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Copyright Office Proposes New Rule Concerning Group Registration of Photographs
Practical Law Legal Update w-004-8149 (Approx. 3 pages)
Copyright Office Proposes New Rule Concerning Group Registration of Photographs
by Practical Law Intellectual Property & Technology
| Published on 02 Dec 2016 • USA (National/Federal) |
The US Copyright Office is seeking public comments on a proposed rule to update its regulation concerning group registration of photographs to require, among other things, applicants to use new online registration applications, which are specifically designed for group registrations of either published or unpublished photographs.
On December 1, 2016 the US Copyright Office published a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the regulation concerning group registration of photographs to, among other things:
- Require group registration of both published and unpublished photographs through the electronic registration system.
- Eliminate less efficient forms of registering photographs.
- Update the deposit requirements for group registrations of photographs and photographic databases.
Under the Copyright Office's existing regulation, photographers have several options to register groups or collections of photographs in digital or physical form with one application and one filing fee. In 2011, the Copyright Office established a pilot program allowing applicants to register groups of published photographs and photographic databases using the standard online application. However, the pilot program was designed only to handle claims involving a limited number of photographs.
The proposed rule would address this limitation and:
- Eliminate the pilot program for published photographs and replace it with an online application specifically designed for groups of published photographs (GRPPH).
- Create an equivalent group registration option for unpublished photographs (GRUPH).
- Require applicants to use these online applications instead of any existing paper applications.
- Modify eligibility requirements for GRPPH and GRUPH by requiring that:
- all the works in the group be photographs;
- each group contain no more than 750 photographs;
- the applicant specify the total number of photographs included in the group;
- all photographs in the group be taken by the same photographer;
- the copyright claimant for each photograph be the same person or organization; and
- the applicant only register a group of unpublished photographs if all the photographs are unpublished, and only register a group of published photographs if all the photographs are published.
- Require applicants to submit to the US Copyright Office, through the electronic system or on a physical storage device such as a flash drive, CD-R, or DVD-R by mail with a required shipping slip:
- a digital copy, in certain formats, of each photograph included in the group; and
- a separate document containing a sequentially numbered list specifying the title and file name for each photograph in the group.
This requirement would also apply to photographic databases. - Clarify that a registration for a group of published or unpublished photographs covers each photograph in the group and that each photograph is registered as a separate work.
Interested parties may submit written comments here no later than January 3, 2017.
On December 15, 2016, the Copyright Office extended the deadline to submit written comments to January 30, 2017 to ensure that commenters have sufficient time to respond (81 Fed. Reg. 90753-02, (Dec. 15, 2016)).