Darrin McGillis Productions

The two key concepts involved in "protecting" the name of a band are "territory" and "priority". Territory means the area where you use the name, e.g., Miami, Florida, Mid-West, United States, world-wide, etc. Priority, as the word implies, involves who uses the name first. These two concepts work together to limit the scope of protection for a name. If you started using your name first, you can prevent others from using it. However, the law allows you exclusive use of the name only in the area where you have used it. For example, if you started playing the Miami area in 1995 and never played or distributed music outside the Miami area, you could not prevent a band from using the name in Florida. However, they could not use the band name in Miami since you were the first to use the band name there. You also may acquire the rights to your name for Miami in 1995 and nation-wide in 1999 when you release your first record for a major. If someone started usin...

If you look at any of the jackets on your CD's or tapes, you will notice various bits of information. Although the content often differs, many of the same things are on every jacket. It should not surprise you that these things should also go on your tape. However, what is necessary and what does it mean? First for the cover. The only things which should go on the cover of your tape or CD are the band's name and the title of the tape, along with any artwork. Now for the good stuff: What goes on the back cover or J- card insert? The first thing to consider is credit. You obviously want to give yourself, "the band", credit for the record. As for crediting others, that depends on contracts. If you have a contract with a producer, it will surely include a clause whereby you must give him credit on the jacket. The same may go for the recording studio, manager. Receiving proper credit is very important in the entertainment industry. However, the only legal obligation to i...

Sampling is the use of portions of prior recordings which are incorporated into a new composition. Sampling has become an integral part of many genres of music today. When you sample someone's song without permission, it is an instant copyright violation. It is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material owned by another. Sampling without permission violates two copyrights-the sound recording copyright (usually owned by the record company) and the copyright in the song itself (usually owned by the songwriter or the publishing company). If you want to use a sample legally, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The copyright owner is usually a publishing company or record label. Remember that you must obtain permission from both the owner of the sound recording and the copyright owner of the underlying musical work. The fee for a license to use a sample can vary tremendously. The fee will depend on how much of the sample you intend to use (a quarter second is a mino...

Most musicians do not ask me this question like I have phrased it above. Instead, they ask, "what if someone rips off my material"? The answer is, they infringe your copyright. You get a copyright the minute you put your song on tape or write it down on paper. You do not get a copyright by sending your song to the Copyright Office in Washington D.C.; doing this registers your copyright. I will explain the benefits of registering your copyright shortly, but you do not need to do this to prevent someone from ripping off your songs. In order to prove that someone infringed your copyright, you must show that you own the copyright. Second, you must prove that the infringer had access to you song. The infringer, on the other hand, will try to show that he did not have access to your song. If your song was a hit across the country and was on the radio a lot, it should be easy to prove the infringer could have heard it. However, if you pressed 500 copies of your demo and sold it at s...

Publishing is a lucrative area for bands that write their own material. When a band writes a song, they own the copyright in that song. Publishing is the money you receive for writing the song. A quick distinction must be made between the copyright in a song and the copyright of a sound recording. When you record the song for a record company, the company owns the copyright of the sound recording (the version you record for them), but you retain the copyright of the underlying song. Publishing money comes from the copyright of the song, not the sound recording. Bands that write songs own this particular copyright and receive publishing money from their ownership. The owner of the song is entitled to certain exclusive rights. This means that only the copyright owner can do certain things with his song, unless people pay him to use it. When people pay the copyright owner, the owner is said to grant a license. The money from these licenses is what is called publishing. There are essential...

The question I am most frequently asked is whether a band has to send their material to the Copyright Office in Washington D.C. to keep other people from stealing their ideas. The short answer is no. As soon as you write down your lyrics or record your music (even on your portable cassette recorder), you have a copyright and no one can steal it. From the instant your material is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression" it is copyrighted and protected. By sending your tape to the Copyright Office, you are registering your copyright. So, if you hum a song in your head-no copyright; but, the minute you write it down or record-copyright. Once you put your ideas into tangible form, you have all the copyright you need to prevent someone from stealing your material. What you do need to be concerned about is to being able to prove when you created the musical work. If someone does steal your material, you have to prove that you thought it up first. The most popular way to date your...

Record contracts come in many forms. This stems from the fact that there are hundreds of different record companies. From the so-called "major labels" (EMI, Sony, Warner, PolyGram, BMG or one of their related corporations) to "mini-majors" (A&M, Island and Virgin, in the days of their independence, were the most obvious examples) to the "independents", the contract depends largely on the type of record company offering it. When you first see your contract, if you are like most bands, you immediately sit down and read it. However, you soon realize that it is written in a manner which defies grammatical english. Sentences run on for 14 lines, with little if any punctuation. There are terms and words which you have never encountered. Finally, the sentences constantly make reference to each other ("pursuant to 1(A)3(c)(ii)"). Where do you begin? The first place is with someone familiar with record contracts. Often, a band will be aware of and hav...