Copyright Office Announces Intended Practice Updates on Registration Modernization and Solicits Further Comment
Issue No. 802 - March 3, 2020
The U.S. Copyright Office has published a Federal Register notice announcing several intended practice updates to improve the efficiency of the copyright registration system and soliciting further comment on additional proposed reforms under consideration. This announcement follows an extensive public inquiry in which the Office sought input on potential regulatory and practice changes to accompany the Office’s forthcoming modernization initiatives, including the deployment of a new Enterprise Copyright System (ECS).
These updates will include new and improved application assistance tools, simplified registration application fields, and unified case numbers. The Office will identify these updates as business needs to the Library of Congress’s Office of the Chief Information Office, which is responsible for developing technology solutions for the Office, so they may be incorporated into the design of the new registration system to support a more user-friendly and efficient registration process that is simpler, clearer, secure, and adaptable.
To further investigate other issues, the notice seeks additional public comment on two proposals to permit post-registration edits to rights and permissions information and to permit voluntary submission of additional deposit information to be included in the public record.
The notice and instructions on how to submit a comment are available here. Written comments must be received no later than April 2, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. eastern time.