My Wiki:Copyrights

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(the Other John)No offense taken. There's a lot of half right in what you said, incuidlng your entertainment attorney's opinion.There is nothing wrong with copywriting a collection. I do it. Here's the rub. What you are saying is perfectly OK in the non-exclusive re-titling world. That is in such a legal gray area as it is. No offense, but I'm going to assume that the 16 libraries that you are in fall into that category.However, if you registered a collection and two exclusive libraries, who expect to own the copyright to the music, like Extreme or Killer Tracks, want different parts of the collection, you would have to re-register those parts individually.I never said that you couldn't, or shouldn't, register a collection. The point is that it depends on where the music is going. In the non-exclusive world you are merely granting licenses, not transferring ownership of the copyright. The sticky, but not insurmountable part of copywriting a collection, arises when two different entities want to own different parts of the same copyright. If a library wants a copyright registration of one of these tracks, they’re free to copyright it separately. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. The application asks if a work has been registered previously. If the answer is yes then an explanation must be provided regarding the new copyright. And with respect to the original copyright, the collection is no longer that same collective work because a piece of it is missing. So, is the new work (remaining collection) still protected? Further, what you are saying essentially is if the library wants a copyright that's their problem. In my experience businesses like to avoid problems. So maybe that's not the approach to take. However, with the 16+ libraries I’m with, none of them asked me for a copyright. That is most likely because they are non-exclusive and as such you are granting them licenses. And, they in turn sublicense to their clients/buyers.Do you see the difference?Cheers, MichaelPS. An entertainment attorney and an intellectual property attorney are two different specialties. Sometimes they overlap. However IP law covers trademarks, patents and copyrights and really is a distinct area of expertise. So, I would advise consulting with an IP attorney on the issue.