Article: You can find out if anyone is distributing copies of your music by creating a Google alert. Once you create the alert, Google will send you an email whenever it finds new content posted online that matches your search terms. To create an alert, you will need a Gmail account. Go to the Google Alerts page and enter the information you want to have an alert created for. You should create alerts for:  your band’s name (such as “Radioactive Redwoods”) names of each of your songs (e.g., “A Cry in the Forest”) if you have a copyright in lyrics, then sample lyrics You should get into the habit of reviewing every alert at a set time of the day. For example, you might want to look at your alerts the first thing every morning. Try to get in the habit so you don’t skip a day. If you see that someone has posted your music on a website, then you will need to send the website owner a “takedown” notice. If the owner promptly removes the music, then they can’t be sued. Nevertheless, you must send a notice informing the owner that your music appears on their website. ” Before sending a takedown notice, you must make sure that you have a justified claim of copyright infringement. In other words, the use of your music can’t be “fair use.” You need to decide whether the use of your music is “fair use” before sending a takedown notice.  Fair use is a vague concept which essentially means that some people can copy certain portions of your music in some situations. The court will look at multiple factors, such as how much of your music was sampled and whether the person sampling it “transformed” the sample. The court will also consider why the person sampled your music—for example, for educational purposes or to make money—and whether the sampling had a negative effect on your ability to make money from the song.  Generally, you will be justified in sending a takedown notice in most situations. For example, if someone uses an entire song or a large portion of the song, then you are justified in sending a takedown notice. However, in some situations, the use might be fair use. For example, someone who samples a few seconds of a song to use in a non-profit, educational video, might actually have a fair use defense. If you are unsure whether the sampling is fair use, contact an attorney for advice.

What is a summary?
Create Google alerts. Review your alerts daily. Decide if the use is “fair use.