Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition
by another party, and the applicant completed the Author Created field but did not exclude the unclaimable material, the registration specialist may add an annotation to the registration record, such as “Regarding author information and limitation of claim: registration does not extend to previously registered, previously published, public domain, or separately owned material, or to facts.”
If it is unclear whether the author contributed text, artwork, photographs, or compilation authorship to the genealogy, the registration specialist will communicate with the applicant. If the genealogy does not contain a sufficient amount of original authorship to warrant registration, the specialist may refuse to register the claim.
Examples:
- Jane Springer created a genealogy titled The Springers of Springfield, Massachusetts. She gathered information from local courthouses, churches, cemeteries, and other sources; she assembled this information into a book; and wrote a brief introduction for the work. Jane may register the introduction by checking the box for “text” in the Author Created and New Material Included fields. She may register the compilation of information by checking the box marked “compilation” in the Author Created and New Material Included fields and by stating “selection and arrangement of family records” in the fields marked Other.
- Jennifer Smith submits an application to register a genealogy titled The Smith Family of Hamilton County, Virginia. Jennifer wrote the introduction for this work, the captions for each photograph, and a short biography for each member of the family. The genealogy also contains text and photographs created by other family members. In the Author Created field Jennifer checks the boxes for “text” and “compilation” and in the Other field she states “selection, coordination, and arrangement of family records.” Jennifer should have provided this exact same information on the Limitation of Claim screen in the New Material Included field. In addition, she should have checked the boxes for “text” and “photograph(s)” in the Material Excluded field because the genealogy contains text or photos created and owned by other parties. The registration specialist will register the claim with an annotation, such as: “Regarding author information and limitation of claim: registration does not extend to previously registered, previously published, public domain, or separately owned material, or to facts.”
- Thomas Henry submits an application to register a genealogy titled The Henrys in Spokane County. In the Author Created field he checks the boxes for “text” and “compilation.” In the Note to Copyright Office field, Thomas explains that he wrote the introduction for this work and he prepared a list of all the members of the Henry family who were born in Spokane County. The names are listed in chronological order based on the individual’s date of
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12/22/2014
