Copyright(s)
The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.

Poor mans copyright - mail your work to yourself and keep it sealed until (if and when) you need it for proof.  Mail 2 or 3 to yourself (from your address to your address), the post date is enough to authenticate your work, however in some cases it is not submittable in a court of law.

One of the primary music business to business products is the raw, unrecorded music composition, known in legal parlance as intellectual property. The owner of this property is said to hold the copyright to the property-that is, the right to reproduce, publish, and sell the work.  The copyright holder is the original author or another entity to whom the author has assigned  the copyright.

As owner, the copyright holder is entitled to make money from the property.  This is done by selling hte right to use the property in some way.  The permission to use is called a license.  The copyright holder grants a license to another business (say, a record company) to process the product further (e.g. record a song) and then to sell it to the public or to another business.

See publishing for additional info.