Bandcamp: COPYRIGHT, This Sunday

Yep, it’s the latest installment of the Bandcamp deal this Sunday, May 10th, over in Midtown at the Caroline Collective, and once again it’s a damn useful topic for folks in bands & labels & whatnot. They’re calling it Bandcamp: COPYRIGHT, and as the name (hopefully) suggests, the focus this time out is on copyrighting & protecting your work. Which may not seem like that big a deal to your band right now, but you never know what can happen — the Beatles didn’t think it was a big deal to hang onto the rights to their songs, and look how un-well that worked out…

This particular Bandcamp will be hosted by Erin Roberts, who works for TALA, Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, and is an entertainment lawyer besides. Here’re some of the topics, from the Caroline Collective site:

• What copyright is
• The rights granted to copyright holders
• How to protect your rights as individuals or groups
• How to copyright your music and why you should/n’t
• What types of copyrights are available
• How to license your works Creative Commons

In my experience, most musicians think they understand how stuff like this works, but in reality, they grasp it about as well as they do particle physics. Go check out Bandcamp & help yourself out.

This installment got rescheduled, btw — I think it was originally slated for somewhere around SXSW — but on Sunday it’ll run from 1-3PM, and it’ll be free, as always. Give Mom her Mother’s Day present, then bail and head on over to 4820 Caroline…