© C in a Circle - Splitting Heirs: Paying Royalties After Your Death
In the same way that you can leave your personal belongings, your house or your car to whomever you want, you also can leave your royalties to the person or organization of your choice. But to make that happen upon your death, you have to execute a valid will under the law of the state where you were living when you died.
1767 hits | 4 comments | added on 10.13.09

© C in a Circle - Copyrights in Bankruptcy: When Seven Is Not Your Lucky Number
When people think of assets, they usually consider their house, car, furniture, bank accounts and the like. But copyright owners, or persons who receive royalties generated by copyrights, hold a class of assets that doesn’t readily come to mind as such because they are not tangible and tend to be forgotten. Yet they, too, become part of what is called your bankruptcy “estate.”
3179 hits | 3 comments | added on 06.03.09

C in a Circle - Three Copyright Firsts
This year has seen the conclusion of some pending industry and legislative initiatives that have resulted in changes in the copyright arena. For those of you who have not been following the press reports, here’s a report on what they are.
7539 hits | 10 comments | added on 12.09.08

©C in a Circle - You Put It Up, They Take It Down - or Not
The rules of the dance for online removal (and restoration) of unlicensed copyrighted material.
7456 hits | 5 comments | added on 02.12.08

©C in a Circle - From Piano Rolls to Ringtones: A Century with the Compulsory Mechanical License
The compulsory license only is available to be used if a recording previously has been distributed in the U.S. with the permission of the copyright owner of the song.
6804 hits | 2 comments | added on 05.18.07

©C in a Circle - Copyright Stocking Stuffers
For my last column of 2006, I thought I would talk about some copyright law principles of which many people are either unaware or uncertain.
11080 hits | 7 comments | added on 12.06.06

©C in a Circle - Exceptions To The Rule: When Unlicensed Uses of a Copyright Are Not Infringements
For various reasons, Congress has identified ten types of unlicensed uses that they chose to allow to be made without requiring the users to compensate the copyright owners.
16895 hits | 32 comments | added on 06.14.06

©C in a Circle - When Copyrights Go To Court
Once in a while, a songwriter will discover that a song he or she has written has been appropriated by another person or, more likely, that someone has taken his or her song and used it without getting the proper licenses.
6528 hits | 5 comments | added on 02.28.06

©C in a Circle - Copyright Short Subjects
In this column, I'll try to answer some of the questions about copyright that I get asked again and again by songwriters.
17746 hits | 43 comments | added on 10.04.05

©C in a Circle - Playing Fair
Whether you call it sampling, borrowing or stealing, the only thing for certain about the fair-use "rule" is that it doesn't exist.
9418 hits | 6 comments | added on 01.18.05