Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and any information presented below is strictly my opinion based on my understanding of what I have read in the subject. Do not use this information in place of a real lawyer for any legal advice. The information presented below mostly applies to U.S. copyrights.


Copyrights

Copyrights are "rights" that one would own for any ORIGINAL works in material form that they have created. In laymans terms this means that any original thing you create in a fixed form - meaning in a way that can be viewed or shared with others (not ideas in your head or general information) - belongs to the person that created it or paid for it to be created. Copyright may also be transferred from the original party to someone else.

It is also important to note that if your work is done as a "work for hire" meaning you created it after someone hired you. Then the employer may be the copyright holder. This can vary from state to state and also have different outcomes depending on the contract you have with your employer.

It is possible that more than one person could hold a copyright to works that are very similar. If it can be proven that each work was created without the influence of the other, there is no problem with both people having legal claim to their respective copyrights.

In terms of music production, that means you can copyright an MP3 or CD recording of your song, but you cannot copyright the idea of the song itself. If you describe a beat you're thinking about to a crowd of producers and one of them takes the idea to make a beat similar to what you were thinking about, he holds the copyright to the beat he created and you just gave him a great idea! This is why many beat makers will guard their sample sources and not be very generous when it comes to sharing their techniques or content.

Benefits of Copyright

The copyright owner controls the way the work is used and may leverage that control to charge a fee for it's use. This is the main reason for it's importance. if no money was to be made, copyrights would be practically meaningless.

Fair Use

There is a doctrine in U.S. copyright law that allows for "fair use" of copyrighted material without the copyright owners consent. For example a news program might play an excerpt of a song or someone might make a parody. The law can be tricky here and it probably boils down to how good the lawyers are on either side of the argument. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Use)

How to get a Copyright

Technically in the U.S. you automatically have a copyright as soon as you make your work. So once you render that MP3 of your latest beat, it is copywritten (assuming of course that it is 100% original). You don't need to do any more BUT you may want to protect yourself by registering a copyright with the U.S. Copyright office. The last I read about this, registering a single work (or collection as a single work) cost about $45.

You need to send in an SR form (www.copyright.gov/forms/formsr.pdf) and send in the form along with a copy of the music to the US Copyright office:

          Library of Congress
          Copyright Office
          101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
          Washington, D.C. 20559-600

What you are really doing though, is establishing a date that your work existed. In other words, you are able to prove that on such and such date, your work was created. This is important because in many copyright cases, the true owner is determined by who created it first.

Poor Mans Copyright

Because the cost for registering can be considered high for the struggling musician/artist, a "poor-mans copyright" was invented by some creative thinker out there. The "poor-mans" copyright is where you put your work into an envelope/package and mail it to yourself via certified mail. By doing this, the package receives a time stamp from the Post Office that establishes a date. You would sign for the package and keep it unopened in a safe place until the time that you may need it in court. I'm not hip to the Postal rates but I think this probably costs less than $5 per package. It should be noted that this method is not recognized by the U.S. courts however. It is recognized in the U.K. however.

Other ways of establishing a date might be to publish your songs to places that keep track of dates. For example say you uploaded a beat to a beat battle two years ago and someone recently claims to have created your beat themselves. Well you have "proof" that the beat was made and posted by you years ago. How well this might stand in a court of law is sketchy however and I wouldn't recommend it as a general practice.

Conclusion

A proper registration via the U.S. copyright office does have a couple of other benefits. primarily, it allows the copyright holder to seek statuatory damages and attorney's fees when done before any infringment occurs. If you were to register your work after someone has stolen it, you could only seek actual damages and lost profits which you can prove.