Happy World Intellectual Property Day!

It’s April 26, which means that it’s World Intellectual Property Day; a day devoted to spreading awareness about rights and regulations surrounding intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyright law). It marks the date that the World Intellectual Property Organization Convention was first created in 1970.

In the music world, intellectual property rights are all about understanding and respecting ownership of music. This can mean giving credit where its due when sampling another musician’s work, and making sure that one’s own work is not taken or profited off of behind their back.

ACM legal consultant Patrick Rackow speaks on intellectual property in the music industry for WIPD 2017.

Know your rights! Take some time today to learn about copyright law and the role it plays in your life as a musician. Unfortunately, it is also all too common for copyright infringement to be overlooked, especially in the music industry — causing money to wind up in the wrong hands and the creatives behind the music to not get the recognition they deserve. The first step to fighting this is educating ourselves and standing up for our rights as producers, songwriters, musicians.