Monday, January 6, 2020

Who is the Copyright Claimant? Publisher or Composer?

Dear Rich: Should an artist who owns a publishing company register it as claimant of copyrights instead of him/her self? In this case, is there a better option? 
When filling out the online copyright application, the "claimant" is the copyright owner. So, if you (the composer/author) have assigned the songs to your own publishing company then the claimant would be the publishing company. Assigning a song is fairly simple but it must be in writing. (We've posted a basic copyright assignment online.) For practical purposes, if there is only one composer, and that composer owns the publishing company as a sole proprietor (single owner), then it won't matter whether the publisher or composer is listed as claimant as they are one and the same.

No comments: