with a single application and filing fee if the entire series is expected to be published as a single unit on the same day. If each novel is expected to be published on a different date, a separate application and filing fee would be required for each work.
• Scintillating Studio is developing a pilot for a new television
program and the network has ordered twelve additional episodes. The applicant should submit a separate application for the pilot and each additional episode in the series, because each episode will be released on a different date.
The applicant should provide the current title of the work in the box that appears on the Title screen. The U.S. Copyright Office will accept a "working title," even if it is not expected to be the title of the work when it is distributed to the public. See Preregistration of Certain Unpublished Copyright Claims, 70 Fed. Reg. 61,905, 61,906 (Oct. 27, 2005).
If the work is a musical composition or sound recording that will be published in an album, the applicant should provide the title of the album on the Title screen. The titles of the individual songs and/or tracks (if they are known) should be provided on the Additional Title (s) screen.
The applicant should provide the full name of the author or authors of the work on the Authors screen. For the purposes of preregistration, the author is the person or organization who is expected to be named as the author when (and if) the applicant submits an application to register the work.
As a general rule, the author is the person (or persons) who actually created the material covered by the copyright claim. See Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989) ("[T]he author is the party who actually creates the work, that is, the person who translates an idea into a fixed, tangible expression entitled to copyright protection."). However, there is an exception to this rule. If the work described in the application for preregistration is a work made for hire, the person who created that work is not necessarily the author. Instead, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author if:
• The work was created by an employee acting within the scope of his or her employment, or
• The work was specially ordered or commissioned as a work made for hire and fits within one of the nine categories of works listed in the statutory definition.
17 U.S.C.§ 101 (definition of "work made for hire"). For a general discussion of Works Made for Hire, see Chapter 500, Section 506.
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Title
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Chapter 1600 : 12
12/22/2014
