!
One of the rules in the music business is to not share your work until it's copywritten.
Woops, looks like you mean "copyrighted" unless you're talking about writing adverstising text.
I recall (because I actually heard about it) the copyright law was changed in the late 1970's so that anything put down in "tangible form" is automatically covered under copyright. For music that includes the traditional writing the melody in sheet music, but also an audio recording of a performance is enough for it to be covered under copyright. There's registering a copyright, but that's something different and additional.
Also,there are hundreds of people going against that very idea of "not to share your work" here recording and posting songs as they write them, and some of it's some pretty amazingly good stuff, all written since the start of February - just hit the little play triangle:
http://fawm.org/jukebox/
If you come across some guy using my name, just skip the song, that guy can't sing worth a crap!
And here's hoping you, perhaps just now having discovered FAWM, don't all of a sudden disappear until March!
I understand the music business is a little different in that traditionally a song isn't considered "published" until a recording has been released on a "major label" (after which anyone can get a "compulsive license" to record a cover of it), but the music biz is of course going through big changes. In book publishing, having a substantial amount of it just "available on the Internet," even if few people know about it, is considered "being published" and they won't buy first publishing rights. But as other say, posting in the SYW forums is NOT considered publishing, because it's password-protected, and only members here can read it - it's not available to anyone on the Internet.
Should I be afraid to post work on this forum? I don't want to be afraid nor cynical. However, in these worst of times (hackers, identity theives, and downright unsavory people), I am afraid someone might lift an idea and run with it.
Like everyone on this forum, I too can use the encouragement as well as the critique. Working from my home office, I often feel as though I'm the only person on the isle of hope and dreams.
The response to the postings I've placed so far have been oh so encouraging and helpful. Dare I stop posting due to fear?
There are other threads here where others have asked this very same question. The "general discussion" threads such as this one get indexed by Google and other search engines, but written work is posted in SYW which is password-protected and NOT indexed by any search engines.
There's never a total guarantee of safety, but having your writings stolen is a pretty low risk. If safety is important at all to you, be sure to fasten your seat belt when driving or riding in a car.
