Stan, you may be correct in your belief that the US Copyright Office will
accept CDs as a deposit when registering photographs. All I can say is that
I was told otherwise when I talked to them via telephone. I just completed a
search of the Copyright Offices web site and couldn't find the answer there.
I did find a comment that "Circular 96, Sections 202.19, 202.20, and 202.21
... contains the deposit regulations of the Copyright Office." So I have
written for a copy and will report back here if it answers the question. I'm
suspicious of the answer I was give by the Copyright office because I've read
that ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) was instrumental in
getting them to accept a video tape of photographs and slides as a deposit,
but the woman I talked to wasn't aware of that either; she insisted on
hardcopies.
Sorry for this being off-topic, but it is an important issue and I'll try to
end any long-thread speculation by getting an answer directly from the
Copyright Office. If the Copyright Office will accept CDs, many of us on
this list would find if of great benefit since we already scan many of our
photos and writing a CD is easier and cheaper than making contact sheets to
send as a deposit. I know, because I spent an entire day in the darkroom
doing just that just a few months ago even though all images had previously
been scanned.
In a message dated 7/22/2001 3:51:35 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
stan@smcqueen.com writes:
>Stan, since when does the copyright office accept CDs for the required
>deposit? I was specifically told when I called them (US Copyright Office)
>about six months ago that they wouldn't accept CDs. They are studying the
>issue of digital registration of copyrights (with a particular concern for
>works of art "born digital"), but at the present time they still demand
>hardcopy photos (or a video tape of the photos). Maybe someday we'll be
able
>to make our copyright application entirely via the internet, complete with
>digital signature, credit card payment, and digital deposits (such as
scanned
>film or photos "born digital"). But right now, we still have to do it the
>old fashioned way. They probably threw your CDs away. Of course, they
throw
>just about all deposits away after two years, so what difference does it
>make? Anyway, this is not the place for a long thread on this topic but I
>wanted to warn you that you may not have a legal copyright registration.
By
>the way, all US photographers who register copyrights should checkout
>http://www.loc.gov/copyright/ for the latest forms, instructions, etc.
I can only hope your source is wrong about this. Here is the information I
have been basing my registrations on (snippet from message posted by Fred
Ward on the EditorialPhoto list):
I spent the day yesterday in the copyright section of the Library of
Congress in Washington. I was looking for some infringements where
others may have copyrighted my work. While there I sat with two
copyright specialists and asked a number of questions that relate to
photographers and registrations.
1. My latest registration technique is to place images onto writable
CDs. Here are the rules related to registering multiple images or
collections of pictures:
Photographs on CDs are fine if all the included works have NOT been
published. You cannot register published pictures on a CD. This is
because the LofC requires a physical copy or photocopy of the published
material to accompany your registration form;
Image size and resolution are not important. The specialists said to
make them large enough to clearly be seen and recognized;
No written description is needed on the CD or on the images inside or on
the registration document. You can just put "unpublished pictures" if
you like.
