Musician’s Guide to Copyright

Welcome to the "Musician's Guide" Series!
This series is pulled directly from the courses I've created for my university position in Music Business. All of these courses are designed for the everyday musician - amateur or professional - who has little or no knowledge on the topic, but wants to master it.
This class is all about Copyright.

It is ideal for anyone who has had an interest in copyright, or a need to understand copyright. Especially:

• Creators: If you are making music, you need to understand your rights.
• Consumers: If you are working with music, and want to know if you can copy a song, delete a song, or make a mashup of a song, this course is for you!
• Musicians: If you are going to be recorded, you should understand how things will work when the recording is released, and what rights you have to your performance.
• Producers: If you are using samples in your tracks, you need to understand copyright!
• Curious Minds: Anyone interested in how copyright law works, where it comes from, and where it might be going is invited to be a part of this class.

In this class, we start with the most basic question: How do we define music? Once we have a definition, we start to look at how music is protected with copyright, ways that it isn't, and how to work with it for fun and profit. I'll walk you through every step of the issue and explain the logic behind every concept.
The goal of this class is for you to understand how to make copyright protection work for you.

Software:
This course is NOT specific to any DAW program.

Genre:
The recording studio has no genre - so all are welcome here.
Topics Covered:

• Defining Music
• Melody and Uniqueness
• Originality
• "Independent Creation"
• Tangibility
• Copyright at the Constitution
• Rights We Get
• Intellectual Property
• Copyright Term
• Public Domain
• History of Copyright
• Work For Hire
• Assignments
• Licensing
• First Sale Doctrine
• Film, TV, and Game Licensing
• Collaboration
• Fair Use
• Parody
• Trademarks
• Performing Group Names (Band Names)
• Titles (Song Titles)
• Right of Publicity
• Contractual Rights
• Exclusivity
• Right of Refusal
• Moral Rights
• Creative Commons
• CopyLeft
• And much, much more!