Dear Smile:
You said: "especially my songs." Wow, this is something I know nothing about. I have a friend who deals with rights in the music world and she is very, very cautious, too. A different world. I'll tell you, though, if I registered everything I wrote, I would have spend literally thousands in copyright fees. I guess we each have to weigh what we have at stake for each of our works. I know that if someone used the plot behind my novel, This is the Place, that registered copyright of no, I would have a heck of a time getting punitive damages or any other kind out of them. This kind of thing is in the LA papers all the time. Nobody ever beats Disney. Remember The Lion King? And the difference between the method used to copyright isn't probably going to be the defining part of the case; rather it will be how similar the material and something called "intent." Plus, even if I thought I had a 99% chance of winning I would have to find a lawyer who would take it on contingency and he'd have to decide whether or not he would make enough money to take it on IF he won, or I'd have to dig up the funds to pay a lawyer by the case or by the hour. You know what???? That just isn't going to happen. Guess they'll have to use my plot with three changes (or something like that) so they can get away with it and I'm just going to have to get my pleasure from knowing my material was that good to begin with!! Am I going on and on here?? >smile>