Copyright registration

“ And provided furthermore, That a series of maps, drawings, photographs, prints, and pictorial illustrations, and labels and prints relating to articles of manufacture, and other subjects of copyright of an artistic nature, constituting a unit or assembled for a unitary purpose, shall be considered as the subject-matter of a single copyright registration, should the applicant so elect, whether or not they are actually joined by binding, printing on the same sheet of material, or otherwise. ”

“ II. The Human Authorship Requirement
In the Office’s view, it is well-established that copyright can protect only material that is the product of human creativity. Most fundamentally, the term “author,” which is used in both the Constitution and the Copyright Act, excludes non-humans. The Office’s registration policies and regulations reflect statutory and judicial guidance on this issue. ”

“ When an original work of art is copyrighted, but is not published by reproduction of copies for sale or distribution, it is uncertain under the law, as in the case of dramatic and musical compositions, from what date the copyright protection runs and whether the sole right of reproducing copies for sale terminates at the end of a statutory term beginning with the registration of the original work or with its publication by the reproduction of copies for sale. ”

“ Relying on these cases among others, the Office’s existing registration guidance has long required that works be the product of human authorship. In the 1973 edition of the Office’s Compendium of Copyright Office Practices, the Office warned that it would not register materials that did not “owe their origin to a human agent.” [20] The second edition of the Compendium, published in 1984, explained that the “term ‘authorship’ implies that, for a work to be copyrightable, it must owe its origin to a human being.” ”

“ The registration in one country (art. 7) should have the same effect in each other country, as if made in all, and the term of protection was made that provided by the legislation of the country "where the rights originated or have been recognized," or, if no term is specified, then for patents fifteen years, for designs ten years, both subject to renewals, and for literary and artistic copyright life and 25 years. ”

“ One of the essential elements of the required statutory notice on a published work is the name of the copyright owner or proprietor, that is, the name of the person or organization legally entitled to the copyright at the time of first publication. Generally, unless the name in the notice identities someone who is entitled to secure the copyright, registration of the claim to copy­right would not be authorized. ”

“ The owner of any copyright, performing or lecturing right may obtain registration by the deposit of two copies of the best edition of a book or one copy of an art work or photograph of it, and no suit can be maintained prior to such registration. In case, after the death of an author, the owner of the copyright or performing right withholds the work from the public, the Governor-General may grant a license for publication or performance. ”

“ The procedures developed for the registration of copyright claims for restored works must both balance the needs of applicants for copyright registration, reliance parties, the public, and the Copyright Office and also establish a system that will be feasible administratively and elicit necessary information. ”

“ The principal requisites to secure copyright protection included: (1) providing notice of copyright in proper form; (2) registration of copyright in the work; and (3) depositing of a copy of the work with the Library of Congress. [157] Authors who published their works without strictly observing the applicable formalities forfeited copyright protection; [158] indeed, courts often referred to the author’s failure to comply with formalities as a “dedication” of the work to the public domain. ”

“ Proponents of registration argued that the data representing a digitized typeface should be copyrightable because, after the initial rendering of the letterform into electronic digital form, there is selection, coordination, or arrangement of data/instructions in order to generate an acceptable, final typeface image. ”

“ When letters and other intellectual productions (exclusive of patented material, published works under copyright protection, and unpublished works for which copyright registration has been made) come into the custody or possession of the Archivist, the United States or its agents are not liable for infringement of copyright or analogous rights arising out of use of the materials for display, inspection, research, reproduction, or other purposes. ”

“ The statute should apply, and common law rights should end, when a copyrightable work is publicly disseminated by the publication of copies, registration in the Copyright Office, public performance, or the public distribution of sound recordings. 2. Common law protection should be left in effect for copyrightable works not publicly disseminated. The privilege of securing statutory copyright in lieu of common law protection, by voluntary registration in the Copyright Office, should be extended to all copyrightable works. ”

“ No case is likely to arise for twenty-eight years from the time of first copyright, under the act, of an unpublished work; but the dilemma will then present itself to the author whether he should apply for a renewal term and thus accept the limitations of the statute, or rely upon the original registration as a protection in perpetuity up to the time of publication. ”

“ Rights accorded under the national treatment provisions may not be subject to any formality, such as registration requirements. [2] Member countries are free to and some do impose formalities on the exercise of rights in relation to domestic copyright works. In the United States, for example, the Copyright Act of 1976 establishes a requirement that copyright owners register their work with the Copyright Office before they can commence a civil action for infringement of their work. ”

“ We affirm our decision to refuse registration for the Work because it lacks the human authorship necessary to be eligible for copyright protection.
Discussion The U.S. Copyright Office will register an original work of authorship only if the work was created by a human being. This includes any human being that prepares a work on behalf of an organizational author as a work made for hire. ”

“ Where a second application is made for the entry of the same copyrightable work by a second party, the copyright officer would not decline to register the second application, if the claimant insisted on his right, after the fact of the first registration had been brought to the second claimant's notice, and the question of ownership would have to be brought before the courts. ”

