How safe is it to put up things that have yet not been licensed?

R

Ryuji

Guest
I look around from time to time to see what other hobby-musicians and professionals put up for show, be it ideas, works in progress and finished pieces.
So I was wondering, is there any kind of legal protection from stealing a song, before the said song has been licensed and published.
I'm thinking about putting up some stuff of my own for review and feedback but I don't like the idea of snatchers taking my ideas, putting it as their own and taking credit (sorry if I come off as arrogant, I'm not trying to be, I just want to protect my own work).

I know Airbase (Swedish trance producer) puts up tutorials he makes, and even shares some smaller project for those who are eager to learn his ways of working, and recently I've also taken an interest in following Deadmau5 through Twitter and Soundcloud as he works on a project, revises it (maybe with help of feedback) and puts up newer version of a to-be finished project.
(I discourage from putting up comments about whether those artists are good/bad, I'm not asking for your opinion in that.)
These artists have a substantial fan-base and actually make music that sell, and they don't seem to have any trouble with getting ripped off as far as I know.
I know there's a section about putting up your own work and getting feedback on practically every forum that deals with music, so are we users safe in this situation when putting up music?

So, what I'm asking is:

1. Is there any safety for those that wish to share yet unlicensed work?

2. Preferably, could you point to a law/paragraph/clause that protects this kind of intellectual property?

3. Is there anything I should keep in mind before putting up a project (meaning an audio file, not actually the project folder used in my DAW) on the net?
 
1) Yeah, it's called copyright. Copyright exists automatically the moment a work is in fixed form. That means it protects unpublished works as well as published works (since, obviously, you cannot publish something before it exists). Whether a work has been licensed or not is entirely irrelevant to the scope of copyright protection.

With that in mind, posting something online may count as publishing under the US copyright law.

2) In the US, copyright law is codified in Title 17 of the US Code: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sup_01_17.html
 
Thanks for the info and link, I'll skim it through and I'll probably put on a disclaimer to make it extra clear.
I don't live in the US though, but I'll check through my country's and the EU regulations for copyright.
 
Nearly every country is a member of the Berne convention, so you're likely going to have pretty similar laws in your country: that is, copyright is automatic on fixation and no registration is required to secure protection.
 
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