New Copyright Registration Option For Social Media, Blogs And Online Articles

Registering for copyright protection can be especially difficult and expensive for modern writers. Rather than the old school model of publishing a single book, many independent writers now make a living publishing short pieces (think social media or blogs) in frequent bursts. Preparing a new copyright registration form — and paying a fee — every time you add a new post just isn’t realistic, but neither is leaving your livelihood open to getting ripped off. As I previously wrote, there are work-arounds involving group registrations, but those can be clunky and may not provide the full protection you’re seeking.

Thankfully, the Copyright Office continues to fight its way into the 21st century. Beginning next month, you can use a brand new application — the GRTX, or “Group Registration for Short Online Literary Works” – specifically to register collections of short, online writings. Using the new application authors will be able to register up to 50 posts using just one form and for a single, $65 application fee.

WHAT TYPES OF WORKS QUALIFY?

SHORT WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Because the new registration is designed for short works (it’s in the title), each post must contain between 50 and 17,500 words. Basically, the Copyright Office is trying to find a balance between works that are too short to qualify for copyright protection and self-published novellas that should be registered using a traditional application.

In keeping with the intent of helping independent writers, you also can’t use this new registration if the posts are works for hire. That may be an issue if you’ve set up an LLC or corporation for your business, but most independent authors can identify themselves as the author and then assign the rights to the entity. This issue may be complicated, however and could have ramifications for your entity or taxes, so it’s probably worth discussing with an attorney first.

Each of the posts also must have the exact same author or joint authors. So, for example, you can register 50 posts written by John or 50 posts co-written by John, Paul and George, but you can’t combine posts co-written by John, Paul, George and Ringo with posts that any of them wrote solo.

THREE MONTHS OF POSTS

While you can register up to 50 posts in one application, they all must have been originally published in the same three calendar months. Note that’s calendar months, which run from the first day of the first month to the last day of the last month (i.e., January 1 through March 31). Also, this can be any three month period, so you can finally go back and register all of your old posts, too, in three-month groups.

ONLINE POSTS ONLY

The new registration form is specifically intended for online works, which until now have mostly fallen through the cracks of the previous group applications designed for traditional media such as newspapers or magazines. So in order to qualify for the new application, each of the posts must have been originally published online. It’s OK if you also distribute via hard copy or email, as long as each work was distributed through those methods after or simultaneously with the online publication. If you publish behind a paywall (subscription, individual purchase, etc.), that’s OK too.

If you read my prior post, you may recall that the Copyright Office has been somewhat cagey about whether online distribution counts as publication. Essentially, they let you decide if free online works such as blogs are “published.” That hasn’t changed, but for purposes of this registration you need to take the position that the works are published. That’s usually not going to be an issue, since labeling a work as “published” has several advantages anyway, and previously the most common reason to call works “unpublished” was to try to fit into one of the other group registration methods.

TEXT ONLY

One other potential gotcha – the GRTX registration only covers text, not photographs or illustrations. That will limit its usefulness for things like Instragram posts. However, you’re allowed to combine the GRTX registration with the existing group registration for photos. Say you have 50 posts with photos and text, and you want to register everything. You can do one GRTX registration to cover the text (note in the application that you’re excluding the photos), and a group registration to cover the photos (note that you’re excluding the text). In fact, because a group photo registration can cover up to 750 photos published within the same year, you may be able to combine a single photo registration with four GRTX registrations (though it’s better if you do your registrations at least every 3 months rather than wait a whole year).

WHAT CAN’T BE REGISTERED

Because of these limitations, the GRTX application won’t cover everything you may be posting online. For example, you won’t be able to use it for:

·      Podcasts

·      YouTube videos

·      Websites (the whole thing, not just posts or articles)

·      Emails or email newsletters

·      E-books longer than 17,500 words.

Emails may be particularly concerning if you primarily “post” via subscribed email blasts, but the Copyright Office has specifically banned emails from the GRTX application, so the best option is to “publish” on your website either first or simultaneously.

TIPS FOR PREPARING THE GRTX APPLICATION

The new application form itself isn’t out yet, but the Copyright Office already provided some instructions for completing the process. Because the process is still new, you should be very careful about following all instructions.

