[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 51 (Friday, March 15, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9562-9563]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-04798]



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

 Copyright Office

[Docket No. 2019-3]


Public Draft of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices

AGENCY: U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

ACTION: U.S. Copyright Office releases public draft of an update to the 
Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Copyright Office is announcing the release of a 
public draft of an update to its administrative manual, the Compendium 
of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition. The update has been 
released in draft form to give the public an opportunity to review and 
provide comments on the revisions.

DATES: Comments must be made in writing and must be received in the 
U.S. Copyright Office no later than May 14, 2019. The Copyright Office 
will hold a webinar to review the proposed revisions on April 10, 2019, 
at 2:00 p.m. EST, which may be accessed from the web page referenced in 
the Addresses section below.

ADDRESSES: The public draft of the update to the Compendium of U.S. 
Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition is available on the Office's 
website at https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/draft.html. The webinar on 
the proposed revisions may be accessed from the same web page. For 
reasons of government efficiency, the Copyright Office is using the 
regulations.gov system for the submission and posting of public 
comments related to this draft. All comments are therefore to be 
submitted electronically through regulations.gov. Specific instructions 
for submitting comments are available on the Copyright Office website 
at https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/draft/comment-submission. If 
electronic submission of comments is not feasible due to lack of access 
to a computer and/or the internet, please contact the Office using the 
contact information below for special instructions.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert J. Kasunic, Associate Register 
and Director of Registration Policy and Practice or Regan A. Smith, 
General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights, by telephone at 
202-707-8040 or by email at [email protected] and 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office 
Practices, Third Edition (``Compendium'') is the administrative manual 
of the U.S. Copyright Office (the ``Office''). It ``explains many of 
the practices and procedures concerning the Office's mandate and 
statutory duties of the Copyright Office under title 17 of the United 
States Code.'' 37 CFR 201.2(b)(7). ``It is both a technical manual for 
the Copyright Office's staff, as well as a guidebook for authors, 
copyright licensees, practitioners, scholars, the courts, and members 
of the general public.'' Id.
    To ensure that this manual remains up to date, the Office is now 
releasing a draft revision of the Compendium. This is the first update 
since the Compendium was revised on September 29, 2017. 82 FR 45625 
(Sept. 29, 2017). This update is the result of a careful review of 
changes to the Office's practices and procedures, as well as recent 
changes in the law.
    In particular, the Compendium has been updated to reflect the 
Supreme Court's decision in Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands, 137 S. 
Ct. 1002 (2017). The draft provides new guidance for claims involving 
useful articles, as well as claims involving works of artistic 
craftsmanship, models, technical drawings, and other works of the 
visual arts.
    Additionally, the Compendium has been updated to reflect 
rulemakings that the Office has completed over the past seventeen 
months. It provides information concerning the new group registration 
options for unpublished works and unpublished photographs, and the 
recent changes to the rules governing the group registration options 
for published photographs and serials, newspaper, and newsletter 
issues.\1\ It reflects the new deposit requirements for literary 
monographs, printed music, and photographic databases, and the recent 
changes to the regulation on the Single Application.\2\ It also 
incorporates changes made by the recent technical amendments to the 
regulation governing copyright notice.\3\
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    \1\ See 83 FR 2542 (Jan. 18, 2018) (final rule on group 
photographs); 83 FR 4144 (Jan. 30, 2018), 84 FR 3698 (Feb. 13, 2019) 
(final rules on group newspapers); 83 FR 61546 (Nov. 30, 2018) 
(final rule on group serials and group newsletters); 84 FR 3693 
(Feb. 13, 2019) (final rule on unpublished works).
    \2\ See 83 FR 2371 (Jan 17, 2018) (final rule on literary 
monographs and printed music); 83 FR 2542 (Jan. 18, 2018) (final 
rule on group photographs); 83 FR 66627 (Dec. 27, 2018) (final rule 
on the Single Application).
    \3\ See 82 FR 42735 (Sept. 12, 2017).
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    The Office recently issued other proposals to amend its 
registration regulations, including regarding architectural works, and 
a new group registration option for short online literary works.\4\ The 
final version of the Compendium will include information about these 
amendments if the Office issues a final rule in these proceedings 
before this update goes into effect. The final version will also 
include updates to reflect the Supreme Court's recent decision in 
Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, 586 U.S. _ 
(Mar. 4, 2019).
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    \4\ See 83 FR 65612 (Dec. 21, 2018) (proposed rule on short 
online literary works); 83 FR 66182 (Dec. 26, 2018) (proposed rule 
on architectural works).
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    The Compendium has been updated to reflect certain technical 
upgrades that have been made to the electronic registration system. The 
Office has introduced a new and improved version of the Single 
Application, and finalized a regulatory update related to 
thisupgrade.\5\ It modified the authorship statements in the 
application for registering a single issue of a serial publication. It 
expanded the unique identifiers that may be provided in an application 
for copyright registration, such as ISMN, ISWC, and ISTC numbers. And 
it added a new feature that will allow certain file types to be 
uploaded to the electronic system, while blocking unacceptable file 
types.\6\
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    \5\ See 83 FR at 66627.
    \6\ Additional information concerning these technical upgrades 
is available on the Office's website at https://www.copyright.gov/eco/updates/index.html.
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    Finally, the Compendium has been updated to reflect a number of 
practice changes that have been implemented by the Office of 
Registration Policy & Practice. These changes are intended to increase 
the efficiency of the examination process, reduce pendency times, and 
enhance the quality of the registration record. Among other 
improvements, the revisions clarify how and when the Office will 
communicate with applicants, when it will attempt to correct 
deficiencies in the application, when it will register a claim with an 
annotation, and when it will refuse registration.\7\
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    \7\ See, e.g, Compendium public draft Chapter 600, sections 
603.2(C), 605.3(D), 605.4, 605.6(B), 605.6(C), 605.6(D), 606, 
610.6(B), 610.6(D)(4), 618.8(A)(8), 618.8(C)(3), 618.8(D)(2), 
618.8(F), 618.8(H), 618.8(I), 619.13(Q), 619.19(T), 620.10(D)(1)(c), 
621.9(E)(3), 621.9(F)(2), and 621.9(G).
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    The public draft for this update to the Compendium may be viewed on 
the Office's website at https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/draft.html. The 
Office has provided redlines that compare the public draft with the 
version of the Compendium that was released on September 29, 2017. In 
addition, the Office's website provides a complete list of the sections 
that will be

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added, amended, or removed in this update.
    The Office welcomes comments on the public draft. In the meantime, 
the update will remain in draft form pending the Office's review of any 
comments that are received.\8\
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    \8\ Documents and copyright claims recorded or registered on or 
after the date that the final version goes into effect will be 
governed by that version of the Compendium. Registrations and 
recordations issued by the Office before that date generally will be 
governed by the December 29, 2014 or September 29, 2017 versions of 
the Compendium (as the case may be), except where those versions 
have been superseded by an amendment to the regulations, intervening 
case law, or previously announced changes in practices.

    Dated: March 11, 2019.
Regan A. Smith,
General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights.
[FR Doc. 2019-04798 Filed 3-14-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 1410-30-P