1115.1 What Is a Contribution to a Periodical?
For purposes of this group registration option, a contribution to a periodical is defined as a separate and independent work that has been published in a periodical. Examples include an article published in a newspaper, a photograph published in a magazine, an illustration published in a journal, and other similar works.
A periodical is defined as a collective work that is issued or intended to be issued on an established schedule in successive issues that are intended to be continued indefinitely. In most cases, each issue will bear the same title, as well as numerical or chronological designations. Examples include newspapers, magazines, newsletters, journals, bulletins, annuals, the proceedings of societies, and other similar works.
1115.2 Eligibility Requirements
A group of contributions that has been published in a periodical may be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, provided that the following conditions have been met:
• All of the contributions in the group must be created by the same author.
• The author must be an individual.
• The contributions cannot be a work made for hire.
• Each contribution must be first published as a contribution to a periodical.
• Each contribution must be published within a twelve-month period [e.g., January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, February 1, 2011 through January 31, 2012, September 15, 2013 through September 14, 2014, etc.).
• If the contributions were published before March 1, 1989, each contribution must bear a separate copyright notice, the notice must contain the copyright owner's name (or an abbreviation by which the owner can be recognized or a generally known alternative designation for the owner), and the name that appears in each notice must be the same.
See 37 C.F.R. § 202.3(b)(8)(i)(A)-(D).
In addition, the copyright claimant for all the works in the group must be the same person or organization (as is the case for any copyright claim). See Chapter 600, Section 619.
Contributions that do not satisfy these requirements cannot be registered using this group registration option.
The regulation establishing this option became effective on January 1, 1978. Contributions published before that date are not eligible for group registration. See Part 202 — Registration of Claims to Copyright, Copyright Registrations, 43 Fed. Reg. 965, 966 (Jan. 5, 1978).
Chapter 1100 : 52
12/22/2014
