Category: copyright

Official records maintained by the U.S. Copyright Office relating to registrations and document recordations, which are made available to the public through the Office’s website, the Copyright Card Catalog, the Catalog of Copyright Entries, or the Records Research and Certification Section.

“To perform or display a work ‘publicly’ means to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of… Continue reading Public performance and public display

A work of authorship that is not protected by copyright is in the public domain. In the United States, a copyrighted work enters the public domain when its full copyright term has expired. In addition, works published in the United States without a copyright notice on or before March 1, 1989 may be in the… Continue reading Public domain

“‘Publication’ is the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication. A public performance or… Continue reading Publication

“A ‘pseudonymous work’ is a work on the copies or phonorecords of which the author is identified under a fictitious name.” 17 U.S.C. § 101.

A procedure that allows certain copyright owners to file an action for infringement and to seek statutory damages and attorney’s fees in cases where the work was infringed before the copyright owner completed the work and released it to the public. Preregistration is entirely optional. It is neither a prerequisite nor a precondition for copyright… Continue reading Preregistration

An abbreviation for the U.S. Copyright Office’s “Public Information Office.”

An abbreviation for the U.S. Copyright Office’s “Office of Public Information and Education.”

“‘Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works’ include two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of fine, graphic, and applied art, photographs, prints and art reproductions, maps, globes, charts, diagrams, models, and technical drawings, including architectural plans. Such works shall include works of artistic craftsmanship insofar as their form but not their mechanical or utilitarian aspects are concerned; the design… Continue reading Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works

“‘Phonorecords’ are material objects in which sounds, other than those accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work, are fixed by any method now known or later developed, and from which the sounds can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. The term ‘phonorecords’ includes… Continue reading Phonorecords