Archive 2014 · Need Help: How to submit groups of PUBLISHED photos to copyright.gov?

Xyclopx
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Need Help: How to submit groups of PUBLISHED photos to copyright.gov?

Hi,

I've been discussing this at another board but I'm not getting the response I need, so I was hoping maybe some of you pros here know what I am supposed to do. This was the previous post:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1404266

I want to submit a group of photos to copyright.gov that have already been published. I know that they do for sure allow groups of published photos to be submitted under one single $55 charge if they all were published in the same year. However, the way the website works seems to contradict this. Since copyrights can be invalidated easily in court, I want to make sure I get this exactly correct.

The key things to know about the website is:

1. First start an application for a Visual Arts group.
2. You can enter many "titles".
3. You can ONLY enter one single date as the publishing date, no matter how many "titles" you enter. <--- important
4. Then you upload a "deposit". They mention in the help section this can only be 1 of 4 types including .pdf and .mp3 and some others. I am going to assume this is very outdated because Googling this subject pulls up many tutorials suggesting otherwise.

So... my question: if I have say 1000 photos from 10 different publishing dates, how do I properly submit all these photos?

Do I enter the 10 different publishing dates as different "titles" then enter the earliest publication date as THE Publication Date?

Please help! I am nearing some critical dates and I've called the copyright office many times, and they don't really know. One rep suggested I apply for this:

http://copyright.gov/fls/sl39.pdf

But I called that number 20 times and it either goes straight to voice mail or no one picks up. I left my info and have not received a call back yet.

Much appreciated!

Oct 30, 2014 at 04:42 PM

cwebster
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Need Help: How to submit groups of PUBLISHED photos to copyright.gov?

If you have 1000 photos from 10 publishing dates, you need to submit 10 Groups. One for each publishing date.

Oct 31, 2014 at 01:56 PM

Xyclopx
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Need Help: How to submit groups of PUBLISHED photos to copyright.gov?

cwebster wrote:
If you have 1000 photos from 10 publishing dates, you need to submit 10 Groups. One for each publishing date.

I am fairly certain this is not true. Many sources make it very clear that you are allowed to submit different publications of photos of different dates as long as they fall within the same year all under one single $55 fee.

Plus when i said 10 I just threw out a number. I really mean 100s. That would be crazy. It would mean $6000 of fees.

I know for sure the way to do this by paper is via the "continuation form" of which you may attach 50. However online I wonder if the equivalent is the list of "titles"?

Oct 31, 2014 at 02:00 PM

Xyclopx
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Need Help: How to submit groups of PUBLISHED photos to copyright.gov?

For those interested, I have finally been given direction by the Library of Congress. As I stated, you can upload groups of published photos as long as they were published all in the same calendar year, all for one single $55 fee.

What you need to do: Contact the Visual Arts department of the copyright office to sign up for the "ePilot program":

http://copyright.gov/fls/sl39.pdf

They are going to assign an officer to be your POC. After that, you use the website and enter each individual photo as another "title" with a date. (Yes, if you have 250 photos, you will need 251 titles--1 for the group, and 250 for the individual pictures.) The overall publish date that you state in the singular field would be the earliest date. Then the big difference: that POC has already contacted me and told me not to upload when stated. I must then send him the case #, and I guess he will do stuff on his end to get ready. Then I guess at that point he gives me the go ahead to upload.

Hope this helps.

(FYI--Absolutely zero people told me this was the way to do it on both this forum and the other. So,... I am guessing many people did this wrong. Be careful--many horror stories out there of copyright registrations being invalidated in court when the lawsuit actually does come around.)

Nov 04, 2014 at 12:37 PM


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