Can you register Lyrics to a song Alone?

[Umlaaat]

Say you create a song with someone. You do all the music and the other person writes the lyrics and melody. Can he register the lyrics only regardless of the music?

[paultools]

You can register lyrics and melody.
You cannot register "music".
You can register a sound recording of the music with the lyrics and melody which would prove that the song was a joint work.
You cannot remove someone's "music" from a song once they have been enjoined, which happens the moment the song is created... that lyric/melody over that music.

[DesertDawg]

Originally Posted by Umlaaat

Say you create a song with someone. You do all the music and the other person writes the lyrics and melody. Can he register the lyrics only regardless of the music?

Yes, it's called: "a poem" - if someone does this with a song that you wrote the music to, you'd have to go to court & fight over it at some point, if it were worth the battle. If this has happened to you (and it sounds like it has), then you should immediately register the the song with lyrics & music yourself, GIVING PROPER CREDIT to the lyricist... that way when the question is asked by your attorney to the lyricist: "Did you and (your name here) write this song jointly?", the respondant has the choice to answer truthfully OR face perjury charges (if you can document this, either by evidence or via witness(es), which are not civil-suit-type charges, but are a federal offense in the court which a case like this would be tried. Registering the song as an entire composition and giving proper credit to the lyricist makes YOU appear to be the more honest one... you have to have a work registered before you can take a case to court, anyway - even if you register it as late as the day before you file the case, so you may as well do it now if you feel it could become an issue in this regard.

[Led]

If the other person solely came up with the words AND melody, they can walk away, have someone else redo different music underneath it and you can do nothing about it. As long as the music underneath is different from yours, they haven't done anything wrong. I've seen this done with people I've produced - the guy who wrote the music, but not the melody or lyrics got full of himself and demanded a large share of the split and wouldn't agree to releasing the track unless he got it. Label got someone else to rewrite the music bed with different chords and feel and released it. First guy couldn't do anything.
And the poem point is valid. Only argument you could have is that you wrote it together and your music inspired the melody or words and hope it sways the other writer. When it comes to intellectual copyright, melody is king, followed quickly by lyrics.

[Umlaaat]

Originally Posted by Led

If the other person solely came up with the words AND melody, they can walk away, have someone else redo different music underneath it and you can do nothing about it. As long as the music underneath is different from yours, they haven't done anything wrong. I've seen this done with people I've produced - the guy who wrote the music, but not the melody or lyrics got full of himself and demanded a large share of the split and wouldn't agree to releasing the track unless he got it. Label got someone else to rewrite the music bed with different chords and feel and released it. First guy couldn't do anything.
And the poem point is valid. Only argument you could have is that you wrote it together and your music inspired the melody or words and hope it sways the other writer. When it comes to intellectual copyright, melody is king, followed quickly by lyrics.

No, i did the music and gave it to him to write to. He came up with melody and lyrics and then registered it without telling me. He says hes done it many times before and that its legit to do so. It just strikes me as odd bc without my music there would be no words and melody.