- Author Created/Other: Compilation of big band sound recordings.
- Online application for a literary work containing a selection of 10,000 statistics from the 1995–2000 major league baseball seasons, coordination of statistics by team, player, and position, and arrangement of statistics in charts, tables, and graphs.Author Created: Compilation.
Author Created/Other: Compilation of major league baseball statistics.
If the selection, coordination, and/or arrangement authorship is not clear from the deposit copy(ies), the registration specialist may communicate with the applicant, which will delay the examination of the claim. In such cases, the specialist may ask the applicant to provide a more specific authorship statement, such as:
- Selection of [specify the preexisting material or data that has been selected and specify the criteria used to select the material or data].
- Coordination of [specify the preexisting material or data that has been coordinated and specify the criteria used to classify, categorize, organize, or group the material data].
- Arrangement of [specify the preexisting material or data that has been arranged and specify the manner in which the material or data has been arranged].
As discussed above, a claim to copyright in a compilation does not cover any of the preexisting material or data that appears in that work. 17 U.S.C. § 103(b).
To register preexisting material or data together with a compilation (i) the material or data must be copyrightable, (ii) the compilation and the material or data must be created by the same author, and/or (iii) the copyright in the compilation and the material or data must be owned by the copyright claimant.
If the claimant owns the copyright in the preexisting material or data and if the applicant intends to register that material with an online application, the applicant should check one or more of the boxes that appear under the heading Author Created that accurately describe the preexisting material or data that will be submitted for registration. If none of these terms describe the material that the applicant intends to register, the applicant may provide a more specific description in the field marked Other or in the Note to Copyright Office field if additional space is required. In the case of a paper application the applicant should provide this information on the Nature of Authorship space. For guidance on completing this portion of the application, see Sections 618.4(A) and 618.4(B).
When an applicant registers a compilation together with the material contained therein, the registration covers the material that is copyrightable, as well as the selection, coordination, and/or arrangement of the material that appears in the compilation (regardless of whether it is copyrightable or not).