“ The act gives the copyright of every work executed on commission to the person by whom it is commissioned. It makes it compulsory upon every owner of a copyright that he should register it at Stationers’ Hall before he can take any action at law to protect it. The copyright does not lapse if unregistered, but so long as it remains unregistered no action at law can be taken on account of any infringement. A copyright can be registered at any time, even after an infringement, but the owner of the copyright cannot recover for any infringement before registration. ”

“ That all records and other things relating to copyrights required by law to be preserved shall be kept and preserved in the copyright office, Library of Congress, District of Columbia, and shall be under the control of the register of copyrights, who shall, under the direction and supervision of the Librarian of Congress, perform all the duties relating to the registration of copyrights. ”

“ But the privilege of registration of copyright secured hereunder shall not exempt the copyright proprietor from the deposit copies under sections twelve and thirteen of this Act where the work is later reproduced in copies for sale." The entire work should in each case be deposited (C. O. Rule 18) and not a mere outline, epitome or scenario ; and the copy should be in convenient form, clean and legible, with the leaves securely fastened together, and should bear the title of the work exactly as given in the application. ”

“ This statute does not, however, make any change in the requirement of notice; it only permits the form of it to be changed. The copyright is secured when the registration is complete, and a certificate of the registration is given by the commissioner, just as under the former law it was secured when the proper filing had been made with the librarian of congress and his certificate was issued. But in this case notice of the copyright obtained has not been given as required. The law in that respect has not been followed. The fact of registration alone is placed upon the label. ”

“ The manufacturing clause is continued and extended to require printing and binding as well as type-setting within the United States. The musical author is given control over mechanical reproductions though under provision for compulsory license in case he permits any such reproduction. The copyright term is for twenty-eight years with a like renewal term, making fifty-six years. Rights of performance are included under copyright, and unpublished works are specifically protected by special registration. ”

“ The term of copyright (which is now up to 56 years and would be even longer under the proposal made in ch. V of this report) is too long for ordinary design protection. And there are other fundamentals of the copyright statute--the provisions on notice, deposit, registration, publication, and liability of innocent distributors of infringing articles, for example--that are not suitable for the entire range of industrial designs. ”

“ The Office will register a program that can be used to create digitized versions of various typefaces but will not register the data used to depict a particular typeface or individual letterforms. If the computer program submitted for registration includes data that fixes or depicts a particular typeface, typefont, or letterform, the Office requires an appropriate disclaimer of copyright on the application to exclude the uncopyrightable data. ”

“ Though some combinations of non-protectable elements may contain sufficient creativity with respect to how they are arranged to support a copyright registration, not every combination will be numerous enough and their arrangement original enough to constitute an original work of authorship. ”

“ All that is important in this case is that it is no more the purpose of registration to start statutes of limitations running than it is the purpose of the copyright notice itself to do so.
We are therefore led to question the suggestion in Saenger Organization, Inc. v. Nationwide Ins. Licensing Associates, Inc., supra, 119 F.3d at 66, that registration provides constructive notice of a claim of ownership. That would not, to repeat, matter in a case such as this in which the registered work is a compilation. ”

“ Thus, an owner of only an exclusive right would not be permitted to file an application in his or her own name as the copyright claimant, although he or she could submit an application. While the URAA authorizes the Office to adopt regulations permitting owners of restored copyrights to file for registration of the restored copyright, there is nothing in the URAA to suggest that parties who register a restored work are any different from those under existing copyright law and regulations. Moreover, it seems essential to retain the concept of claimant since authors may no longer be alive. ”

“ As stated in the official circulars of instructions issued by the English Copyright Office, "Copyright is created by the statute, and does not depend upon registration, which is permissive only, and not compulsory, but no proprietor of copyright in any book can take any proceedings in respect of any infringement of his copyright unless he has, before commencing his proceedings, registered his book." ”

“ Because the record contains no evidence as to the circumstances under which Northern Songs, Limited obtained the copyright, defendants assert that plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden of showing a clear likelihood of success on their claim of copyright infringement.
This Court disagrees. A renewal registration is prima facie evidence of the validity of a copyright. ”

“ This comment advocates that, in any event, the "work" is protectible as a program, compilation or separately as a literary work. Another comment claims protection for the edited, compiled set of instructions and data as a literary work. The second comment espousing rule of doubt would limit the registration to the typeface database.
Several comments state that not all typeface programs and databases are protectible. Purely mechanical translations from analog to digitized typefaces, they acknowledge, are not copyrightible. ”

“ Although most comments favored protection of the data/instructions actually depiciting particular digital typefonts, our analysis of the copyright statute and relevant judicial precedent, as well as the arguments of the comments that opposed registration (and even the comments of some of those supporting registration of some elements) , convinces us that any data that merely transforms an analog visual representation of a typeface or letterform into a digital electronic typefont or letterform is not protectible as a work of authorship. ”

“ The Register of Copyrights is authorized to specify by regulation the administrative classes into which works are to be placed for purposes of deposit and registration, and the nature of the copies or phonorecords to be deposited in the various classes specified. The regulations may require or permit, for particular classes, the deposit of identifying material instead of copies or phonorecords, the deposit of only one copy or phonorecord where two would normally be required, or a single registration for a group of related works. ”