the nation in which the employer entity is incorporated or is domiciled (rather than the employee’s country of citizenship or domicile). If the work was specially ordered or commissioned as a work made for hire, the applicant should provide citizenship or domicile information for the party that ordered or commissioned the work (rather than the individual who actually created the work).
For questions regarding nationality of a legal entity, see Chapter 2000, Section 2005.5. For a definition and discussion of works made for hire, see Chapter 500, Section 506.
617.4 Determining the Author’s Citizenship or Domicile for Anonymous and Pseudonymous Works
The applicant should provide the author’s citizenship or domicile, even if the author’s real name is not provided in the application and does not appear on copies or phonorecords of the work.
If the applicant fails to provide this information in an online application, the application will not be accepted by the electronic registration system. If the applicant fails to provide this information on a paper application, the application will be questioned if there is no other basis for establishing that the work is eligible for copyright protection under U.S. copyright law.
For a discussion of anonymous and pseudonymous works, see Sections 615.1 and 615.2.
617.5 Determining the Author’s Citizenship or Domicile for Compilations and Derivative Works
If the work described in the application is a derivative work, the applicant should provide the citizenship and/or domicile of the author or authors who created the new material and/or revised material that appears in the derivative work. If the work described in the application is a compilation, the applicant should list the citizenship and/or domicile of the author or authors who selected, coordinated, and/or arranged the preexisting material or data that appears in the compilation.
As a general rule, the applicant need not provide citizenship or domicile information for the author or authors who created any preexisting material or data that may appear in a derivative work or a compilation.
For a general discussion of derivative works and compilations, see Chapter 500, Sections 507 and 508.
617.6 Completing the Application: Citizenship and Domicile
When completing the Authors screen in the online application the applicant should identify the nation of citizenship and domicile for each author named in the application. Specifically, the applicant should select one of the countries listed in the drop down menu under the headings Citizenship and Domicile. If the applicant fails to complete this portion of the application, the application will not be accepted by the electronic registration system.
