The expiration date on your copyrighted music isn't something you have to worry about, at least not in your lifetime. The music that you've written is copyrighted the moment you've put it onto paper or recorded it. The reason you don't have to worry about expiration is because the music is protected until 70 years after the death of the author. In the case of your music, that author would be you.
This rule about copyright music expiration was first put into place so that the families and heirs of an author could still earn royalties even after his or her death. Ultimately this means that if you've taken the steps to copyright your music and have registered the copyright, then your music will be protected throughout your lifetime until 70 years after you or the last surviving author (assuming a collaboration) is deceased.
Copyright music expiration is not something you should make a primary concern unless you are having issues of someone respecting and/or honoring your copyright at the moment. You should take comfort in the fact that as long as you are alive you are the only one who can assign your copyright to another person; and as long as you haven't given up your ownership of the music it still belongs to you.
This is different, however, if your copyrighted music was work “made for hire.” If that is the case then you cannot have ownership of the music, as it never legally belonged to you, but the person or entity who hired you to produce the music. Works made for hire have different copyright music expiration than those owned by the creator. With works made for hire, the copyrights are in effect for 95 years from the original publication date or for 120 years from the creation of the work, whichever of the two is shorter.
Richard Cunningham is a freelance journalist who covers copyright law for www.ResearchCopyright.com. Download his free e-book, "Copyright Basics" at ResearchCopyright.com.
Why Are People Accused Of Copyright Infringement?
When you hear about people caught of copyright infringement, many different things can happen to them. First, copyright infringement is both a civil and criminal crime, so people caught of copyright infringement are likely to get both sued and tried in criminal court. Because of the nature of copyright laws, if and when people are caught of copyright infringement, it’s likely they will get repercussions from far and wide.
People are always looking for others violating copyright laws. Copyright owners and/or agents surf the Internet, so they may find the violations themselves. Usually, if someone finds a person violating their copyright rights, they’ll notify the person or entities involved and ask they permanently remove the content, if it’s available on the Internet. They do this by either asking the person directly to take it down, or demanding the website server to take it down (which they will, immediately, and probably suspend the account). If the person or entity hosting the violation doesn’t take it down, more serious actions will be taken, such as a lawsuit or criminal charge.
People caught for copyright infringement do not automatically go to jail, although some entities like major television, music, movie publishers and distribution channels may lead you to believe otherwise. For example, many people are caught for copyright infringement at YouTube.com, but they only need to take down the material. In many cases, YouTube.com will take the material down before the poster (the person who put the copyrighted information on the site to begin with) has a chance to see the warning.
Other times, a work will be present on a peer to peer file sharing service, such as Kazaa or Napster, and the host of said service will blame the end user (you!). So, even if you found a file on a file sharing service, such as Kazaa, doesn’t mean the copyright is open for you to take it. Many people caught of copyright infringement have been found through these peer to peer networks, and it has been found that the user who downloads the material gets charged and not the file sharing service. Be careful, if you are ever to use a peer to peer service such as Kazaa (or bit torrent, which is the code/program for another type of peer to peer file distribution tool) that you’re only downloading, and sharing, items that aren’t copyrighted works -- or you could be punished severely.
Sometimes, people are caught of file sharing from their IP addresses -- because they download something from a secure site, their servers can track your IP address (your unique location on the Internet, four sets of numbers, separated by periods, with at most three numbers in each set -- i.e. 216.239.51.100 which is the IP address of Google.com). So even if you think you’ve bypassed the copyright law, you can still be found years later by tracing that IP address.
There are many ways to find people caught of copyright infringement. You can search through Google.com or look through newspaper databases. One thing, however, remains the same in all these cases -- people are downloading, sharing, or in some other way using copyrighted materials. The problem is, especially in the Internet age, is that even if you’re using something anonymously, you can still be tracked -- and prosecuted -- for the infringement. Be careful, in all you download or use, have the rights to use the item --sometimes it’s as simple as asking permission that will keep you from getting sued or sent to jail.
Richard Cunningham is a freelance journalist who covers copyright law for www.ResearchCopyright.com. Download his free e-book, "Copyright Basics" at ResearchCopyright.com.
Getting rid of spam
I wonder how many emails I send in a week's time. Probably quite a few. Between work and socializing, I would guess I send around 25. My wife tops me by far; she probably sends close to a hundred. Then there are all those received emails. Again my wife tops me with her occupation. She literally received hundreds each week. Me on the other hand, I would guesstimate around 30 or forty. Now, how many of those are actually emails I want and not spam? Uh, around a third I'd say. That's sad. But I shouldn't complain about spam and junk mail. I'm sure many people have it much worse than that. Where does it all come from and how can we start getting rid of spam as soon as possible? You can get necessary information through e-mail adress by visiting email.biz.
I hate pop-ups and spam emails. In fact, I actually blame my computer crashing on a piece of junk mail. Well, it was the last thing I looked at prior to the meltdown. Talk about likely suspects. I used to wonder where all the spam mail came from, but not any more. Ponder all the websites you view and products you order. Everyone is passing around your email address. Unfortunately for us, some people want to send us viruses. This is the main reason getting rid of spam or blocking it is co imperative.
Luckily there is software available. Some of it is even free of charge. Now is when surfing the web will come in handy. Check out one of the reputable sites that offer free downloads that aid in getting rid of spam I did this recently and now grapple with so much less junk. I love opening my INBOX every morning to see one or two emails. And they're usually from family or friends. It's great to not have to worry about viruses and junk adds crowding my system.
If you're like me, you don't even want you JUNK MAIL folder to be used. When it comes to getting rid of spam, I
don't want to merely filter it; I want it never to reach my hotmail account. I want the JUNK MAIL box to stay empty at all times. Spam blocking software can help you with this process. As for pop-ups, it's already taken care of. Your browser should offer a pop-up/spam blocker while you're surfing the web. This is new technology we all can appreciate.
