Notice to Libraries and Archives of Normal Commercial Exploitation or Availability at Reasonable Price

The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (“the Act”), (1998) amended the copyright law to extend for an additional 20 years the term of copyright protection in the United States. The Act added a limited new exemption for certain libraries and archives in section 108 of the copyright law. Under new section 108(h), during the last 20 years of any term of copyright protection of a published work, a library or archives may—for purposes of preservation, scholarship, or research—reproduce, distribute, display, or perform in facsimile or digital form a copy or phonorecord of the work or portions of the work. The library or archives may take advantage of this exemption only if it has first determined, on the basis of a reasonable investigation, that:

1. the work is not subject to normal commercial exploitation; and

2. a copy or phonorecord of the work cannot be obtained at a reasonable price. Further, the library or archives may not take advantage of the new exemption if the copyright owner or its agent has provided notice either

1. that the work is subject to normal commercial exploitation; or

2. that a copy or phonorecord of the work can be obtained at a reasonable price. Such notices are to be filed with the Copyright Office.

A complete explanation of the requirements for the Notices of Normal Commercial Exploitation or Availability at Reasonable Price may be found in the Code of Federal Regulations 37 CFR 201.39. Copyright owners desiring to file notices must use the required format prepared by the Office. Basic information identifying the work and contact information relating to the normal commercial exploitation of the work or the availability of the work at a reasonable price must be provided, and copyright owners are encouraged to provide additional information about the normal commercial exploitation of the work or the availability of the work at a reasonable price. Multiple works may be included in the same notice, provided that the copyright owner uses the required format for a continuation sheet and provided that

1. all the works are by the same author;

2. all the works are owned by the same copyright owner or owner of exclusive rights;

3. all the works first secured federal copyright in the same year;

4. all the works were first published in the same year;

5. the person or entity that the Copyright Office should contact concerning the Notice is the same for all the works; and

6. the person or entity that Libraries and Archives may contact concerning the work's normal commercial exploitation or availability at reasonable price is the same for all the works.

The fee for the Notice must be in the form of a check, money order, or bank draft made payable to the Register of Copyrights and must accompany the Notice, which should be addressed to:

Library of Congress
Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20559-6000

Attn: NLA

The information in the Notices will be entered into the Copyright Office files, which are publicly available both at the Copyright Office and through the Copyright Office website.