Comedians Have The Exact Same Copyrights As Songwriters — Only Better

Copyright law can be confusing. The good news is that under US copyright law, comedians and other spoken word performers have the exact same copyrights and even better legal rights than musical songwriters. This means the licenses and accompanying royalties are not at all imaginary but required and protected under the existing laws. The problem is not that the laws don’t exist, the problem is the law is being broken, licenses are not getting obtained and the associated payments are not getting made.

To get geeky, here are the links to US Copyright law showing that spoken word comedy works just like music:

17 U.S.C. § 102 — Subject matter of copyright: In general
This part of the law shows that spoken word literary works and musical works get the same copyright
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102#

17 U.S.C. § 106 — Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Works
This part of the law shows that spoken word literary works and musical works get the same exclusive six “rights” that must be licensed
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/106

In other words, no entity like a Spotify or SiriusXM can use a spoken word literary work or a musical work without a license and without making the associated royalty payment.

For music, the government forces the songwriter to give a license to Spotify even if they don’t want to. In addition, the government sets the royalty rate

For spoken word comedy, the comedian does not have to give a license if they don’t want. In addition, the comedian can negotiate any royalty rate they want and the government has no say.