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?

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).