Who are Nancy & The Meerkats?

Nancy & The Meerkats are a super cool band that love to make music!

They also love to help people learn all about copyright (with the help of their manager – Big Joe).

Watch this video where Nancy and Big Joe teach Ed all about the copyright on his music…

After that you should know a bit more about copyright and how it can help protect someones creation.

So what is copyright?

Copyright is defined as the automatic right and ownership which protects things like books, art, music and films, as soon as they are written down or recorded. This means that other people need permission to use something that you have written, whether that is the whole thing or just a small part. Authors and composers can use the © symbol to show that the work is copyrighted.

To put it simply – it’s the law that means if you create something (like a song or story) then it belongs to you!

No one can copy it and start claiming it as their own because you have the copyright.

I’ve written a song and I want to copyright it! What do I do?

Nothing! If you came up with the song then it belongs to you and you already have the copyright.

It’s always a good idea to write it down along with the date you made it though. This helps just incase someone claims they made it.

If I don’t own a song then can I use it?

Not unless you have permission from whoever holds the copyright on the song.

If you don’t have permission then you’ll need to come up with your own original song.

Activity: Create an original song of your own!

You can do this by using things in your house as instruments. Blow into a jug, stamp on the floor or hit a folk on the side of a table.

Why not write song lyrics to go with your song as well?

How did you get on?

How did you do making your song?

It doesn’t matter if you wrote a long and complex song or you wrote a simple song where you just stomped your feet, you own the copyright on it!

Click here to do the next mission all about going viral!