# Copyright Creative Work > Use when protecting, documenting, or registering your OWN creative work under US copyright — songs, lyrics, writing, photos, or other original work. Triggers: about to release or publish a song or track; registering a work at copyright.gov (eCO); "who owns this," "do I own this"; copyrighting AI-generated or Suno-assisted music and the human-authorship requirement; what to disclaim or disclose when registering AI-assisted work; co-writer splits and split sheets; clearing samples; recording covers; mechanical or sync licensing; or deciding when to escalate to an IP lawyer, a PRO, or the MLC. US-focused (copyright is jurisdiction-specific); informational, not legal advice. NOT for reproducing or assessing other people's copyrighted material. - Skill: `cabbagecachekid/copyright-creative-work` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cabbagecachekid/copyright-creative-work` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/cabbagecachekid/copyright-creative-work/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: cabbagecachekid (https://skillmd.com/u/cabbagecachekid) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cabbagecachekid/copyright-creative-work --- # Copyright Your Creative Work ## Standing disclaimer (say this, don't bury it) This skill is **informational, not legal advice.** It does not create an attorney–client relationship. It is **US-focused** — copyright law is jurisdiction-specific, and your results differ outside the US. Real protection comes from **registration**, and when stakes are high (money, disputes, anything you'd hate to lose), from a **lawyer**. When in doubt, escalate. This skill is for protecting and managing **your own** creative work. It is **not** a tool for reproducing, checking, or assessing other people's copyrighted material. ## Core principle Copyright exists **automatically** the moment you fix an original work in a tangible form (record the track, type the lyrics, save the photo). But automatic copyright has almost no teeth. **Registration** is what lets you sue and what unlocks statutory damages. And for AI-assisted work, **only the parts a human authored are protectable at all.** So the job is rarely "do I have copyright" — it's **"what do I do next."** This skill is decision-oriented: find your situation, take the next action. ## Start here — what are you trying to do? ```dot digraph next_action { rankdir=TB; q [label="What's the goal right now?" shape=diamond]; protect [label="Protect / register a finished work" shape=box]; release [label="About to release or publish something" shape=box]; ai [label="AI-assisted (Suno) song — is it mine?" shape=box]; collab [label="Wrote it with someone else" shape=box]; use [label="Want to use a sample or record a cover" shape=box]; money [label="Want to collect streaming/airplay royalties" shape=box]; lawyer [label="Dispute, infringement, or high stakes" shape=doublecircle]; q -> protect [label="own work"]; q -> release [label="pre-publish"]; q -> ai [label="used AI"]; q -> collab [label="co-written"]; q -> use [label="others' work"]; q -> money [label="royalties"]; q -> lawyer [label="conflict"]; protect -> "Registration basics (below)"; release -> "Pre-publish risk check (below)"; ai -> "AI & human authorship (below)"; collab -> "Document authorship + split sheet (below)"; use -> "Samples, covers, licenses (below)"; money -> "PRO + MLC (When to escalate)"; } ``` ## The two copyrights in a song A song is **two separate copyrights**. They can be owned by different people and must be handled separately. | | Musical composition | Sound recording | |---|---|---| | What it is | The underlying song: melody + lyrics | One specific recorded performance of it | | Office work type | PA (performing arts) | SR (sound recording) | | Author | Songwriter(s) | Performer + whoever fixed the recording | | Suno relevance | Your **human-written lyrics/melody** can live here | The **AI-generated audio** likely isn't yours (see below) | | Licensed by | Mechanical / sync / print license | Master use license | If you write lyrics and Suno generates the audio, your protectable asset is on the **composition** side, not the recording. Register accordingly. ## What's protectable (and what is NOT) **Protectable:** original works fixed in a tangible medium — lyrics, melodies, your recorded tracks (if human-made), prose, photographs, illustrations. **NOT protectable:** - **Ideas, facts, titles, names, short phrases, slogans** — a song title or a catchphrase is not copyrightable (trademark may apply). - **Methods, systems, processes, procedures** — this is the idea/expression line (17 U.S.C. §102(b); *Baker v. Selden*). ### The UX-framework caveat (read this before you "copyright your framework") You can copyright the **written expression** of a framework — the document, your exact wording, your diagrams and figures. You **cannot** use copyright to stop others from **practicing the method** itself. The method is an idea; copyright covers expression, not ideas. If you want to protect the *method or system*, that's a **different IP lane**: - **Patent** — protects methods/processes, but is hard, slow, expensive, and rarely fits a UX framework. Note: **publicly publishing or using** your method can start clocks that *bar* patenting later — if this might matter, talk to a patent lawyer **before** you publish. - **Trademark** — protects the *name/brand* of your framework. - **Trade secret / NDA** — protects confidential know-how you don't publish. This applies *inside* your diagrams too: copyright stops someone **copying your specific figure**, not redrawing the same process flow in their own style. A copyrighted flowchart doesn't lock up the flow. For now: register the written work to protect the document, keep dated records, and **escalate to an IP lawyer** before relying on copyright to fence off a method. Don't oversell what copyright can do here. ## Document and date authorship (and co-writer splits) You want a clean, dated trail proving a **human** made it and **who** made what. - Keep **dated drafts**: lyric notebooks/files, DAW project files, voice memos, photo RAWs with EXIF, version history (Git, Drive history, email-to-self). - A **split sheet** at the time of writing, for anything co-written: who contributed, **percentage shares**, contact info, PRO affiliations, date, signatures. Settle splits *before* a song takes off, not after. → Use **`assets/split-sheet-template.md`**. - **"Poor man's copyright" is a myth.** Mailing yourself a sealed copy is **not** a legal substitute for registration and won't get you statutory damages. Skip it; register instead. ## Registration basics **Where:** the US Copyright Office at **copyright.gov**, via the **eCO** electronic system (a new registration system is being rolled out — use whatever copyright.gov currently directs you to). Fees are modest; you submit an application, a fee, and a copy ("deposit") of the work. **Why register, and why early:** - **You generally must register before you can sue** for infringement of a US work (17 U.S.C. §411). - **Statutory damages + attorney's fees** are only available if you registered **before the infringement began, or within 3 months of first publication** (17 U.S.C. §412). Miss that window and you're limited to proving actual damages — usually much less, sometimes nothing collectible. - Statutory damages run **$750–$30,000 per work**, up to **$150,000 if infringement is willful.** That range is the entire reason early registration matters. **Register early.** **Get organized with group registration** (one fee, many works): - **GRAM** — Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music: up to 20 musical works *or* 20 sound recordings on one album, created by the same author or sharing at least one common author. Ideal for a release. **Two cautions:** every track must share that common author — a track written *solely* by someone else breaks the group; and GRAM covers compositions **or** recordings, not both, so protecting both your songs and your masters can mean two filings. - **GRUW** — up to 10 unpublished works in one filing. Stricter author rule than GRAM: **every** work must be by the **same author (or the identical set of joint authors)**, all naming you as claimant — a song co-written with a *different* collaborator can't ride along. And works containing **AI-generated material cannot use GRUW** (or any group option) — they must be filed individually on the **Standard Application** (see the AI section below). - **Group photographs** — up to 750 published or unpublished photos per filing. → Per-work-type "what to gather before you open eCO" checklists are in **`references/filing-prep.md`**. ## AI-assisted work and the human-authorship requirement (Suno) The US Copyright Office requires **human authorship.** Material generated by AI from a prompt is **not, by itself, copyrightable** (2023 AI Registration Guidance; 2025 *Copyright and AI, Part 2* report; *Thaler v. Perlmutter*, D.C. Cir. 2025). Prompts alone don't make output yours. For a **Suno-assisted song**, separate the layers: - **Human-authored, protectable:** lyrics you wrote; a melody you composed; your creative selection, arrangement, and editing of material. - **AI-generated, not yours to claim:** audio, instrumentation, and vocal performance the model generated from your prompt. The *sound recording* is likely unprotectable AI output. **What to do on the registration:** 1. Register the **composition** (PA-side), claiming the **human-authored elements** — name them: "lyrics." Only claim **"music"** if *you* composed the melody; if Suno generated the melody from your prompt, claim **lyrics only** (don't claim music you didn't write). 2. **Disclaim the AI-generated material** in the application's limitation-of-claim fields ("exclude: AI-generated audio/arrangement"). 3. **Disclose** the AI use — for a Suno track, always — with a brief note describing what you contributed vs. what the AI generated. Honesty here protects the registration's validity. 4. **Don't claim the AI-generated sound recording** as your authorship. 