I have a normal computers job. I'm also a musician. I want to post
items related to this on the web but I don't want be able to easily to
google on my name and find this. Having music on the web seems to
require a few sites. The best thing I guess is to use the screen name
as my band name but a lot of sites still make the real name visible.
Is spending effort on this viable? Does it have an impact if my
ownership of the music is ever disputed?

I have two identities, one for on line one for real life stuff. I find
it works very well to stick to them and dont let them cross.

I have one identity which I use if the work I am doing is of a low
importance to me personally. If I am doing something officially
important I use my REAL name.

Find a name, John Smith, and stick to it when doing things that you do
not want associating with your name.

If your band is the John Smith band, when people google your name
"john smith" they are going to get one heck of a lot of rubbish that
is nothing to do with you.

If ownership of the music is a worry for you, write your music on CD,
put it in an envelope and post a copy of the music to yourself. This
will give you a stamp from the post office to show when it was
delivered. This can be your backup in case someone lays claim to your
work and says "we did this in 2007!" and you can say, no you didn't
here it is sealed inside this envelope post marked 2006.
Alternatively, depending on how much money you have to spend you could
always write the music to CD and store it in a safe deposit box at the
bank and leave it there until someone claims it as theirs and you can
prove the music has been locked away for many years.

Hope this helps, it certainly works very well for me!
--Keytroke-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by witness52-ga on 26 Jul 2006 04:04 PDT

Registering the music on numly.com is a better method since it
provides a timestamp and record of what was recorded.

I assume it is against the Terms of Service for any website that asks
for your real name to give a fake one. What is the impact of that?

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Clarification of Answer by keystroke-ga on 26 Jul 2006 16:01 PDT

The following information is taken from this website

http://www.health.state.ny.us/vital_records/married.htm

(A wedding information website)

"Every person has the right to adopt any name by which he or she
wishes to be known simply by using that name consistently and without
intent to defraud. A person's last name (surname) does not
automatically change upon marriage, and neither party to the marriage
is required to change his or her last name. The bride and groom need
not take the same last name."

However I believe your best option would be to speak to a Lawyer who
specialises in intellectual property and copyright. They could give
you information and most probably cases where an artist has used a
fake name and someone has tried to steal their work. I would assume
that owning the Username and Password should be enough to validate
your identity but again, I am not a lawyer so i cannot inform you of
the legal stand point of this.

As for the copyrighting of your work, you may be able to investigate
into looking at http://www.ascap.com/index.html (you may have to pay
to become a member here)

You will also be able to register the audio as your own on 
http://www.copyright.gov/register/

These are two useful sites for ensuring the music you make remains as yours :)

Hope this makes things a little more helpful for you.

--Keystroke-ga

My solution was better than the provided solution.

Keystroke-ga suggests mailing an envelope containing your cd to
yourself.  According to this
(http://www.snopes.com/legal/postmark.asp) Snopes article, that
technique "has no substantive legal effect in the U.S."

While I agree with your comment on the postmark I would rather go into
a court to defend my work with a postmarked evelope then go into a
court empty handed.

That was the reason I mentioned this. I am sure anyone could realise
that a postmarked envelope is by no means 100% proof of you being the
owner of the works in question. It is always best to get everything
properly done.

Thanks for your input though.
--Keystroke-ga