Poor (a face in the crowd) Man’s Copyright

February 7th, 2010 admin Posted in music |

By Creativerights.com

Let’s go through the concept for those of you who are not sure how it’s supposed to work.

Before we do, let’s be clear here, the “Poor Man’s Copyright” DOESN’T WORK!

NO COURT HAS EVER ACCEPTED THIS METHOD AS LEGAL PROOF OF COPYRIGHT,
So don’t bother wasting your time! But here’s what it’s supposed to do (and why it doesn’t work).

The poor man’s copyright (not copywrite) is when you send a CD, or sheet music, or some other physical form of your music, to yourself (or a friend) by recorded mail.

The idea when you think about it sounds reasonable: A few days later, when you get your songs or music back in the post, you leave the envelope UNOPENED. You just hide it away somewhere, in a drawer, a safety deposit box, with your savings, and just wait until someday when someone tries to steal your song or music.

You then retrieve you envelope from wherever you hid it, take it to Court during your copyright infringement court hearing, and give it to the Judge to open as your proof of Copyright.

At that point the Judge is supposed to think that the postmark stamp on the envelope “proves” that the songs or music inside was in existence as of that date!

So, assuming the bad guy who has stolen your music started playing it after the date of your postmark stamp, the Judge is supposed to tell the jury you win your copyright case, award you millions in damages and you go home, record your song and win the X-Factor, right, WRONG.

The problem we face is… as we’ve already said, there is NO courts that have ever used a postmark stamp from an envelope as proof in a copyright court case!

There are plenty of reasons why this form of Copyright doesn’t work.

The fact is, there are SO many ways to tamper or manipulate the postmarked envelope, or the supposed “copyrighted” music inside, that we couldn’t fit them all on just this one page.

Here are a few examples that come to mind.

1. The most obvious way to “game” this method is to just mail yourself an empty envelope and just barely seal it (or don’t seal it at all - the post office doesn’t care if your envelope is sealed or not). Then when you get it back with its postmark, you just store it until you want to steal someone’s song maybe years later.

Then, sometime in the future, you stick the words and music to someone else’s song into your empty envelope with the old postmark and seal it up REAL GOOD.

And, presto, you’ve now got “proof” that you created that song way back on the date of the postmark — since it’s “obviously” been in that “sealed” envelope all that time!

And if you’re really clever, you could also throw in an old newspaper article when you first send yourself your “sealed” envelope, with the same date as the postmark, “proving” even further that everything in that envelope must be from that old date…

2. Or even if you didn’t try to cheat, how do you plan on verifying the security of the sealed envelope? Bringing in scientific experts to verify you haven’t played with the envelope seals? NO expert could testify to that (or when exactly the envelope was sealed or resealed)! Remember, the post office doesn’t even check to see if envelopes are sealed!

3. Or, how are you going to prove the postmark stamp, or certified mail notice, is genuine? Find the post office person who stamped it? Yeah, right.

4. And then, of course, there’s the problem of BIAS. Who will testify in court about preparing the envelope, sealing it, mailing it, getting it delivered back to your address, how it was handled and by whom, how it was never opened, etc. etc.? YOU? Your friends? Your relatives? Do you see the problem using people close to you?

YOU (and your friends and relatives) are NOT “independent, unbiased witnesses.” You (and people connected with you) have an obvious stake in the outcome of any copyright case which involves YOU! Having someone who wants to win in court (or a friend) also be a witness in the same case is about the WORST thing you can do! Ask any lawyer… WITNESSES WITH SUCH BIASES HAVE NO CREDIBILITY IN COURT! When it comes to copyright issues, you always want unbiased, independent verification as evidence!

So as you can see, there are endless ways to cheat using this “poor man’s copyright” method. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME. IT WON’T PROTECT YOU OR YOUR SONGS! Full Stop.

For most composers, their songs are just too important to take such stupid chances leaving them unprotected with this myth known as the “poor man’s copyright.” Especially when you can get real protection so inexpensively, using an INDEPENDENT, UNBIASED, RELIABLE service.

Creativerights.com - Trevor Vernon shows music producers, artists and
songwriters, 3 easy steps to Copyright a Song for FREE.

Yoga Helps to Alleviate Depression and Lead A Tension-Free Life

By Karan Khalsa

In todays world, tension-depression-worries are some of the most commonly used words. Depression has become a very common problem now. More the world is getting civilized more the tensions and worries are getting into our lives. Our busy and complicated lifestyles are the main source of these tensions, worries and depression and nobody can escape it. But what one can do is include yoga in his daily lifestyle. Yoga is perhaps the best weapon to combat depression which comes with our fast-paced lifestyle. Any kind and form of yoga, be it Kundalini yoga or Ashtanga yoga, are in true sense, beneficial to human kind. Yoga has the magical power of helping the mind to ward off all unnecessary tensions and thus helps it to relax. Yoga paired with any kind of devotional or spiritual music such as yoga music, can do wonder.

Regular practice of yoga can give instant relief from daily stresses. Because yoga poses increase the level of the neurotransmitter GABA in the body which in turn, reduces depression. A depressed person becomes immobile both physically and mentally. But after doing various yoga poses for a few minutes, the body muscles get back their normal flexibility as well as the blood circulation in the whole body becomes normal or else better than normal. The most beneficial point of doing yoga is that it has no such serious side-effects unlike anti-depressant pills. Yoga poses or asanas and even some breathing exercises tick on the energy level of a human being and brushes off the tiredness or fatigue from both mind and body. If a little bit of soothing meditation music can be incorporated in yoga practicing, it refreshes the mind with its calm tune and elevates the level of concentration. Online music companies are bringing up their exclusive as well as vast range of different devotional yoga music CDs and DVDs which will help the yoga practitioners or aspirants to learn and perform yoga poses in a proper way.

Another part of yoga, Pranayama or the breathing practices, are also very much helpful in alleviating the tension level. Pranayama creates a sense of well-being and calmness in the mind and body. It prevents from over-loading the mind and body with too much tensions and anxieties because it pushes oxygen to the brain and body muscles. Some particular form of pranayama like ujjayi pranayama is perhaps the best option for healing depression. Likewise some specific form of yoga such as Kundalini yoga helps to increase the level of self-consciousness which ultimately helps an individual to get himself free from all worldly bonds and thoughts.

Spirit Voyage, an online music company, introduces a great collection of spiritual music and meditation music CDs, DVDs and books which can be of great help to the yoga aspirants. The collection includes the work of world famous personalities. The yoga music category includes Adhara by Nirinjan Kaur, Meditation Drum by David and Steve Gordon, Radiance by Jaya Lakshmi, Mantra Masala by Sada Sat Kaur and many more.

The yoga DVDs has Vitality and Stress (4 DVD Set) by Yogi Bhajan PhD, Radiant Health with Naam Yoga by Gurunam Joseph Michael Levry, Flow Yoga for Beginners by Shiva Rea and other best collection to offer. So, it is time to throw out all the depressions from the mind and enjoy a tension-free spiritual life forever with yoga DVDs available at Spirit Voyage.

The author writes for Spirit Voyage which is engaged in offering various kinds of yoga music and meditation music. The company offers different CDs and DVDs for practicing kundalini Yoga and other yoga forms.

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