11 Mar Copyright Office Replaces Unpublished Collection Registration Option with Group Registration of Unpublished Works
Creators have until March 15, 2019 to register large collections of unregistered works.
The Copyright Office has announced that they are replacing the Unpublished Collection registration procedure with Group Registration of Unpublished Works (GRUW) for a number of classes of works: visual arts (except photographs), performing arts, literary (other than dramatic), and sound recordings. The Group Registration option permits copyright holders to register up to 10 works for a filing fee of $55. Visual artists who need to register large groups of images are urged to avail themselves of the Unpublished Collection registration option before March 15. Note that the group registration options for photographs (up to 750) remains unchanged.
To ensure your images qualify for the Unpublished Collection option, please be sure your collection meets the Copyright Office’s conditions:
- All works must be unpublished;
- The elements must be assembled in an orderly form;
- You must provide a single title for the entire collection;
- All the works included must have been created by a single author (or artist), or a single author must have contributed copyrightable material to all the works in the collection;
- The copyright claimant for all the elements and the collection as a whole must be the same.
If you are unfamiliar with the Unpublished Collection option, we recommend referring to page 5 of the Copyright Office’s circular on Multiple Works.