It was this important difference in consequences as between a “composite work” and a “work made for hire” which led the Attorney General to conclude that the two categories must be mutually exclusive.
The contentions of the parties
Plaintiffs’ argument may be summarized as follows:
1. Plaintiffs have complied with every statutory requirement for renewal registration; they are the proprietors of the copyrights involved; they submitted applications for renewal which were complete and accurate in all respects and were accompanied by the statutory fee.
2. The works in question are concededly periodicals; the first category of the first proviso includes all periodicals, whether or not they are composite works. Moreover, they are composite works, since each includes the contributions of several authors. They are also works made for hire by employees of plaintiffs’ predecessors.
3. There is no inconsistency in denominating the works in question as both “composite works” and “works made for hire.” To designate them as only one or the other would be a misleading half truth.
4. The Copyright Office has no authority to rule on the validity of a claim to copyright or to renewal thereof. It merely registers the claim as a ministerial act. Even if the two categories named were mutually exclusive and inconsistent, the Register of Copyrights has no power to deny registration of the claim. Bouve v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 74 U.S.App.D.C. 271, 122 F.2d 51 (1941).
5. The mere fact that the Copyright Office may maintain separate indices for “composite works” and for “works made for hire” does not justify the requirement of two statutory fees. To facilitate such dual indexing, plaintiffs are willing to supply two applications, one designating the publication as a “composite work” and the other as a “work made for hire,” provided only a single fee is paid for registering the two claims on a single work.
Defendants’ arguments may be summarized as follows:
1. 17 U.S.C. § 207 expressly authorizes the Register of Copyrights to establish rules governing applications for copyright registration and renewal and to determine whether applications are entitled to registration.
2. Plaintiffs’ designations of the publications as “composite works” and as “works made for hire” are contradictory, because, under 17 U.S.C. § 26, a “work made for hire” has but one “author”—the employer—who alone is entitled to renewal, while a composite work is made up of the distinguishable contributions of several authors, each of whom has the right of renewal as to his contribution. The significance of the difference between the two is emphasized in the present ease by the fact that three of the contributors to the publications in question have filed applications for registration of their claim to renewal of the copyright in their respective contributions.
3. The refusal of the Copyright Office to register inconsistent claims is not arbitrary and capricious, but a proper exercise of the responsibility of the Office because, under 17 U.S.C. §§ 209, 210, a registration constitutes prima facie evidence of validity and of the facts recited. If the Office registers a claim which classifies a publication in the wrong category, it may discourage or prejudice the assertion of renewal rights by a party rightfully entitled thereto.
The real issue
The real dispute, of course, involves nothing more or less than whether plaintiffs must pay one $4.00 fee or two.
Plaintiffs’ insistence that they cannot tell a half truth seems less than fully sincere in view of their repeatedly expressed willingness to tell two “half truths,” one in each of two separate applications, provided they pay only one fee.
On the other hand, defendants’ protestation that the acceptance of an application containing inconsistent assertions would compromise the integrity of the registration
