wtf billboards?

[Dakota]

I can't believe this song hit the top 100, it was some random song that this old guy sang on American Idol in February. Less than a month later it was released and hit the top 40 (and that's just right now).... it's like anything can hit the top 100.....


wtf...

the artist can't get any money off from it though because he didn't copyright it.

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[Jacklinger]

US Copyright law says

"Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created
in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship
immediately becomes the property of the author who created
the work. Only the author or those deriving their rights
through the author can rightfully claim copyright."

So the "old guy" that you refer to does not need to "copyright" anything. If it really is his original work, the copyright is automatic. I suspect that Wikipedia article is not completely trustworthy. I have no doubt that some studio executive is fully willing to beg, borrow, and steal someone else's work if they can get away with it. But the original creator would need to be either dead or anonymous for them to do that.

If the song was created using resources belonging to American Idol, it is possible that the creator was required to sign a form that waived ownership of any created material as a condition for allowing him to use their recording equipment, studios, and creative assistants. So American Idol, or its parent company may actually be the owners of that song even if they technically didn't write it.

Watch what you sign.