I have a question about copyright registrations and whether I should register my material as a collection or individually.
Background - For several years I wrote music reviews for a magazine, about 250 in all. I sold only one-time print rights, which they acknowledge, but I never registered the pieces. Last month I found they had resold/redistributed my content to 10 other pu blications, plus resold copies of my reviews off their own web site. I've sent a cease and desist, plus pay up letter, but both have been ignored. Filing a case is inevitable.
I know I will have to register before I can take it to court. But at $30 a piece, and over 250 pieces, that gets expensive. I want to make sure I do the right thing because, at least on their site, DMCA violations are involved where they placed their copy right on my pieces.
My question is - can I register each year (about 6 years of 40 reviews per year) as a collection/collective, and still be able to sue for each individual piece? Or do I have to register each individual piece? Have there been any cases that brought up this issue? Even the attorney I approached was unsure about which direction to take. Thanks for any info someone might have on this issue.
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