The Intellectual Property Forum

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask about music copyright.

I was recently in a band, but then left them. At the time of leaving, we were finishing recording an album where every song had a part that I wrote. Basically, there were three of us and we all wrote the music together. None of the music or lyrics have been copyrighted yet. Are they able to screw me out of the copyright? If they try, what should I do? I can't really think of concrete proof that I wrote the material. There's videos on their digital recorder of me recording some parts, video's of me playing the parts live, and articles referring to my parts, but I don't think that's enough. The best proof I think I have is email exchanges with both of them referring to "my parts", etc.

I was thinking about secretly recording the next time I meet with them. This article, "http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/08/covert-iphone-audio-recording/"  makes it seem okay to do that, whereas this one "http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/massachusetts-recording-law"  doesn't.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!