Compendium: Chapter 100
U.S. Copyright Office and the
Copyright Law: General Background
101 The U.S. Copyright Office
101.1 History of the U.S. Copyright Office
In May 1790, when Congress enacted the first federal copyright law, the U.S. Copyright Office did not yet exist. Instead, authors and publishers recorded their claims with federal district courts and submitted copies of their works (in those days, book, maps, and charts) in support of their applications. These works, known as deposits, were stored in a variety of places, including in the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of the Interior. As of 1846, the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress shared them. This meant that records of copyright ownership were scattered among different government offices, and despite the federal scheme of protection, there was neither a consolidated tracking system nor centralized plan for preserving or using deposited works.
In 1870, Congress moved registration and deposit functions from the dispersed federal courts to the Library of Congress, which under Ainsworth Spofford advocated for and utilized the deposit copies as a foundation for the Library’s collection. This move helped transform the Library of Congress into a national institution. However, as copyright law evolved in both scope and complexity, the Nation and the Congress began grappling with a variety of policy issues that required leadership and expertise, including, for example, provisions that extended the public performance right to musical compositions and provided corresponding criminal penalties and injunctive relief, and amendments establishing reciprocity with foreign governments. Moreover, the volume of copyright-related work required greater focus and segregation from general Library functions. See Condition of the Library of Congress: Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Library, 54th Cong. (1897) (statement of Ainsworth Spofford) (“The fruit of [the Copyright Act] has been to enormously enrich the Library of Congress. On the other hand, it has at the same time enormously increased the difficulties of administration in such miserably narrow quarters.”), reprinted in S. Rep. No. 54-1573, at 28 (1897).
In 1897, Congress established and funded the U.S. Copyright Office as a separate department within the Library and created the position of Register of Copyrights to head it. Since that act, the Register has been appointed by, and works under the general direction of, the Librarian of Congress. This appointment authority, however, required that the Librarian thereafter be appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. Thus, at the dawn of the twentieth century, Congress had not only created a formal foundation for copyright administration, but also created the Register as the central position of related expertise within the U.S. government, who in turn developed an expert staff.
