Re: U.S. copyright registration process

A major reason the registration process has remained is because it is the number one source of new materials for the Library of Congress. Prior to the 1909 act, copyrights were registered with the local courthouse. When engineering the 1909 Act, the head of the LOC ( and I cannot remember his name at the moment) came up with the idea that a great source of new materials for the LOC would be to consolidate all registration in a new "office" at the LOC and to require that in order to register, "deposit" copies must be send in with the registration. The LOC would keep those copies and get new materials. Well, it worked. Hence the copyright office is a part of the Library of Congress (a legislative branch agency so they are governed by rules affecting Congress not the executive branch) and the LOC is one of the largest libraries in the world. I am sure that registration was maintained in order to keep the flow of materials into the LOC's stacks.

BTW, if you ever get a chance to go to the LOC, they keep one or two copies of most things, but they also sell off the extras. They have rooms full of books for sale in the basement.

Rob Jones

At 04:54 PM 8/28/00 -0700, you wrote:
>fwilf[_at_]morganlewis.com wrote:
>
> >Thus, I do agree that this puts foreign rights holders at a significant
> >disadvantage in that the two of the best remedies available to copyright
> >owners under the U.S. Copyright Act are unlikely to be available to
> >foreign rights holders, because they are unlikely to have filed copyright
> >applications in the United States.
> >
> >As I noted in my earlier message, I personally believe as a matter of policy
> >that no one should be denied the enforcement of any infringement rights
> >or remedies otherwise available because the rights holder did not file a
> >copyright registration.
>
>I'm curious to know the *real* reason (and the history behind it) of why the
>copyright registration requirement is still on the books in order for a
>copyright owner to enjoy the full legal remedies for copyright infringement.
>Did the Library of Congress/Copyright Office lobby Congress to maintain the
>registration system? Does the registration system confer any advantages to
>the Government and to the Public Domain?
>
>Jon Noring
Received on Thu Aug 31 2000 - 14:19:31 GMT