# Does anybody know a trustable organization to register lyrics copyrights?
**URL:** https://community.metabrainz.org/t/does-anybody-know-a-trustable-organization-to-register-lyrics-copyrights/161408
**Category:** MusicBrainz
**Tags:** copyright, musicindustry, lyrics
**Created:** [October 25, 2016, 10:31am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/does-anybody-know-a-trustable-organization-to-register-lyrics-copyrights/161408 "2016-10-25T10:31:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@musicwoman](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/musicwoman)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2016, 10:31am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/does-anybody-know-a-trustable-organization-to-register-lyrics-copyrights/161408/1 "2016-10-25T10:31:58Z")
I found this website
[Songrite Copyright Office](https://www.songrite.com/)
but have no clue if it is a trustable organization or a scam…?
Does anybody know? Or can advise me a trustable organization?
Thanks 🙂
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### Author:  [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/does-anybody-know-a-trustable-organization-to-register-lyrics-copyrights/161408/2 "2016-10-25T21:58:29Z")
Hey Anita,
MusicBrainz is open source, and most of the committed users here aren’t big fans of copyright!
Freso already posted this in another thread:
> [@Have this idea about scores and lyrics, what do you think of it?](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/have-this-idea-about-scores-and-lyrics-what-do-you-think-of-it/161247/8):
>
> To quote Cory Doctorow (who also happens to be a MetaBrainz board member!):
>
> Now, onto the artistic case. It’s the twenty-first century. Copying stuff is never, ever going to get any harder than it is today (or if it does, it’ll be because civilization has collapsed, at which point we’ll have other problems). Hard drives aren’t going to get bulkier, more expensive, or less capacious. Networks won’t get slower or harder to access. If you’re not making art with the intention of having it copied, you’re not really making art for the twenty-first century. There’s something charming about making work you don’t want to be copied, in the same way that it’s nice to go to a Pioneer Village and see the olde-timey blacksmith shoeing a horse at his traditional forge. But it’s hardly, you know, contemporary. I’m a science fiction writer. It’s my job to write about the future (on a good day) or at least the present. Art that’s not supposed to be copied is from the past.
>
> (From the preamble to his novel “Little Brother” (available for free on his website).)
That said, I think you don’t have to worry too much about the copyright anyway, it should automatically apply.
Here’s a NZ site with some useful information:
> **[APRA AMCOS membership explained](https://www.apraamcos.co.nz/music-creators/membership-explained)**
>
> We can manage certain music rights on your behalf to make sure you get paid royalties when someone, anywhere in the world, uses your music.
And a US one that says pretty much the same thing:
[http://info.legalzoom.com/copyright-lyrics-free-20503.html](http://info.legalzoom.com/copyright-lyrics-free-20503.html)
As far as I can tell ‘Songrite’ simply stores your songs/lyrics so that you have proof that you’ve written them at a specific date. Uploading your song and lyrics to Bandcamp does exactly the same thing - that website has a time stamp of when you uploaded the music too.
If you want to go really official, this seems to be the way to do it in the US:
> Registering a copyright with the USCO costs $35, as of 2011. However, for this fee you can register any number of lyrics, as long as they were all written by the same person.
Which probably seems like your best, ‘most official’ way. Probably not that complicated either:
> **[U.S. Copyright Office | U.S. Copyright Office](https://www.copyright.gov/)**
>
> Copyright Office Homepage
ASCAP or BMI do kind of similar things, registering your music, but they also control royalties/radio play etc for you.
I’ve just googled this now, but this seems like an interesting post:
> **[Why You Should Think Twice Before Joining ASCAP, BMI or SESAC](http://www.mosesavalon.com/why-you-should-wait-to-join-ascap-bmi-sesac/)**
>
> One of the top questions I get is "ASCAP, BMI or SESAC... Which one is the best to join?" The best answer may be to think think twice before signing with any of them. Wonder Why? Here's the truth about PRO's.
Enjoy going down that endless rabbit hole! 😉
Anyway, personally I would either relax and just leave it, or do it in the most direct way possible (go directly to the USCO, or your local equivalent - NZ has some very helpful govt offices that I would call over here, you might do so too).
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### Author:  [@musicwoman](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/musicwoman)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2016, 8:06am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/does-anybody-know-a-trustable-organization-to-register-lyrics-copyrights/161408/3 "2016-10-26T08:06:11Z")
Thank you so much Simon @aerozol for your suggestions! And for your quote that I don’t have to worry too much about the copyrights.
I was worried about the copyrights, suppose another artist likes my lyrics and use them for his song and then claims them as his own lyrics, that was my problem, therefore I wanted to officially register them, to prove that I had written the lyrics earlier. But I did not realize, that in fact my lyrics already were registered months ago when I sent them to the manufacturer of my CD and Lyrics Book 🙂
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### Author:  [@internetofdata](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/internetofdata)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2017, 10:49pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/does-anybody-know-a-trustable-organization-to-register-lyrics-copyrights/161408/4 "2017-12-16T22:49:31Z")
I know that this thread has been dead for like forever but I’ve actually had a huge interest in copyright in the past(due to me being very much interested in free software and free cultural works, music mostly) and I’ve come across the
> **[Berne Convention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention)**
>
> The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886. The Berne Convention formally mandated several aspects of modern copyright law; it introduced the concept that a copyright exists the moment a work is "fixed", rather than requiring registration. It also enforces a requirement that countries recognize copyrights held by the citizen...
I’ve probably brought that topic up countless times for tens of different reasons(cause I want to share my interest of my copyright to friends, that’s why. Recently I co-wrote a poem with a friend and I had to bring that article up cause my friend asked if everybody can’t share it already and of course not and that’s “thanks” to this wonderful international law from 1886)
In short, your works(as long as they are eligible for copyright that is [and that’s another topic about eligibility and originality which are explained on the Wikipedia page on copyright that I link to](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Eligible_works)) are all under copyright already.