315 Obscenity
Pornographic works may be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, provided that they contain a sufficient amount of original authorship.
As a general rule, a registration specialist will not examine a work or authorship to determine whether it contains material that might be considered obscene. See Mitchell Brothers Film Group v. Cinema Adult Theater, 604 F.2d 852, 858 (5th Cir. 1979) (concluding that the 1909 Act protects “all creative works, obscene or non-obscene, that otherwise meet the requirements of the [statute]” and that there is “no explicit or implicit bar to the copyrighting of obscene materials”). However, if a work contains material that appears to fall within the scope of the Child Protection Act, the specialist will refer the work to the Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Registration Policy and Practice. If the Associate Register determines that the work clearly falls within the scope of Title 18, sections 2251–2255, and if the Register of Copyrights concurs, the application, deposit copy(ies), and any other materials that have been submitted to the Office will be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice. See Operating Guidelines Regarding the Child Protection Act; Public Availability, 52 Fed. Reg. 10,177 (Mar. 30, 1987).
316 Classified Material
If the U.S. Copyright Office is aware that the deposit copy(ies) contain information that has been classified by the U.S. government, the registration specialist will refer the work to the Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Registration Policy and Practice. The material should be held or disposed of in accordance with instructions from the Associate Register, and the examination or other processing of the material by the Office should be suspended until the matter has been resolved.
