Ok, we’ve all heard about this “poor man’s copyright” technique, appropriate?

We’ll explain it as soon as once again, for those who have been living in caves, but prior to we do, you need to know appropriate off, IT Does not Work!

NO COURT HAS EVER ACCEPTED THIS Strategy AS LEGAL PROOF OF COPYRIGHT, so do not waste your time! But here’s what it’s supposed to do (and why it doesn’t work).

The poor man’s copyright (not copywrite) is when you mail either a CD, or sheet music, or some other physical form of your music, to yourself (or a friend) by regular, or certified mail.

The concept sounds reasonable: A couple of days later, when you get your songs or music back in the mail, you Don’t open the envelope. You just hide it away somewhere, in a drawer, a safety deposit box, with your underwear, and just wait until someday when a person tries to steal your song or music.

Then you whip out your sealed envelope, bring it to Court in the course of your copyright infringement lawsuit, and let the Judge open it.

Then the Judge is supposed to think that the postmark on the envelope “proves” that the songs or music inside were in existence as of that date!

So, assuming the bad guy who has stolen your music started playing it right after the date of your postmark, the Judge is supposed to tell the jury you win your copyright case, award you millions in damages and you go house, record your song and win American Idol!

Only difficulty is… as we’ve already said, there are NO courts we know of that have ever utilised a postmark from an envelope as proof in a copyright case!

Why does not it function you ask? A lot of reasons:

In fact, there are SO many approaches to tamper or manipulate the postmarked envelope, or the supposed “copyrighted” music inside, that we couldn’t fit them all into just this one write-up.

 

But here are a couple of fast examples:

 

     1. The most obvious way to “game” this approach is to just mail yourself an empty envelope and just barely seal it (or do not seal it at all – the post office doesn’t care if your envelope is sealed or not). Then when you get it back with its postmark, you just store it until you want to steal someone’s song possibly years later.

     Then, sometime in the future, you stick the words and music to someone else’s song into your empty envelope with the old postmark and seal it up Real Great.

     And, presto, you’ve now got “proof” that you created that song way back on the date of the postmark — considering that it’s “clearly” been in that “sealed” envelope all that time!

     [And if you're truly clever, you could also throw in an old newspaper article when you 1st send your self your "sealed" envelope, with the same date as the postmark, "proving" even further that every little thing in that envelope must be from that old date...]

 

     2. Or even if you didn’t try to cheat, how do you plan on verifying the security of the sealed envelope? Bringing in scientific experts to verify you haven’t played with the envelope seals? NO professional could testify to that (or when specifically the envelope was sealed or resealed)! Keep in mind, the post office doesn’t even check to see if envelopes are sealed!

 

     3. Or, how are you going to prove the postmark stamp, or certified mail notice, is genuine? Uncover the post office individual who stamped it? Yeah, correct.

 

     4. And then, of course, there’s the issue of BIAS. Who will testify in court about preparing the envelope, sealing it, mailing it, finding it delivered back to your address, how it was handled and by whom, how it was by no means opened, etc. and so on.? YOU? Your friends? Your relatives? Do you see the dilemma utilizing men and women close to you?

     YOU (and your friends and relatives) are NOT “independent, unbiased witnesses.” You (and folks connected with you) have an obvious stake in the outcome of any copyright case which entails YOU! Having a person who wants to win in court (or a friend) also be a witness in the exact same case is about the WORST factor you can do! Ask any lawyer… WITNESSES WITH SUCH BIASES HAVE NO CREDIBILITY IN COURT!. When it comes to copyright issues, you constantly want unbiased, independent verification as evidence!

 

So as you can see, there are endless methods to cheat employing this “poor man’s copyright” approach. Don’t WASTE YOUR TIME. IT Will not Protect YOU OR YOUR SONGS! Period.

For most composers, their songs are just too essential to take such stupid chances leaving them unprotected with this myth recognized as the “poor man’s copyright.” Specifically when you can get real protection so inexpensively, using an independent third-party registration service!

So either register your songs with a reputable, unbiased, private music registration service, or the Copyright Office. But whatever you do, Do not bother with the “poor man’s copyright”!

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Disclaimer:

The above info is intended as general information only, not as legal guidance or solicitation for legal services, and really should not be relied on as such. Please consult with a nearby attorney in your region for specific legal questions on music copyright law.

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Copyright Registration