How enforceable are CC/ARR type declarations on a track, anyway? Ive always wondered about it. I mean I can say my track's all rights reserved til I'm blue in the face but nothing's gonna stop Grey Worldwide from stealing it and sticking it in a Honda ad if they really wanted to. Onus is then on me to chase it up in court, isnt it?
You specifically can not file a court motion in a US Federal court if you haven't previously registered a copyright with the US Copyright office. It's not a bad idea to file for every piece of work you create. You can compile multiple songs under one "work" and file them all together for the same price ($35 if done online using ECO). For example, take all of your songs from 2013 and create a master file that you will submit electronically after filing, pay the $35, and every song in the collection is now registered. You can also attach lyrics sheets, music staffs, etc, in a separate electronic file which is still included in the $35 cost.
It's advantageous to do this because your filing is considered prima facie evidence that you own the copyright which means that any challenger has to prove that you don't. If you don't register, then theoretically, another party can steal your work (since you're making it available to the entire world via the internet) and register it themselves at which point they have prima facie evidence that they own it and you will have to prove that they don't.
I'm not a lawyer, by the way, so don't construe anything I've written here as legal advice but simply as my interpretation of the pertinent US laws.
My understanding is that when you release something under a CC license, that doesn't mean you're giving up your claim to copyright but that you are granting either limited or unlimited (depending on the license) rights for others to use your work.
