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Original material

If you write your own material like parody songs or any other type of content, chances are listeners want you to upload certain things to the station website or your own website. Sure, it's a nice courtesy to your audience but the moment you put it up on the Internet, your competitor can also download it. Out of pride, you would think that wouldn't happen, but this is Radio!

Some Radio personalities, like Rush Limbaugh, insert quick comments over parody songs as they air, to discourage anyone else from ripping them off for their own shows. Sometimes, when I would upload an original parody OR a parody from a comedy service, I would insert spoke audio to discourage anyone from even thinking of airing it.

What Is Copyright?

The following information comes directly from the U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:

To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

To prepare derivative works based upon the work;

To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and

In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

- U.S. Copyright Office

Technically, the moment you create something original, you have a personal copyright on it. Now, I am not a lawyer, but I have read up on this and the law recognizes your claim to property you create the moment you do so.

To be sure, another way to protect yourself is by periodically burning your parodies to a CD, sealing it in an envelope and mailing it to yourself. When it arrives, leave the envelope sealed. The postmark is proof that on that date, you claimed all rights to the property created in the envelope. What good is this? Well, if you ever hear somebody airing material you created, you can issue them a “cease and desist”.

For detailed copyright information, refer to these web pages:

U.S. Copyright Office http://www.loc.gov/copyright/

Copyright Website “...real world, practical and relevant copyright information for anyone navigating the net.” http://www.benedict.com/

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