with the U.S. Copyright Office, or it may be separately owned by another copyright owner.
715.2 Copyrightable Authorship in Genealogies
Although facts are not copyrightable, a genealogy may be registered as a literary work if it contains a sufficient amount of literary expression. The application should be limited to the text, artwork, and/or photographs that the author contributed to the work (as applicable), the applicant should provide the name of the author who created that material, and the applicant should provide the name of the claimant who owns the copyright in that material. The Literary Division may accept a claim in “text” if the work contains a sufficient amount of written expression, and may accept a claim in “artwork” and/or “photograph(s)” if the work contains a sufficient amount of pictorial or graphic expression. Likewise, the Literary Division may accept a claim in “compilation” if the author exercised a sufficient amount of creativity in selecting, coordinating, and/or arranging the information that appears in the genealogy.
715.3 Application Tips for Genealogies
Submitting an online application is the preferred way to register a genealogy. When completing the application, the applicant should provide the name of the author who created the genealogy on the Author screen. In the field marked Author Created, the applicant should check one or more of the boxes that accurately describe the material that the author created.
Examples:
- The applicant should check the box marked “text” if the author wrote the captions, footnotes, comments, biographies, or other textual expression that appears in the genealogy.
- If the author created any of the artwork or took any of the photographs that appear in the genealogy, the applicant should check the boxes marked “artwork” or “photograph(s),” as applicable.
- If the author compiled the names, dates, records, photographs, or other material that appears in the genealogy, the applicant should check the box marked “compilation.” In the field marked Other, the applicant should provide a brief statement specifying whether the author selected, coordinated, and/or arranged that material. For example, the Literary Division will accept a brief statement, such as: “selection, coordination, and arrangement of family photographs, newspaper clippings, census records, and other source material,” “selection and arrangement of information obtained from family records, court records, church records, and gravestones,” “selection of family photos, coordination of family names and relationships, and arrangement of facts and historical information,” or the like.
