U.S. Copyright Law and Guidelines U.S. Copyright Act
The U.S. Copyright Act 17 U.S.C. 101-810
This is federal legislation enacted by Congress to protect the writings of authors, as well as material related to architectural design, software, the graphic arts, motion pictures, and sound recordings. A copyright gives the owner exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, or license a given work. The copyright or retransmission of copyright works in documents, document collections or homepages without the express written permission of the copyright owner or the existence of "fair use" is prohibited.

Duration of Copyright
(1) If a work was first published more than 75 years ago it is in the public domain.
(2) If a work was under copyright on January 1, 1978, the first term of copyright endures 28 years. If the copyright is then renewed the renewal term endures 75 years from the date the original copyright was secured.
(3) If a work was not published or copyrighted prior to January 1, 1978, the term of copyright is the life of the author, plus 50 years.

Copyright-Protected Works
(1) literary works
(2) musical works, including any accompanying words
(3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music
(4) pantomimes and choreographic works
(5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
(6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works
(7) sound recordings
(8) architectural works

Fair Use Guidelines for Multimedia
This is a nonlegislative report adopted by the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. House of Representatives, on September 27, 1996. It states that "fair use" exemptions exist for the Copyright Law provided certain factors are met. This is an agreed-upon interpretation of the fair use provisions of the Copyright Act and is not legally binding.

Fair Use Factors
(1) The purpose/character of its use, i.e. whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit education purposes.
(2) The nature of the copyrighted work.
(3) The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
(4) The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Copyright in an Electronic Environment
These are guidelines established by the Consortium of College & University Media Centers on fair use issues pertaining to text, motion media, illustrations, music, internet, numerical data sets, copying and distribution limitations, and multimedia presentations.
Compilations
Compilations is where material is collected and assembled in such a way
that the resulting piece is an orginal work. Compilations can be created
even if the material which is being assembled is NOT Copyrightable.

Co-authoring and Royalties
Once a joint work is created, you must understand that your co-author
shares equally in the rights to your song Absent to an agreement to the contrary.
say you have Five people in your band one of the five now owns 20% of your song.
Ownership Rights
allows that one person has the right to

(this is the case regardless of any disparity in contributions.)
Restrictions
All Individuals will be accountable to share any Profits received
Example: If one person of Five Performs the song for $1000 fee
he would be entitled to $200 the remaining $800 is owed to the band.
Federal Courts
Some Federal courts may require contributions be Seperately copyrightable.
Remember most courts assign percentages equally between members.