Copyrighting and protecting your creative work is very important these days.

Creative work can be protected in various areas through copyright and related rights which can be applicable to the extent they exist and are set down in proper form, principally:

1. Copyright in the music, i.e. the musical score and arrangement.

2. Copyright in the lyrics.

3. Copyright in artwork used for album covers and the like.

4. Copyright in set/costume and lighting/sound designs.

5. Copyright in sound or video recordings of performances.

6. Copyright in pictures, photographs, materials created for promotional purposes such as artwork, advertising copy, and brochures, and graphic designs generally.

7. The performance right which accrues to musicians in respect of their right to receive remuneration for any recordings and broadcasts of their performance. However, session musicians for example are usually required to contract on the basis of a one-off fee in return for which they give up any future claim.

8. The recording right which exists when a person has an exclusive recording contract with the performer(s) concerned, which thus entitles that person to prevent anyone else making or using a recording of the performance in question by such performer(s).

9. Moral rights which authors may have to be identified as such and to be able to prevent mistreatment of their work.

The initial owner of the copyright in a musical work is generally its author/creator, except for example in the case of an employee where ownership of copyright will be vested in their employer in the case of any work created under their contract of employment, or in the case of a sound recording its producer (i.e. the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the making of the recording are undertaken – so that a recording studio is not normally the copyright owner if it does nothing more than providing facilities for the recording to be made), or in the case of a film the producer and principal director (or their employer).

The initial owner of the copyright can assign (or license) or be obliged to assign (or license) his or her copyright to someone who has commissioned them to produce the work in question. For example, a photographer will be the first owner of the copyright in the photographs, but a customer can make it a condition of placing the order that the photographer assigns all copyright. If nothing is agreed as to copyright, the customer is likely to have at least an implied licence from the photographer to use the photographs for the purpose for which they were commissioned (but not to make further copies or use them for other purposes).

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