Page:Compendium of US Copyright Office Practices (1973).pdf/98

2.11.3

Registration requirements(cont'd)

I.

Copyrightable Subject-matter(cont'd)

b.

The subject of the photograph(cont'd)

4.

The subject as basis of claim(cont'd)

(c)

Old photographs(cont'd)

1.

Authorship Copyright depends upon authorship. Unless a person is the author of a photo­ graph, or holds rights which derive from the author, he is not entitled to claim copyright into A sharp distinction must be drawn between title to, or possession of, the physical copy of a photograph, and the copyright in the work.

(d)

Mechanical reproduction. Although the production of a photograph necessarily involves a mechanical process, a photograph produced solely by the operation of a mechan­ical process lacks the requisite element of creative composition and, consequently, is not subject to registration in Class J. The photo­graphic reproduction of pictorial, graphic, or textual material for the purpose of providing regular copies of such material, rather than for the sake of producing "photographs" as such, indicates that registration in Class J is not authorized, as for example, in the case of a photostatic reproduction of a real property deed.

(e)

New matter, New photographic material appearing in revised versions of photo­graphs may support registration in Class J, provided the new matter is original and copyrightable in itself.

[1973]