The Importance of registering musical works for copyright protection
What is copyright?
The purpose of copyright is: “To encourage a dynamic creative culture, while returning value to creators so that they can lead a dignified economic existence, and to provide widespread, affordable access to content for the public”[1].
Just as a worker or labourer has the right to receive fees for his/her work, somebody who has used their intelligence has the right to receive remuneration for the effort that he/she put into creating works that are not wholly tangible, i.e. things which exist due to the creativity of the human mind. These include (but are not limited to) things such as artwork, stories, ideas and (most importantly in this case,) music. This concept is called the right to Intellectual Property. Copyrighting material is a way of ensuring that the creator retains the right to his/her intellectual property.
In the music industry there are three common types of copyright[2]. These are:
- the graphic right, i.e. the right to print or publish the music;
- the reproduction right, i.e. the right to record the music;
- the performing right, i.e. the right to perform the music in public, including the right to broadcast it.
According to international law regarding the subject[3], as soon as a piece of music is composed or made (originally) by recording, the composer (or creator) owns the music, and the music is already copyrighted. The problem is trying to prove that you were the original composer if a claim is subsequently made. There are various means by which this can be done. The first is a non-effective method called “poor man’s copyright”. It involved mailing or electronically time-stamping the work in its original form, thereby ‘ensuring’ that if a court case did come along you had proof of the time and date when it was composed. The problem with this method is that these ‘time-stamps’ can be forged, and are therefore not reliable in court. This method is thus redundant. In fact, generally the only sure-fire way of protecting the copyright of your intellectual property is to go through a company which specialises in this area. Each country/region has different laws and regulations regarding copyright, and therefore different companies or offices which deal with it. Southern Africa’s top two companies are SAMRO and SARRAL, which shall be discussed later.
In the greater scheme of things:
In short, copyright protection provides the ability and incentive to good musicians to continue producing good works: although there are a few composers out there who compose good music as a pastime, or “just for fun”, the majority of the music that we are exposed to in our daily lives in this modern time, from the music that we listen to for pleasure to the music that we dance to, from film music to the music used to attract customers to stores, from the “on hold” music to elevator music, the majority of this music is composed and performed by the professional musician, i.e. the musician who makes a living off producing this music[4]. Copyright is a way to ensure that these professional musicians hold the rights to their music in that other parties cannot make a profit off (or even use) music whilst the composer/performer loses out on a potential profit, for if this did happen then these musicians who produce our beloved music would feel that their work is going unrewarded (financially, at least) and that they could probably make a better living in some other field. This would have devastating effects on the music industry as very few musicians would stay to suffer the “non-profit production” that would remain[5].
In terms of individuals:
What is mentioned above may hold water in the greater scheme of things, but it may have little relevance to a small-time budding musician who may think the whole copyright process is a bit tedious and extraneous, especially if the culmination of his/her music talent up until that point is a couple of videos on YouTube. However, any starting musician with this mind-set must consider this: Solomon Linda was a musician who did not know the relevance of registering his works for copyright protection. We cannot really say, but he may have even had the same mind-set, in that he may not have thought too highly of his music at the time. Either way, the point is that he did not copyright his music and he lost out on an estimated $15 million just for the use of (a copied and altered rendition of) his “Mbube” in The Lion King[6]. Solomon died in poverty. Although this is an extreme case, it does serve to prove that without copyright a musician could lose out on a potential financial gain. For Solomon Linda, that financial gain was millions, but for a budding musician it could be just enough to buy a new guitar.
What role do SARRAL and SAMRO play in all this?
In November 2009 a court case was opened between SARRAL and former director Colin Shapiro, regarding SARRAL not being able to pay out over 40% of the royalties that they were meant to. The ultimate end of this court case was that, on the 31st August 2010 SARRAL’s accreditation as a collecting society was withdrawn, which means that SARRAL can no longer claim to be an organisation which collects and protects composer’s works and handles all the royalties, paying the musician the necessary profits[7]. Therefore SARRAL is made redundant as a copyright enforcing company; suffice to say that up until August 2010 SARRAL (which stands for South African Recording Rights Association Limited) was a non-profit organisation which involved itself in protecting composers and performers with regard to the reproduction rights mentioned above (wherever recording of music is concerned), making sure that the owners of the intellectual property received the correct royalties[8].
SAMRO (which is the Southern African Music Rights Organisation) is concerned with the performing rights of musicians, and all affiliated broadcasts, transmissions, and public performances. The idea is that due to the evolution of digital media and vast broadcasting operations of recorded music (such as radio and television), many musicians (who in the past would have made a living off recorded of sheet music royalties) now have to make their living off the royalties from live performances, as the other forms of income (recorded and sheet) now have very little to stand on.
To be able to benefit from the services SAMRO offers you need to become a member. To become a member of SAMRO there are several requirements: Individual composers need to have some of their music performed or broadcast for two years before applying to join, and their music must have been passed through a diffusion service (such as elevator music). Publishers need to have several catalogues of musical works with at least two thirds of these having been published. After these requirements have been fulfilled, the application process is a simple case of filling out a membership and Notification of Works form, and sending a proof of identification and a copy of the original work (in the form of recorded music or staff notation). When this application has been accepted, the owner of the intellectual property will start earning when his compositions are performed [9].
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