Tag: Glossary Guide

An abbreviation for “effective date of registration.”

“A document shall be considered to ‘pertain to a copyright’ if it has a direct or indirect relationship to the existence, scope, duration, or identification of a copyright, or to the ownership, division, allocation, licensing, transfer, or exercise of rights under a copyright. That relationship may be past, present, future, or potential.” 37 C.F.R. §… Continue reading Document pertaining to copyright

“To ‘display’ a work means to show a copy of it, either directly or by means of a film, slide, television image, or any other device or process or, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to show individual images nonsequentially.” 17 U.S.C. § 101.

“A ‘derivative work’ is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications,… Continue reading Derivative work

A physical or electronic embodiment of a work. A deposit copy may be on or in various media (e.g., paper, videotape, online digital code, etc.) and may consist of multiple components. A deposit copy is submitted with an application for registration and must conform to the U.S. Copyright Office’s regulations and other requirements. For copyright… Continue reading Deposit copy

A standing account with the U.S. Copyright Office from which customers can draw funds to pay for services provided by the Office.

A legal term that is based on the Latin phrase “de minimis non curat lex,” which means “the law does not take notice of very small or trifling matters.” Creative authorship is deemed “de minimis” when a work does not contain the minimal degree of original, creative expression required to satisfy the test for originality… Continue reading De minimis

1) For the recordation of transfers of copyright ownership and other documents pertaining to copyright under Section 205 of Title 17 of the United States Code, “the date of recordation is the date when a proper document under [37 C.F.R. § 201.4(c)] and a proper fee under paragraph (d) of this section [37 C.F.R. §… Continue reading Date of recordation

For purposes of copyright registration, a database is defined as a compilation of digital information comprised of data, information, abstracts, images, maps, music, sound recordings, video, other digitized material, or references to a particular subject or subjects. In all cases, the content of a database must be arranged in a systematic manner and it must… Continue reading Database

“A work is ‘created’ when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time; where a work is prepared over a period of time, the portion of it that has been fixed at any particular time constitutes the work as of that time, and where the work has been prepared in different… Continue reading Created