copyright registration

[paulr]

i've been convinced that it's a good idea to register the copyright of images, especially ones that are published or that will be. a consultant told me that it's easy and that a single registration can cover a whole group of images (so you don't have to fill out separate forms and pay $30 for each picture).

so i went to copyright.gov to check it out, and i'm hopelessly confused. i don't see anything about covering a group of images with one registration.

does anyone know about this?

[Mark Woods]

Paul,
I think the way it works is if you copyright a group of images, that's one work. If you release one image, that's another work. I'm no copyright attorney, but my wife, who is a University Librarian, deals with copyright issues all the time. She's advised me to simply lable the work with the c w/ O or Copyright Mark Woods 2006. And that's enough. I think the gov't doesn't want to archieve all that stuff. Too bad, since some of the old movies we have today are printed from paper negatives the producers provided the copyright office.

Contact a lawyer.

Kind Regards,
MW

[jnantz]

hi paul

they do have a lot of forms on that page ...
the one you want is "VA" and there is one
"with instructions".

you will need to submit a contact sheet of all your images together with the form.
it should all make more sense once you find the form and download it.

there's lots of info on the asmp site (http://www.asmp.org/commerce/legal/copyright/groupinstr2.php )

good luck!

john

[paulr]

ahhh, that's starting to make sense.

i didn't see extension form for multiple works.

i'm assuming i can't stretch a single application to cover more than one body of work with different titles ... is this correct?

yes, i know this is a cheapskate question ...

[tim atherton]

check out the various "Step by Step " on the left hand side

http://www.editorialphoto.com/copyright/

[QT Luong]

The way I proceed is that I fill up a form VA (most of the standard fields are xeroxed, so I need only to fill up the fields specific to each registration), and do not bother with the continuation forms. Instead, I burn each image included in the registration at web size on a CD. I also enclose a printout of image names, captions, and date of first publication (which is always on the web for me). The first time I did it, I had to separate manually images from different years (you can register in a group only works done within a year). Subsequently, I include in each quarterly registration only the images published in the previous 80 days (10 days for safety with courrier delays).
I know that my method is sound because I spoke with the CO people. In doubt, you can always call them, I have found them very helpful.

[paulr]

"you can register in a group only works done within a year"

does this mean created within a year, or published within a year? and i take it you mean within a year of each other ... not within a year of registering?

[David Crossley]

Paul,

EP (Editorial Photo) has a comprehensive easy to follow Copyright tutorial from it's homepage that anyone can access without becoming a member.

[url]www.editorialphoto.com[url/]

David Crossley/Crossley Photography....

[QT Luong]

Sorry about the vagueness. I meant published within a calendar year.

[Saulius]

Here's some more info from an attorneys web page that might help.

www.krages.com/copy1.htm (http://www.krages.com/copy1.htm)

[paulr]

thanks everyone ... huge help.

[Peter Rip]

Claiming copyright does not require an affirmative act. From http://creativecommons.org/about/legal/cultivating

"After January 1, 1978 (the effective date of the Copyright Act of 1976), omission of a copyright notice could later be corrected, and thus did not result in outright forfeiture of copyright.[2] As of March 1, 1989 (the effective date of the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988), notice of copyright is now entirely optional. [3] Today, copyright status, rather than public domain status, is the default for all "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression." [4] As the Copyright Office puts it, "copyright is an incident of creative authorship not dependent on statutory formalities."[5]"

[tim atherton]

"Claiming copyright does not require an affirmative act" but being able to enforce it effectively does i.e. Registration

[Clay Turtle]

hmm . . . http://digimarc.com

[Clay Turtle]

hmm . . . http://www.digimarc.com