Effect of "Rule of Doubt"?

From: Terry Carroll <carrollt[_at_]netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 1995 19:07:45 -0700 (PDT)

Is anyone aware of any cases in which a court has been called upon to determine the evidentiary weight or other value accorded to a copyright registration made under the Copyright Office's "rule of doubt"? I'm specifically thinking of a copyright in computer program whose registration is made on the basis of an object code deposit under 37 C.F.R. 202.20(c)(2)(vii)(B)). The regulation states only:

     Where registration of a program containing trade secrets 
     is made on the basis of an object code deposit the Copyright
     Office will make registration under its rule of doubt and
     warn that no determination has been made concerning the 
     existence of copyrightable authorship. 
 

I believe that this is a 1991 change to the regulations, and is the only time that the "rule of doubt," which had previously been an Office administrative practice, is referred to in a regulation.

--
Terry Carroll       |            Go Cleveland Indians:
Santa Clara, CA     |      A.L. Central Division Champions &
carrollt[_at_]netcom.com |      Best Finishing Record in 1995 MLB
carroll[_at_]aimnet.com  |                   100-44
Received on Tue Oct 03 1995 - 02:10:45 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:18 GMT