A lot of people wonder if it's really that big a deal to worry about getting songs stolen.

What's the big deal about copyrighting songs? My music is safe as soon as I write it, right?

Well, not exactly...

Songs get stolen more often than people might think. Cell phones make great secret audio recorders and if you are considering the Internet for your showcase... well you know how easy stealing things from there is!

And then there's the more famous cases...

That's what happened with George Harrison. His song "My Sweet Lord" was stolen from "She's So Fine" (he admitted as much, though "by accident," see below). Or Led Zeppelin's lyrics on "Whole Lotta Love" coming from Willie Dixon's "You Need Love." Or "Dazed and Confused" taken from Jake Holmes.

→  In fact, CLICK HERE for a recent newspaper article on the subject ...

The list goes on and on. There are books written on the subject and UCLA even commissioned the "Copyright Infringement Project" to analyze some of the better known music copyright cases -- from 1887 through 2007 -- with the ability to compare the alleged stolen material so you can decide for yourself!  CLICK HERE for that...

And if it can happen to the biggies, it can happen to anyone...

And it's not just evil people out there looking for songs to steal that's the worry. It's important to make sure your music is copyright protected for other reasons too. You may or may not have heard about songs getting stolen by accident.

Yes you heard right. Registering your song copyrights is super-important to protect against the chance that someone steals it whether they mean to or not.

If you think it's impossible for someone to accidentally steal your song, just think how easy it is finding yourself humming a few bars of "something" without even remembering where you heard it (or whether you EVEN heard it or just made it up in your own mind).

And even if that happens innocently, YOU STILL DON'T WANT SOMEONE USING YOUR NOTES OR RIFFS IF YOU CREATED THEM FIRST.

So next time you write a song and say "why bother" when it comes to taking precautions to register your song copyright, just remember George Harrison, or Jimmie Paige, or the person turning on their cell phone while you play...

It takes such little effort registering your songs. ALWAYS make sure you have proof of your song copyright. And when you created them. Register your music with SongRegistration.com, or the Copyright Office, or another dependable service, AS SOON AS YOU CREATE IT!!!

Better safe than sorry.

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