Basic US Copyright Law Q&A and other stuff you really need to know

[AfaraWayland]

Originally Posted by jbach11

i have a question about publishing multiple works as one. I saw in a link that if all songs are cowritten by two people it qulifys. Could it still be registered as a single fee if all music was by one person and all lyrics were by a different person.
for example all music by bob and all lyrics by james

What exactly do you mean by "publishing?" Offering a work to the public or registering ownership?

I interpret that if (the author is or the authors are) the same for each work, the multiple works may be registered as a collection.

Don't take my word for it though, I've been wrong before. Your best bet is contacting an attorney if you are trying to do a by-the-book registration. You could even ask the via the copyright.gov site.

I will say that the registration doesn't distinguish between who wrote the lyrics and who wrote the music. If two writers are authors, each of them holds an equal share in the ownership of that work, regardless of who wrote the music, and who wrote the lyrics. This way one of them can't go off and sell the "lyrics" or "music" without the consent of the other author.