Is there an alternative to copyright?

[rdlo]

What is the name of your state? CA

I have written some song lyrics, but don't want to pay thirty plus dollars to copyright them when nothing may even become of them.

Is there another way to protect them? I thought of emailing them to another email account. That would show a date, and prove ownership, wouldn't it?

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? CA

I have written some song lyrics, but don't want to pay thirty plus dollars to copyright them when nothing may even become of them.

Is there another way to protect them? I thought of emailing them to another email account. That would show a date, and prove ownership, wouldn't it?

The lyrics are automatically covered by copyright the minute you wrote them down.

Registration is required to enforce the copyright in court, and only copyrights that are registered BEFORE infringement occurs are elgible to sue for "statutory damages."