Guys, please explain briefly how copyright protection works on the site? If I release an album that includes my tracks from the site, will it be a violation or not?

It won't be a violation if it's your own work. People release albums featuring their works from this site all the time. (I have as well so, speaking from experience.)

The point of the copyright system is to ensure other people can use/listen to/download the tracks on this site freely, and it's somewhat necessary that everything be creative commons for that system to work.

It does mean that there's nothing stopping someone from going here and downloading all of the tracks on your album for free instead of buying it from you, but that's pretty much never actually a problem.

Nope, you don’t waive your rights to do whatever with your own music on here. It’s explained in the lyceum:

https://battleofthebits.com/lyceum/View/BotB+CC+License

Basically, you’ve got your full rights to do whatever you want with your stuff, and Botb retains the ability to use entries in other external releases, such as potential BandCamp releases or YouTube videos.

Thank you very much!

A friend of mine is wondering if they can share their entry elsewhere as soon as they post it here.

Right now, they feel they have to wait for the voting period of a major to end first before doing so. Could someone clarify?

I've had this same question before as well. A few times I've submitted an MML to a major and wondered if it'd be appropriate to upload it to the music section of another site prior to the contest being closed and voting being done (not that I've taken action on it since I'm usually too lazy to upload it until after the major anyways haha).

you can do that. it's good practice to link to the battle though especially if it's ongoing still

speaking from experience, i often post my tracks on modarchive or on occasion part of a bandcamp release. just be sure you:

a) link the battle or reference botb somewhere
b) get permission from other collaborators before uploading
c) only upload your own songs (which is kind of a given)

This clears things up for me, I thank those who have contributed to this thread.