More than you have probably been told, and less than you would like.
There are four routes, and they are not alternatives to each other. You can register the work now. You can send a demand letter. You can file a takedown with the platform. And you can bring a claim at the Copyright Claims Board, a small-claims tribunal inside the US Copyright Office that almost nobody mentions and that was built for this size of problem. If what was taken was an instrumental you had sent to someone, the order of operations differs slightly: what to do when a beat you sent comes back on somebody else's release.
This page describes each one, and quotes the statute or the official guidance rather than paraphrasing it, so you can check every sentence against the source. It is not legal advice and it does not tell you which route fits your situation. The evidence side of the same problem is covered separately in how to prove someone stole your song: creation proof, access and similarity.
Everything here is US-specific. If you want the prevention side instead (what to keep, what to date, what actually decided 197 US music copyright cases), that is whether a blockchain timestamp is legal proof of song ownership.
Before you do anything else, preserve what you have
Do not tidy your drive. Do not re-export, re-bounce, or re-save a session file. Resaving rewrites modification dates on the one set of files whose dates matter. Keep the voice memo, the first session, the lyric draft, the stems and the master exactly where they are.
Screenshot the other release with its date and the platform's upload date visible, and save the URL. Platform pages change.
Do not contact them from your main account, and do not accuse anyone in writing before you have looked at your own paperwork. What follows is that paperwork.
Can I still register the song after someone has copied it?
Yes. The Copyright Office's Copyright Basics (Circular 1) states:
"Copyright protection in the United States exists automatically from the moment the original work of authorship is fixed."
"Registration can be made at any time within the life of the copyright."
Registration is also what gets you through the courthouse door at all. Circular 1: "Before an infringement suit may be filed in court, registration (or refusal) is necessary for U.S. works." In Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC (2019), a unanimous Supreme Court held: "registration occurs, and a copyright claimant may commence an infringement suit, when the Copyright Office registers a copyright."
What registering late changes
17 U.S.C. §412, "Registration as prerequisite to certain remedies for infringement":
"In any action under this title … no award of statutory damages or of attorney's fees, as provided by sections 504 and 505, shall be made for—
(1) any infringement of copyright in an unpublished work commenced before the effective date of its registration; or
(2) any infringement of copyright commenced after first publication of the work and before the effective date of its registration, unless such registration is made within three months after the first publication of the work."
The Copyright Office states the same gate from the other side, in Circular 1:
"When registration is made prior to infringement or within three months after publication of a work, a copyright owner is eligible for statutory damages, attorneys' fees, and costs."
And on what remains, the Supreme Court in Fourth Estate:
"If infringement occurs before a copyright owner applies for registration, that owner may eventually recover damages for the past infringement, as well as the infringer's profits. §504. She must simply apply for registration and receive the Copyright Office's decision on her application before instituting suit."
The House Report accompanying the 1976 Act, in the note printed with §412, described the design:
"Under the general scheme of the bill, a copyright owner whose work has been infringed before registration would be entitled to the remedies ordinarily available in infringement cases: an injunction on terms the court considers fair, and his actual damages plus any applicable profits not used as a measure of damages. However, section 412 would deny any award of the special or 'extraordinary' remedies of statutory damages or attorney's fees where infringement of copyright in an unpublished work began before registration…"
Register either way. Under §411(a) you need it to sue at all.
What is the Copyright Claims Board?
A small-claims tribunal inside the US Copyright Office, created by the CASE Act (Pub. L. 116-260, div. Q, tit. II, §212(b), 27 December 2020). You file online at ccb.gov; there is no courtroom and no travel. The CCB handbook describes a two-part filing fee: $40 on filing, and a further $60 if the proceeding enters the active phase (37 C.F.R. §§201.3(g), 222.7(a)(1)).
What it can hear. 17 U.S.C. §1504(c) lists infringement claims, claims for a declaration of noninfringement, and claims under §512(f) for misrepresentation in a takedown notice or counter notice.
What it cannot hear. §1504(d)(4) excludes "A claim or counterclaim asserted against a person or entity residing outside of the United States, except in a case in which the person or entity initiated the proceeding before the Copyright Claims Board and is subject to counterclaims under this chapter." §1504(d)(3) excludes claims "by or against a Federal or State governmental entity."
Time limit. §1504(b)(1): "A proceeding may not be maintained before the Copyright Claims Board unless the proceeding is commenced… not later than 3 years after the claim accrued."
Registration. §1505(a) provides that a claim "may not be asserted before the Copyright Claims Board unless— (1) the legal or beneficial owner of the copyright has first delivered a completed application, a deposit, and the required fee for registration of the copyright to the Copyright Office; and (2) a registration certificate has either been issued or has not been refused." §1505(b)(1)(A) adds that the Board "may not render a determination in the proceeding until… a registration certificate with respect to the work has been issued by the Copyright Office, submitted to the Copyright Claims Board, and made available to the other parties to the proceeding."
What the CCB can award
17 U.S.C. §1504(e)(1)(D):
"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a party that pursues any 1 or more claims or counterclaims in any single proceeding before the Copyright Claims Board may not seek or recover in that proceeding a total monetary recovery that exceeds the sum of $30,000, exclusive of any attorneys' fees and costs that may be awarded under section 1506(y)(2)."
