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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 408. Copyright registration in general
(a) Registration Permissive. - At any time during the subsistence
of the first term of copyright in any published or unpublished work
in which the copyright was secured before January 1, 1978, and
during the subsistence of any copyright secured on or after that
date, the owner of copyright or of any exclusive right in the work
may obtain registration of the copyright claim by delivering to the
Copyright Office the deposit specified by this section, together
with the application and fee specified by sections 409 and 708.
Such registration is not a condition of copyright protection.
(b) Deposit for Copyright Registration. - Except as provided by
subsection (c), the material deposited for registration shall
include -
(1) in the case of an unpublished work, one complete copy or
phonorecord;
(2) in the case of a published work, two complete copies or
phonorecords of the best edition;
(3) in the case of a work first published outside the United
States, one complete copy or phonorecord as so published;
(4) in the case of a contribution to a collective work, one
complete copy or phonorecord of the best edition of the
collective work.
Copies or phonorecords deposited for the Library of Congress under
section 407 may be used to satisfy the deposit provisions of this
section, if they are accompanied by the prescribed application and
fee, and by any additional identifying material that the Register
may, by regulation, require. The Register shall also prescribe
regulations establishing requirements under which copies or
phonorecords acquired for the Library of Congress under subsection
(e) of section 407, otherwise than by deposit, may be used to
satisfy the deposit provisions of this section.
(c) Administrative Classification and Optional Deposit. -
(1) 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. This administrative
classification of works has no significance with respect to the
subject matter of copyright or the exclusive rights provided by
this title.
(2) Without prejudice to the general authority provided under
clause (1), the Register of Copyrights shall establish
regulations specifically permitting a single registration for a
group of works by the same individual author, all first published
as contributions to periodicals, including newspapers, within a
twelve-month period, on the basis of a single deposit,
application, and registration fee, under the following
conditions:
(A) if the deposit consists of one copy of the entire issue
of the periodical, or of the entire section in the case of a
newspaper, in which each contribution was first published; and
(B) if the application identifies each work separately,
including the periodical containing it and its date of first
publication.
(3) As an alternative to separate renewal registrations under
subsection (a) of section 304, a single renewal registration may
be made for a group of works by the same individual author, all
first published as contributions to periodicals, including
newspapers, upon the filing of a single application and fee,
under all of the following conditions:
(A) the renewal claimant or claimants, and the basis of claim
or claims under section 304(a), is the same for each of the
works; and
(B) the works were all copyrighted upon their first
publication, either through separate copyright notice and
registration or by virtue of a general copyright notice in the
periodical issue as a whole; and
(C) the renewal application and fee are received not more
than twenty-eight or less than twenty-seven years after the
thirty-first day of December of the calendar year in which all
of the works were first published; and
(D) the renewal application identifies each work separately,
including the periodical containing it and its date of first
publication.
(d) Corrections and Amplifications. - The Register may also
establish, by regulation, formal procedures for the filing of an
application for supplementary registration, to correct an error in
a copyright registration or to amplify the information given in a
registration. Such application shall be accompanied by the fee
provided by section 708, and shall clearly identify the
registration to be corrected or amplified. The information
contained in a supplementary registration augments but does not
supersede that contained in the earlier registration.
(e) Published Edition of Previously Registered Work. -
Registration for the first published edition of a work previously
registered in unpublished form may be made even though the work as
published is substantially the same as the unpublished version.
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