darricklucas wrote:
The US courts favor the wealthy. If anyone wealthy wants to steal and profit they can just take and they will win in court every time.
What we have going for us in this day and age is transparency. Consumers are making decisions of how they spend their money based on a myriad of things and want a holistic view of who they buy from. They ain't just buying your tunes - they are buying into who you are as a person.
Coldplay would have more to lose in terms of reputation/saving face with their fans then what they might potentially gain from ripping off a few tunes from a small timer like me.
But I agree - definitely register ASAP to seal the deal. Costs $35/tune to do online and about 8months for it to get reviewed and mad official.
I'm not a lawyer, but I believe this whole thing is what the legal profession likes to call a "hypothetical question." Nobody is going to steal your song unless it has a pretty fine hook, so think about that before you spend money on a copyright.
Also, you'd have to prove that the artist who allegedly stole your work was actually aware of it. Did you know that Gerry Rafferty stole the "Baker Street" hook from
me? That's right! I'd used the same cool progression (Bb G... Bb G... Bb F... Bb C...) in a song of my own some years earlier, called "Good Day." Trouble is, I never finished the song or recorded it, or played the fragment for anybody but a couple of university roommates. So I can't sue the bastard.
Also, he added a sax part that really sold the progression.