05 May 2024

You do not have to register Copyright. It automatically subsists as soon as an original work is created, in writing or put into any material form, eg. musical scores, cassette, CD etc.

As no formal registration of Copyright is required, in the event of a dispute over authorship, ownership or originality, there is no standard way of proving that one work was in existence before another.

Registration of works with COMPASS is one of the ways that may help to substantiate existence of work at a given date. Another possible way is to send a recording or copy of the work to yourself by registered post, and leave it unopened. These methods however do not prove that you created the song; rather, it only helps establish the date you claim the song came into existence