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Us Copyrights: registering images as published the folowing day?


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Hello, some weeks ago I opened a topic about Copyright registration in the US with several questions, but now I would like to focus in particular in one of them, since that's what is still keeping me from starting the work.

 

I can register images as unpublished within three months of publication. But what if I want to register them as published within those three months, is it possible?

In example, today I upload them online to make them published, and tomorrow I do the registration, can I register them as published, or should I wait for 3 months to pass?

I would like to use this trick to publish all my unpublished photos at once and pay just one group registration fee for several thousands photos.

 

The original topic with more questions can be found here

http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/5290-registering-us-copyrights-with-a-low-cost-budget-group-registration-published-unpublished-year-one-time/#entry89866

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I'm not speaking specifically in this case about images that were licensed. I'm referring to any image considered as published, pretty much anything that becomes publicly available online without a password: photos published on blogs, social networks, etc.
While I know that the best practice is to register the photos max every 3 months, this doesn't work for somebody that has never done registration before, since I first need to regularize all my past work spending as little as possible.

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We cover a lot of news events, so as soon as the images are uploaded to our agencies or our primary online news client, usually the same day of the event, they are considered "published." I believe it would be the same if all we'd done was post them on our blog.

 

However, I believe the US copyright office still has a limit of 750 images per submission of published works in a single calendar year at $55 per submission. So theoretically, you could register 2,250 images from, say, 2013, in three separate submissions for $165, one right after the other.

 

I've gotten some helpful advice by phone from the copyright hotline, so it wouldn't hurt to call as the info online can often be confusing.

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Just learned (250) limit is first batch only.

 

From where you have this information?

I've read a lot in the last months, and I've never found any limit for the first registration.

Could you link to the source so that I can have a look? Thank you

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We cover a lot of news events, so as soon as the images are uploaded to our agencies or our primary online news client, usually the same day of the event, they are considered "published." I believe it would be the same if all we'd done was post them on our blog.

 

However, I believe the US copyright office still has a limit of 750 images per submission of published works in a single calendar year at $55 per submission. So theoretically, you could register 2,250 images from, say, 2013, in three separate submissions for $165, one right after the other.

 

I've gotten some helpful advice by phone from the copyright hotline, so it wouldn't hurt to call as the info online can often be confusing.

DO you have  a contact of the COpyright hotline? It would be helpful to call them.

 

Is it maybe this?

(202) 287-8700

http://www.copyright.gov/history/mls/ML-255.pdf

 

For the 750 images limit, as far as I know it's only if you use the "continuation form", but not if you attach a name list.

 

Here an official position on that. It's from 2005, so I don't know if it might have changed in the meanwhile

http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr15587.html

 

The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is amending its final regulations concerning group registration of published photographs to limit to 750 the number of photographs that may be identified on continuation sheets submitted with a single application form and filing fee. The regulation continues to place no limit on the number of photographs that may be included in a single group registration when the applicant elects not to use continuation sheets and instead identifies the date of publication for each photograph on the deposited image and the applicant meets the other

regulatory requirements for group registration of published photographs. The regulation also clarifies that the date of publication for each photograph may be identified in a text file on the CD-ROM or DVD that contains the photographic images or on a list that accompanies the deposit and provides the publication date for each image.

If you upload them online with a file including each name and published date in the same calendar year, then it should be no limit to my understanding

 

And also this

 

copyright.gov/forms/formgr_pph_con.pdf

 

Referring to published images:

 

 

The advantage of group registration:
Any number of photographs pub-
lished within a calendar year may be registered “on the basis of a single de-
posit, application, and registration fee.”
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According to the official compendium 3rd revision, 1116.6(A)(4)

 

http://www.copyright.gov/comp3/docs/compendium.pdf

 

 

Alternative
ly, the applicant
may provide a range of publication dates (
e.g.
, February 16,
2010 through February 24, 2010) instead of providing a specific date of publication for
each photograph, provided that all the photographs were published within three
months before the date that
the U.S. Copyright Office received the application,
deposit
copies
, and
filing fee
. The range of dates should be provided in space 3(b
) of the
application.

Interpreting this passage, since it states the possibility of registering published images before 3 months passed (in this case it is actually given as a condition), I suppose the answer to my question is yes, I can register my photos as published already the day after I upload them online.
Since I'm not mother tongue, if anybody has a different interpretation, please let me know.

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