5. **File on the Standard Application, one work at a time.** Works containing AI-generated material **cannot be included in a group registration** — no GRUW or GRAM bundling. Each AI-assisted song is its **own filing with its own fee.** (You may also claim **"selection, coordination, and arrangement"** of the human and AI material, on top of your lyrics/melody.) This area is **evolving and fact-specific.** If a Suno track matters commercially, have counsel review the claim before you file. ## Pre-publish risk check (run before you release) Quick gate before a track, post, or page goes public: - Did I **use anyone else's recording** (a sample)? → clear it first (below). - Is this a **cover**? → secure a mechanical license (below). - Did I use **AI** for any of it? → plan the disclaimer/disclosure now. - Are **splits** agreed and signed with every collaborator? - Do I want **statutory-damages eligibility**? → register within 3 months of release (ideally before). - Any stock images, fonts, or loops — am I **within their license**? If any answer is "not sure," fix it **before** publishing — clearance is far cheaper than a takedown or a suit. ## Samples, covers, and mechanical licenses | You want to… | What it is | What you need | |---|---|---| | **Sample** a record | Use part of someone's actual *recording* | **Two** clearances: a **master use license** (recording owner, often a label) **and** a license for the **composition** (mechanical/sync from the publisher). Don't rely on "it's too short to matter" — there's no safe small-amount rule you can count on. Clear it. | | **Cover** a song | Record *your own version* of someone's composition, audio-only | A **compulsory mechanical license** (17 U.S.C. §115). You don't need permission, but you must pay the statutory royalty. **Get the license up front** through a service (Easy Song, Harry Fox/Songfile) — or let your **distributor** (DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby) handle it on upload. The **MLC** is who *collects and pays* mechanicals to the original songwriter; it is **not** where you buy your cover license. | | Put a cover **in a video** | Sync to picture (e.g., YouTube) | A **sync license** from the publisher — the §115 compulsory license does **not** cover video. | Quick license glossary: **mechanical** = reproduce/distribute a composition; **sync** = music with video; **master use** = use a specific recording. The compulsory cover license also doesn't let you change the song's basic melody or character, and applies only to already-released songs. ## Fair use — not a free pass Fair use is a **defense decided case by case** on four factors: (1) purpose and character (is it transformative? commercial?), (2) nature of the work, (3) amount and substantiality used, (4) effect on the market. It is **fact-specific and only settled in court** — "it's just for commentary/parody" is not a checkbox and not permission. If your plan leans on fair use, treat that as a **lawyer conversation**, not a green light. ## When to escalate | Escalate to… | When | |---|---| | **An IP lawyer** | Any serious dispute or infringement; a sample you can't cleanly clear; high commercial stakes; a Suno claim that matters; protecting a *method/framework* (patent/trade-secret territory); any fair-use plan. | | **The Copyright Claims Board (CCB)** | A **smaller infringement dispute (under $30,000 total)** you'd rather resolve without federal court. Lower-cost than a lawsuit, but you still need a **registration application on file** first. | | **A PRO** (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR) | Your music is performed or streamed publicly and you want **performance royalties.** Join as a writer and set up publishing. | | **The MLC** | You want to collect **mechanical royalties owed to you as a songwriter** from US streaming. (It collects and pays out mechanicals — it is *not* where you buy a license to cover someone else's song.) | PROs and the MLC **collect money** — they are not a substitute for registration, which is what gives you legal protection. ## Quick reference | Situation | Do this | |---|---| | Finished an original song/photo/piece | Register at copyright.gov (eCO); within 3 months of release | | Releasing an album | One **GRAM** filing for up to 20 works | | Co-wrote it | Signed **split sheet** before release (`assets/`) | | Suno-assisted | Register **composition**, claim human parts, **disclaim AI**; **Standard Application, one filing per song** (no group registration) | | Want to sample | Get **master + composition** licenses first | | Want to cover | **§115 mechanical** via MLC/service; sync if video | | "Can I rely on fair use?" | Treat as a **lawyer** question | | Protect a *framework method* | Copyright the **document**; method = patent/trade-secret → counsel | ## Supporting files - **`assets/split-sheet-template.md`** — fill-in co-writer split sheet. - **`references/filing-prep.md`** — per-work-type checklists of what to gather before you open eCO (songs, AI-assisted songs, writing, photos, groups).