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Copyright Law Summary
Registration of Claims to Copyright-Renewals
Docket No. RM 2007–8, 37 CFR Part 202, 72 FR 61801, 11/01/2007
Basic Information
The Copyright Office has issued on November 1, 2007 a final rule that revises its rules covering applications for registration of claims for renewal term of copyrights. These regulations were issued in light of fact that since January 1, 2006, all applications for renewal “have necessarily related to works which are subject to automatic renewal and, thus, are already in their renewal terms, making impossible any 28th-year registration of claims to the renewal term.”
Together with these changes was the development of a revised application form for the registration of renewal claims. The revised Form RE, as well as the revised Form RE/CON (to be submitted when there is a need to provide additional information) and Form RE/ADDENDUM (to be used if the work, or the collective work in which it was first published, was not registered during the original term), is available on the Copyright Office website www.copyright.gov.
The use of the new form seeks to facilitate the filing of applications by successors or assignees of the statutory renewal claimants listed at 17 U.S.C. 304(a)(1)(B) and (C). In the previous years, according to the Copyright Office, those successors or assignees of statutory claimants desiring to file an application to the renewal term, under 17 U.S.C. 304(a)(3)(A)(ii) had to seek advice from the Copyright Office because of the lack of appropriate application-form instructions for the successor or assignee situation. The Copyright Office has addressed this problem through this form revision. According to the Copyright Office, the key features of this regulatory revision are as follows:
Section 202.17(a) gives an explanation of the relevant statutory changes of 1992 revisions enacted by Congress regarding renewal rights. These 1992 revisions covered section 304(a) of Title 17 which made renewal of copyright automatic for works first published or registered from January 1, 1964 through December 31, 1977. Further, the 1992 amendments allowed the renewal right to vest without registration under certain conditions laid down in this congressional enactment. Section 202.17(a) also makes a distinction between pre-1964 works and post-1964 works with respect to renewal registration.
Section 202.17(b) has expanded the list of terms to include “statutory claimant,” “assignee and successor,” and “vest” as those terms pertain to the provisions of this revised regulation.
Section 202.17(c) construes the relevant time periods for both original term registration and renewal term registration and their optional character as they are laid down in the 1992 revision of section 304(a) of Title 17.
Section 202.17(d) expounds on the benefits of the 28th-year renewal registration under the 1992 registration under section 304(a) of Title 17. It states that such benefits have no longer been available since January 1, 2006 since the regime of 28th-year renewal registration has ended.
Section 202.17(e) lists down the parties entitled to the renewal right under 17 U.S.C. 304(a)(1)(B) and (C). This section similarly explains that in any derivative work which may be the subject of a renewal application, “a claim may be filed only in the new matter, revisions, or changes incorporated into that derivative work and which form the basis of the protected authorship for purposes of registration.” It also clarifies that renewal claims for a work “may, under certain circumstances, be filed under the posthumous work category and also under an individual claimant category but with the Copyright Office taking no position as to which of such claims may be adjudicated to be valid.” It adds that “two parties claiming renewal copyright who take different positions as to whether a particular work falls under the specific definition of ‘posthumous’ which Congress adopted from ‘Bartok’ may thus file separate and competing claims in such a situation.”
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