Before we go any further, let me 'splain the facts of life to you. Mailing copies of your songs to yourself does not protect your copyright and has no bearing at all in a court of law. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Go to the Library of Congress website (linked below) and read up on all this for yourself. Or click here or here.

Here's an excerpt from the Library of Congress website:

Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. "Copies" are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm. "Phonorecords" are material objects embodying fixations of sounds (excluding, by statutory definition, motion picture soundtracks), such as cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. Thus, for example, a song (the "work") can be fixed in sheet music ("copies") or in phonograph disks ("phonorecords"), or both.

If a work is prepared over a period of time, the part of the work that is fixed on a particular date constitutes the created work as of that date.

United States online copyright office: http://www.copyright.gov/

The forms you need to fill out can be found here: http://www.copyright.gov/forms/

Some more legal advice on the subject: http://www.copyright-laws.com/

Here in Chicago, contact The Entertainment and Intellectual Property Group

Pretty interesting: http://www.alankorn.com/articles/copyright_infringe.html

And for those who dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music: http://www.copyrightkids.org/

http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/musicbusinfo.html

http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/nov01/dawson24.htm

http://registermycopyright.com/poor.html

http://www.songwritersresourcenetwork.com/copyrights.html

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