The GRTX application will only be available through electronic registration (no paper applications), so if you don’t have a login yet for the Copyright Office’s eCo system, you’ll need to get one (it’s free).

As part of the application, you’ll need to provide a list of the works, including each of their titles, publication dates and word counts, which you can get from a word processing program. Although you can prepare your own list ahead of time, the Copyright Office is including a fillable form as part of the application that will automatically check for common errors, like word counts that are too high or too low, or publication dates that span more than three months. If you’re at all unsure about the process, you probably want to use that fillable form, at least the first couple of times.

If you create your own list, make sure that it includes everything required, and that the filename of the list contains both the title of your group of works (which must match the title you put on the application) and the case number you’re assigned when you start the application. That will be automatically generated and listed at the top of the online application once you’ve started. If your title has a character that can’t be used in a filename, either leave it out or spell it out (i.e., $ becomes “dollarsign.”)

You’ll also need to provide an electronic copy of each of the works on the list, and there are some specific requirements for that as well. Each post needs to be its own digital file (PDF, preferably) with a filename matching its individual title on your list. This does not have to be a screenshot — in fact, it’s better if it isn’t. Since you’re only registering the text, the Copyright Office doesn’t care how the post looks. Just cut and paste the text of the post into a new PDF or Word document. You’ll then upload a single ZIP file that contains all of the works and the list – don’t upload each file individually.

As mentioned above, you can’t use the GRTX application if you write as a work for hire, but you can transfer your works to an entity after the fact. However, even if you do that, ignore the transfer for purposes of the application. The Copyright Office wants the copyright claimant (i.e., the owner) to be the same as the author (i.e., the person who actually wrote the post) when you fill out the form. So list the author(s) as the claimant(s) for now, and if need be, record a transfer of the copyright separately.

One final issue unique to blog posts – if your post includes comments, you have to note on the application that you are disclaiming the comments by others. You can include your own replies as part of the work, as long as you don’t exceed the word count.

NO MORE EXCUSES

If you’re trying to make a living as an online blogger or writer, your work is your business, and you should be protecting it. Using the GRTX application, even fairly prolific authors can now get all of the advantages of copyright registration with a single application filed once a quarter. You absolutely should consider making copyright registrations a part of your regular routine. And maybe register your old materials while you’re at it.

Copyright Registrations For Multiple Works

If you haven’t been keeping up with your copyright registrations – or if you’ve never registered your stuff at all – you may have a sizable back catalogue of content to protect. Or maybe you create new content all the time, and are trying to figure out how to register it without going broke on fees. Either way, a common question is whether you can register multiple works on the same registration form, to save time, money or both.

Unfortunately, the default answer from the Copyright Office is that every creative work should be separately registered. However, there are several exceptions that allow you to register a group of certain types of works on a single application, particularly if you’re a musician or a photographer.

THE KEY QUESTIONS

In order to figure out if you can take advantage of these exceptions, there are a few important questions you need to answer about the works you’d like to register:

• First, are any of the works published? The term “published” has a special meaning in copyright law, which essentially boils down to whether copies of the work were distributed to the public. Public display of a work doesn’t count, so showing your work at a gallery, for example, would not move it to the published category, unless you also sold or handed out copies. What about posting your work on the Internet, you ask? Good question, and the Copyright Office won’t really answer it for you. If you actually encourage people to download copies (for example, by including a way to download a PDF or a music file), then you’re probably publishing the work. But if you’re just posting a photograph, a blog post or a video on a website or social media, then the Copyright Office takes the position that you get to decide if you published it.

  The main advantage of calling a work “unpublished” is that several group registration options are only available for unpublished works. But there is one, specific situation where you may want to call it published, even if it means filing multiple applications – if you posted the work less than three months ago and someone is already copying it. By law, if you register a work within three months of publication, you still get attorneys’ fees and statutory damages for any infringement. But unpublished works only get those benefits for infringements that occur after registration (this is one reason why copyright attorneys encourage artists to do copyright registrations at least every three months).

• Second, if the works were published, when where they published? This matters because some registration options are only available for groups of works that were published together, or within a certain time period.

• Third, who is the author of each work? The “author” is the person who actually created it, i.e. who wrote it, painted it, or took the photo. If it was created as a work for hire, the author is the employer. The author matters because some group options are only available if all of the works have the same author.

