Glossary · Copyright
Fixation
Fixation is the moment a work is recorded or written down in a tangible form stable enough to be perceived or reproduced. Under United States law, copyright attaches automatically at fixation — no registration, notice or filing is required for the copyright to exist.
Under 17 U.S.C. 102, copyright subsists in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. Fixation is the trigger. A melody you hum and never capture is not protected. The moment you record that melody into a voice memo or write it out, the copyright exists — instantly, automatically, and for free.
This is why the "poor man's copyright" idea persists and why it is useless. Mailing yourself a sealed envelope does not create rights you did not already have at the moment of recording, and it does not give you anything the Copyright Office registration gives you.
What registration adds is enforcement power, not existence. For a US work you must register before you can file an infringement lawsuit, and under 17 U.S.C. 412 statutory damages and attorney's fees are available only if registration preceded the infringement, or occurred within three months of publication. The US Copyright Office charges $45 for a Single Application, $65 for a Standard Application, $65 for a Group Registration of Works on an Album of Music, and $85 for Group Registration of Unpublished Works, per its fee schedule retrieved August 2026.
Fixation also matters for splits. If a collaborator contributed original expression to the work that got fixed — a melody, a lyric, a distinctive musical line — they are potentially a co-author of it. Ideas and directions do not fix; expression does.
The misunderstanding: believing you need to do something before your work is protected. You do not. You need to register before you can enforce.
I am a producer, not a lawyer; for enforcement questions get a real one.
Related terms
- US Copyright OfficeThe United States Copyright Office is the federal agency, part of the Library of Congress, that administers copyright…
- Musical compositionA musical composition is the song itself — the melody, harmony, structure and lyrics — protected as its own copyright separate…
- Sound recordingA sound recording is the fixed capture of a performance — the master — protected as its own copyright separate from the…
- Statutory damagesStatutory damages are a fixed range of monetary awards a copyright owner can elect instead of proving actual losses.
Definitions on this site describe the United States system. I am an artist who has been through this, not a lawyer.
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