Tag: Glossary Guide

The Register of Copyrights is the Director of the U.S. Copyright Office. By statute, the Register works under the general direction of the Librarian of Congress and carries out a variety of legal and policy functions that are enumerated throughout Title 17.

Members of the U.S. Copyright Office’s Recordation Section who are responsible for recording documents.

Recordation is the official filing in the public records of the U.S. Copyright Office of a document having to do with copyright. The purpose of recordation is to make a public record of the facts in the document.

An abbreviation for the U.S. Copyright Office’s “Receipt Analysis and Control Division.”

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