§1504(e)(1)(A)(ii)(I):
"With respect to works timely registered under section 412, so that the works are eligible for an award of statutory damages in accordance with that section, the statutory damages may not exceed $15,000 for each work infringed."
§1504(e)(1)(A)(ii)(II):
"With respect to works not timely registered under section 412, but eligible for an award of statutory damages under this section, statutory damages may not exceed $7,500 per work infringed, or a total of $15,000 in any 1 proceeding."
§1504(e)(3):
"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, except in the case of bad faith conduct as provided in section 1506(y)(2), the parties to proceedings before the Copyright Claims Board shall bear their own attorneys' fees and costs."
The CCB handbook chapter on damages adds a figure that is often quoted on its own without the qualifier attached to it:
"The most the CCB can order a respondent to pay in damages is $30,000. In a 'smaller claims' track proceeding, the damages are capped at $5,000."
Late registration: two provisions, side by side
17 U.S.C. §412, on actions in the district courts:
"…no award of statutory damages or of attorney's fees, as provided by sections 504 and 505, shall be made for— (1) any infringement of copyright in an unpublished work commenced before the effective date of its registration; or (2) any infringement of copyright commenced after first publication of the work and before the effective date of its registration, unless such registration is made within three months after the first publication of the work."
17 U.S.C. §1504(e)(1)(A)(ii)(II), on proceedings before the Copyright Claims Board:
"With respect to works not timely registered under section 412, but eligible for an award of statutory damages under this section, statutory damages may not exceed $7,500 per work infringed, or a total of $15,000 in any 1 proceeding."
The limit that matters most: the other side can walk away
§1504(a):
"Participation in a Copyright Claims Board proceeding shall be on a voluntary basis in accordance with this chapter, and the right of any party to instead pursue a claim, counterclaim, or defense in a district court of the United States, any other court, or any other forum, and to seek a jury trial, shall be preserved."
37 C.F.R. §223.1, the Copyright Office's opt-out regulation:
"(a) … A respondent's opt-out shall result in the dismissal of the claim without prejudice."
"(e) Timing of opt out. The respondent has 60 days from the date of service or waiver of service to provide notice of its opt-out election."
Treat the CCB as a real option that sometimes does not run.
What is a demand letter?
A written notice to the other side: here is my work, here is my registration or application number, here is what you have done, here is what I want — stop, take it down, credit me, pay me, sign a split. And here is by when.
It is filed nowhere and has no official status. Of 57,668 federal copyright cases terminated between 2015 and March 2026, 90.1% ended with no judgment entered (Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Data Base). Most of what happens to a copyright dispute happens somewhere other than a courtroom, and this is one of those places. It is also what your documentation is built for: a dated record that predates the dispute and that you can produce in ten minutes makes the other side price the risk that you are right.
How does a DMCA takedown work?
If a copy is on a platform, this is the fastest track. It is separate from everything above. 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3)(A) sets out what a notification must contain, sent "to the designated agent of a service provider":
"(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
(v) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
Most platforms publish a web form that collects those items. The Copyright Office maintains a public directory of designated agents.
17 U.S.C. §512(f) is the caution that travels with it:
"Any person who knowingly materially misrepresents under this section— (1) that material or activity is infringing, or (2) that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys' fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner's authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation…"
A §512(f) claim is also one of the things the Copyright Claims Board can hear, under §1504(c)(3), in either direction.
Content ID is not the DMCA
YouTube's Content ID and its equivalents on other platforms are private matching systems operating under private rules, not under §512. They are often the fastest practical remedy available to a musician, and they are no substitute for any of the above.
What none of this fixes
A takedown removes a copy. A demand letter opens a negotiation. A CCB determination resolves the claim in front of it, within a $30,000 ceiling, if the respondent does not opt out. None of them is a ruling on who wrote the song.
That question gets answered — when it gets answered at all — by what each side can produce and date. Which is why the other half of this is what the 197 US music copyright decisions we read actually turned on, and what to keep from now on so the next version of this conversation is shorter. The access half of it — what courts have accepted as evidence that someone had the opportunity to hear a song — is set out separately.
Legal disclaimer
This article is informational and is not legal advice. It quotes statutes, regulations, official Copyright Office guidance and decided cases; it does not tell you how any of them apply to your situation, and no reader should act on it without consulting a qualified attorney in the relevant jurisdiction. Every route described here has conditions and exceptions this page does not cover. Copyright law differs by country and changes over time. SongSecure is not a law firm.
Sources
17 U.S.C. §411(a) · §412 and the Historical and Revision Notes (H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476) printed with it · §512(c)(3), §512(f) · §1504(a)–(e), §1505(a)–(b) · 37 C.F.R. §223.1; §§201.3(g), 222.7(a)(1) · Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 U.S. 296 (2019) (Ginsburg, J., unanimous) · US Copyright Office, Copyright Basics (Circular 1, rev. 09/2021) · US Copyright Office, Copyright Claims Board Handbook, Damages (ch. 22, 01/02/2024) · CASE Act, Pub. L. 116-260, div. Q, tit. II, §212(b) (27 Dec. 2020) · ccb.gov · copyright.gov DMCA Designated Agent Directory.