Inconsistent and adverse renewal claim. A renewal claim based on author facts that are not supported by the facts in the original registration record, and which is also adverse to a renewal claim in process or already on the record.
Identifying material. For renewal registration purposes, deposit material that is not the complete work as first published, or an exact, complete photocopy of that edition, or a reprint edition or a reissue or rerelease of the work as first published. Identifying material includes a revised edition, or a damaged or incomplete copy that contains a preponderate amount of the material claimed, or it may consist of specific portions from the work as first published. Identifying material is generally accompanied by written verifications as required by the U. S. Copyright Office. When the deposit material consists solely of identifying material, renewal registration will be considered only in exceptional circumstances and may be made under a grant of special relief or the rule of doubt, unless the work is a contribution or a separate work or element of authorship first published in a larger work.
Individual author. For renewal registration purposes, the individual who personally wrote or created renewable matter in the work. Does not include employers for hire or any non-personal entity identified as an author in an original registration record; such entities are referred to as proprietary authors.
Joint work. "A 'joint work' is a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole." 17 U.S.C. § 101. The U.S. Copyright Office applies the definition of "joint work" in the Copyright Act of 1976 to renewal claims because the term was not defined in the Copyright Act of 1909 and case law prior to 1978 did not provide clear guidance. While the Fifth Circuit ruled in 1934 that the renewal claim in the name of the widow of the author of the preexisting text did not extend to the illustrations added fifteen years later because the illustrations were revisions to a preexisting work that were of a separate and distinct nature by another person, 35 the Second Circuit reached the opposite conclusion in 1946 36 and 19 5 5, 37 finding that the mere fusion of effort could result in a joint work and that a preconceived common design or active collaboration among the authors was no longer required. For renewal registration purposes, a work is
35 Harris v. Coca-Cola Co., 73 F.2d 370 (5th Cir. 1934).
36 Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. v. Jerry Vogel Music Co., Inc., 161 F.2d 406 (2d Cir. 1946).
37 Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. v. Jerry Vogel Music Co., Inc., 221 F.2d 569 (2d Cir. 1955).
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