Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Georgia
Musician's Copyright: lyrical content
I am a musician in a small-scale/local-scene band. I am the vocalist in the group, and the primary writer of the lyrical content, although the music is written by other members of the group. If I were to leave the group, could I retain the rights to the lyrical material and prevent the group from performing the words I've written, even though the words were written in the context of a ''song'' or group of songs that were written, performed, and in some cases recorded, as a group? I'm curious as to whether in contributing my work to the collabrative creative efforts of a group I yield my rights of the portion I created (the lyrics) to the group, or if I can retain my rights to this portion.
If so, should I obtain official copyright for these lyrics individually, or as a body of work? Would this enable me to prevent the remaining members of the group from future performances and recordings that including the words I've written and sought copyright protection for?
Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Musician's Copyright: lyrical content
Generally, it is possible for there to be copyrights associated with the lyrics, the music and the combined song once each is put into a tangible form.
If you are the sole contributor to the lyrics and you wrote them down, you are the sole owner of the copyrights to the lyrics. If you created the lyrics in conjunction with others, you would likely share the copyrights with those others. If others created the music independently, they likely have copyrights to the music. When put together, you all likely have copyrights to the song. These rights exist once they are put into a tangible form such as a piece of sheet music, on a recording or on the back of a napkin.
Formal filing for the copyright gives the owner certain advantages but is not necessary to establish basic copyrights.
For the brief situation you describe, if you were the sole creator of the lyrics, you could argue that you have copyrights to them. This would prevent others from using the words without your permission. As you described, if they created the music, your copyrights would not prevent them from playing the music. Additionally, your copyrights would not prevent them from playing the same music but substituting other lyrics.
Formal filing would be a benefit to you to strengthen your copyrights, particularly if you were to pursue legal action.
As you would understand, the specific answer to your specific issue would require a better understanding of other situational facts.
Please contact me if I can be of assistance.
John J. Brooks III
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