turdadactyl

dupedd, the album you're releasing has a publish date of 2009. The one song will have a publish date of 2006. If you register the album as a single work, you will be asked for the publication date on each song as you add it to the "case." Just put in the correct date. Fudging numbers will screw things up for you.

As for the effect, registering the 2006 song this late may prevent you from receiving money damages on that one song if you have to sue someone, but you're in worse shape if you don't register because you can't sue unless you own a valid copyright. You should still be able to get an injunction preventing someone from continuing to infringe (i.e. "rip you off").

To answer your question about a court battle, your copyright should not be invalidated by putting the 2006 on a 2009 album. But if you don't tell the truth in the application you DEFINITELY run the risk of it being held invalid.

More of my ramblings on the subject here: Registering Copyrights for My Band


If you aren't clear on any of this, I'd suggest sitting down with a copyright lawyer.

I'm a regular in the drum forum. I posted a link to a very thorough article I wrote on how to register your copyrights in your music. The guys suggested I post it here too.

So, here you go: Tutorial on Registering Copyrights for your Music

Hope somebody finds it helpful.