May 2005
Sometimes: Who owns it?
An Indiana song writer, Mr Wallace, is suing the pop star Britney Spears for copyright infringement of the song "Sometimes", which appeared on her 1999 debut album, Baby One More Time, and on 2004's Greatest Hits: My Prerogative.
Mr Wallace's lawyer has filed a complaint in court against Britney, Sony/BMG Music Publishing and the recording and publishing companies linked to her. He claims that he wrote the song 15 years ago and in order not to get ripped off, he used the old, tried and tested method of securing copyright protection by sealing the work in an envelope and getting it postal stamped. In 1994, the track was offered around to publishers and in 1999, Britney obtained a US copyright for the song. Furthermore, in an email allegedly written by Britney, the star acknowledges to Mr Wallace that he was the one who had written the song.
BRIFFA Comment:
Copyright is the right to stop others from doing certain things to the work without the owner's permission. If Mr Wallace's method of proving his ownership of the copyright proves to be sufficient, then whether the case is settled out of court or if it goes on to trial, Mr Wallace could obtain substantial damages for the infringement of his copyright. Royalties alone stretching back some 15 years would be a welcome windfall.
Although copyright is an automatic right of the author, this case highlights the importance of, amongst other things, keeping a record of your work itself from the initial idea right through to how far you take it and a record of how and when your work was created. Keep a record relating to the rights creation, that is, drawings, a design history and any other tangible documentary evidence on any medium as well as any lodgement receipts. If the marketing stage or further is underway, then keep recorded details of your use of the intellectual property in question, advertising spends, evidence of commercial success in the form of sales figures, awards, copies of adverts and points of sale displays, publicity for goods and services and documentary evidence of any change in the rights e.g. transfers, licences etc. The key is to record it, whether it be code, literature, music or drawings (in which case they should bear a name and a date). This will help to deduce a chain of title in order to prove ownership of copyright should there be a dispute at a later date.