Here's what a lawyer comrad of mine thinks about copyrighting your beats:
The reason I think it's pointless is because with hip hop music, 9 times out of 10, the compositions are not that difficult to either replay or copy and alter. So basically, you got a hot sample that you flipped...you send the beat into the copyright office...cool, you think you're good. But if a dude hears that beat and wants to jack it, he can flip the sample his own way, and have it be VERY similar to yours, but change just enough to avoid the copyright protection issue. If it's not a sample beat, he can jack your melody, but alter it JUST enough so that he can avoid the copyright protection issue.
Now step 2...you hear the beat on the radio and you're like FUCK this, that's my shit! What are you gonna do? You call a laywer up and tell him, yo I heard my shit on the radio and I have a copyright on my beat, so let's do this. The lawyer listens and says, ok I think we might have something here. But any good lawyer is not gonna take a case like that on contingency (if he does he's an idiot and he likes to work for free). So now you gotta pay the dude up front...most likely he'll ask for a retainer...anywhere in the range of 5 to 10 thousand dollars. Now at this point, he's gonna file the complaint against the producer individually and the record label (they have the deep pockets and that's where you get your dough). He might also file some discovery too. Now, that 10 grand is gonna run out fast, especially if the lawyer charges 200-500 an hour which is the normal range for any decent lawyer in a large city like NY. He can blow through that dough in 10-20 hours of work! I do that shit all the time. MAYBE at this point, after they get the complaint, the record label MIGHT settle with you out of court, but for how much? And if they don't, and they might not because they have MUCH deeper pockets than you and don't really give a fuck about litigation (record labels are suing left and right these days), the case will go to trial. If the case goes to trial, it could cost you upwards of 100 thousand dollars...just to prosecute the action. Which means YOU'RE paying for that.
Now I don't know about you guys, but I'm not makin dough like that off of my music to pay an attorney for a crap shoot case that a judge might throw out because the beats aren't EXACTLY the same. And if you were making that kind of money, you probably wouldn't have gotten jacked.
Bottom line...we're in a very vulnerable position as up and coming producers. My advice, try to have as many face to face meetings as you can...minimize your risk. Keep a log of who you send your beats to. But if the day comes that your beat gets jacked...yeah there's somethin you can do about it, but you're gonna be damned if you do, damned if you don't. Sorry to be so cynical about this, but this is reality folks. That's why I always say to myself, "fuck it, I'll make more". Cuz if I get jacked, I can't bitch and moan about how that was the hottest beat I had and blah blah blah, I just gotta go back to the lab and make more. Chalk it up as an L, take it as a compliment, whatever, but ya gotta move the fuck on, because it's just not worth it.
(Note: this is all limited to BEATS...if you have finished songs with hooks and lyrics, I ABSOLUTELY recommend you copyright your tracks)
