Re: Registration and remedies (was: Question regarding image copyright)

Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> writes:
>
> My take is that statutory damages and attorneys fees are available for
> works that were attempted to be registered, but whose registration was
> wrongly rejected by the Copyright Office.

 As usual, Terry's statutory analysis seems to be clearly correct. Instinctively I too thought that was the way things should go, but I only reviewed section 411 and concluded that the "bounce" provisions applied only to bringing the lawsuit. I apologize to the membership for the error in overlooking section 410.

 As a result, it would seem that if digitizers are actually submitting digitized copies of public domain pictures to the CO for registration, the only issue for people in the position of Jessica Litman's colleague is whether the courts will ever decide once and for all that they are, or are not, copyright protected. Until then, such people take a serious risk, at least theoretically, if they make copies of the digitized images available. Moreover, if the CO is actually bouncing the registrations, there may be no way of finding out before the lawsuit starts whether they were ever submitted and therefore whether one is potentially liable for statutory damages and attorneys fees.

Dennis S. Karjala
Professor of Law
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona 85287
602-965-4010
602-965-2427 (fax)
dennis.karjala[_at_]asu.edu
Visit the "Opposing Copyright Extension" web page at <http://www.public.asu.edu/~dkarjala> Received on Wed May 14 1997 - 00:33:21 GMT