• Fourth, who is the copyright “claimant” of each work – the current owner of the copyright? This will be the same as the author unless the author gave his or her rights to another party (such as a publisher or a hold-out company). Like the author, the claimant matters because most group applications only cover works with the same claimant.

Depending on your answers to these questions, you may have several options for registering a group of works at once (and paying only one fee):

OPTION #1 – GROUP REGISTRATION

For unpublished works, the easiest option is probably going to be the Copyright Office’s group registration application. Using this option, you can register a group of works on a single application, without many of the restrictions of the other options. Unfortunately, the Copyright Office now limits you to a maximum of ten works per application (except for photographs – that limit is 750). This may not offer a lot of solace if you need to register hundreds of works, and it’s of no help if you’ve been selling or distributing your items (again, the registration only covers unpublished works). In addition, all of the works must have the same author, same copyright owner, and must be in the same copyright class (literary works, visual art, sound recordings or performing arts).

There is an exception to this last requirement for musicians – you can register up to ten sound recordings and the musical compositions for those songs on the same application, as long as all ten songs are on the same album and the copyright owner for everything is the same. This won’t work if the compositions and sound recordings are owned by different parties, but if you’re self-releasing your work, this option lets you do a whole album in one fell swoop.

OPTION #2 – COLLECTIVE WORKS

If you have significantly more than 10 unpublished works, you may be able to combine some of them as a “collective work.” This type of registration applies to art that is combined in a new, creative way, such as an anthology, or a mix-tape. The registration is intended to protect the creativity in the selection and arrangement of the pieces, not the pieces themselves. However, the registration does cover the individual works if the individual and collective works all have the same owner, none of the individual works were ever published or registered, and the individual works are not already in the public domain.

Preparing a collective work registration is not as simple as the group registration, because the collective work itself has to be creative – if you just slap twenty unrelated pieces together in alphabetical order and call it good enough, the Copyright Office may reject the application. Collective work registrations also have another downside – the entire collection is considered a single work for statutory damages purposes. Statutory damages are essentially penalty awards that you can receive if you later win a copyright infringement lawsuit against a copycat. Normally, you’re entitled to a separate award for every work that was copied, so if someone copies twenty of your short stories, you get twenty statutory damages awards (at between $750 and $30,000 per). But if you combined those twenty short stories in a single collective work registration to save filing fees, you get just one award, not twenty.

OPTION #3 – SINGLE UNIT

This registration option is available if you physically distribute some of your pieces together, regardless of whether they are published or unpublished. For example, a box of mixed greeting cards, a matched jewelry set, or a CD that also has original album work and liner notes. Again, the copyright claimant for each individual component needs to be the same, and if the works were ever published, they must have been first published together, at the same time — if you combine new works with older works, the application may be rejected. Also, unlike collective works, this registration only applies to items that are physically distributed (no digital distribution) to the public.

OPTION #4 – PHOTOGRAPHS

The Copyright Office allows photographers to register larger groups of their works at once, though there is still a hard cap — 750 photos on a single application, published or unpublished (and you can’t mix published and unpublished photos on the same application). All of the photographs on the application need to have the same author and the same claimant, and the registration only covers photos, so you can’t include captions, artwork, etc. If the photos were published, you can only include ones that were published in the same calendar year on the same application.

OPTION #5 – SERIALS, NEWSPAPERS, NEWSLETTERS AND PERIODICAL

Finally, the Copyright Office still provides registration options for several more traditional “group” works, such as newspapers and magazines. These probably won’t be useful to the average small business or individual artist, but if you’re putting out one of these forms of media and want to make sure your work is protected, you still can.

BOTTOM LINE - HAVE A PLAN FOR REGISTERING YOUR WORKS, EVEN IF YOU WAIT TO ACTUALLY REGISTER THEM

As you can see, once you’ve started to sell your works to the public, your options for registering them become more limited. So it’s a good idea to make a plan for how you will register the works, even if you decide you’re going to wait to actually pull the trigger on the registrations for now. Registering the works before they’re published gives you the most options, but it’s certainly not necessary in every case, and even something as small as releasing items in bunches on the same date can give you more flexibility and potentially save you significant money in registration fees in the long term.