Are online copyright "time stamp" services worth it / reliable?

[tranel]

(Not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes

Just wondering how many of you are using online services like icreateditfirst.com to register your copyrights, and get a "time stamp" for the creation of your music in case of a court dispute? How reliable are these services?

Have anyone here actually used such a time stamp in a court dispute?

The reason I am wondering is that I am thinking it could be an alternative to registering tracks with the US Copyright Office—I am neither a US-citizen nor based in the US.


All replies would be most helpful!

Kind regards,

Anders

[tms8707056]

All these services prove is exactly what the service says... that you created it first and therefore own the copyrights to the work. Whether or not it is effective as proof in court doesn't really matter because it won't benefit you much in court.

If a court finds that somebody actually infringed your work, they will usually make a judgment against the other party that tells them to stop distributing, selling or claiming your work as their own and award damages (money in your pocket).

If you use one of these services for proof that you own the rights, the court will only award you actual damages (money you lost due to the infringement).

If your work is registered with the copyright office you can recover statutory damages which is pretty much a per copy fine that the infringing party must pay. You can get up to $150,000/copy if you can prove that the infringement was "willful". Without registration you won't even recover court costs or attorneys fees.

Registering has it's benefit, but only if your work is worth stealing and you can find an idiot who wants to steal it.