Copyright Office Releases Updated Version of Copyright Registration and Recordations Bulk Dataset

Today, the U.S. Copyright Office is releasing an updated version of its copyright registration and recordations bulk dataset. This is the first major update since the Office initially released bulk data on over forty years of copyright registrations and other records in 2022.

The Office has always facilitated public searching for copyright registrations and other records—currently via the Office’s Copyright Public Records System and previously via the legacy Online Public Catalog. The release of this updated bulk dataset represents a step forward, allowing researchers to systematically access and analyze nearly all digital copyright registrations and recordations in a more comprehensive fashion. Since its 2022 public release, academics and scholars, as well as the Copyright Office, have relied on this data for research on copyright. Using this dataset, the Office published two reports: The Resilience of Creativity: An Examination of the COVID-19 Impact on Copyright-Reliant Industries and Their Subsequent Recovery and The Geography of Copyright Registrations.

“This dataset has proven to be an invaluable resource, both internally and externally, and it has served as the basis for many informative analyses. We anticipate that the newly updated version will continue to accelerate the pace of economic research on copyright and the creative industries,” said Copyright Office Chief Economist Brent Lutes.

The original bulk dataset issued in 2022 contained information on approximately 20 million copyright registration records from January 1, 1978, to July 8, 2021. The updated version contains approximately 22 million copyright registration records from January 1, 1978, to June 27, 2025. The data is presented in both long and wide structures as spreadsheet files to assist researchers.

The data is available for download in three formats: raw unparsed marc, parsed csv, and tabular csv. More information about the dataset can be found on the Office’s Economic Research webpage.