the song first and, thus, own the copyrights (which include the rights to produce and reproduce the work). There are a number of reasons why poor man’s copyright is not a r
