Register Copyrights Before Publication and Comply with Section 2257 Notice Requirements
Charles Carreon
So, the process is complete, from a technical viewpoint. The photographer has done his work, and given you your CD or DVD containing all your great content. You have your model release signed, you have photocopies of your identification materials from each model, your photographer signed over all of his rights as an artist, and you are flipping through a couple of thousand images, getting ready to upload them to your website.
Hold it right there! Don't publish these photographs just yet. First, go to the Legal Documents and download either Form VA (for photographs) or Form PA (for videos). In filling out the form, you will see that you have to give a “title” to your work. This could be fun. Suppose you just created a bunch of content that was nothing but Scandinavian blondes. You could call it “Beauties of the Midnight Sun, Volume 1.” Name your works as you like, but you will have a nicer portfolio of resaleable product if you choose discreet, tasteful names. Additionally, should the Department of Justice ever decide to go flipping through the copyright specimens to see who has been registering what, you don't want your works to pop up in the first run of inflammatory titles.
After you fill out the form, what do you do next? If the work is unpublished, send one copy of the work (called “the deposit”) to the U.S. Copyright Office. If the work has been previously published, put the date of publication on the form, and provide two copies of the “best edition” of the published work. With respect to digital photographs and videos, simply give them a copy of the highest pixel-count photographs. You can include thumbnails if you like, but as a practical matter the photograph is protected regardless of what size is depicted. If the photographs have been previously published in a magazine or book, you must provide two copies of the “best edition” of these print productions. Enclose your registration form, a check for $30 made out to the “Register of Copyrights,” and the one or two copies of the content, as required, and send them all off to the U.S. Copyright Office.
Be sure to send these Express Mail, because according to currently-posted policy (subject of course to change), your copyright registration will be effective from the first day after mailing, and you will automatically get a receipt from the Post Office for this date. Put this receipt in your records, and you will have evidence of the first date of registration, a valuable thing. The Copyright Office will process your application for registration and return you a nice-looking officially stamped record of the registration, which you will file away carefully along with your copy of the content itself.
PLAN TO COMPLY WITH SECTION 2257 NOTICE REQUIREMENTS
Now you're ready to upload the content to the site, right? Well, not quite. Be sure you have a § 2257 notice in the form provided in the Legal Documents posted on the website. This has to provide the name of a real flesh and blood individual who is the custodian of the § 2257 age-identification documents. As noted previously, your agreement with the photographer can provide that he or she serves as the custodian for the records, and this is commonly done.
If you sell or license this content to anyone else, they will also post a § 2257 notice on their website or other content-distribution medium. Accordingly, they will post a copy of your § 2257 “custodian” information on their website, CD, DVD or videotape.
So, the process is complete, from a technical viewpoint. The photographer has done his work, and given you your CD or DVD containing all your great content. You have your model release signed, you have photocopies of your identification materials from each model, your photographer signed over all of his rights as an artist, and you are flipping through a couple of thousand images, getting ready to upload them to your website.
Hold it right there! Don't publish these photographs just yet. First, go to the Legal Documents and download either Form VA (for photographs) or Form PA (for videos). In filling out the form, you will see that you have to give a “title” to your work. This could be fun. Suppose you just created a bunch of content that was nothing but Scandinavian blondes. You could call it “Beauties of the Midnight Sun, Volume 1.” Name your works as you like, but you will have a nicer portfolio of resaleable product if you choose discreet, tasteful names. Additionally, should the Department of Justice ever decide to go flipping through the copyright specimens to see who has been registering what, you don't want your works to pop up in the first run of inflammatory titles.
After you fill out the form, what do you do next? If the work is unpublished, send one copy of the work (called “the deposit”) to the U.S. Copyright Office. If the work has been previously published, put the date of publication on the form, and provide two copies of the “best edition” of the published work. With respect to digital photographs and videos, simply give them a copy of the highest pixel-count photographs. You can include thumbnails if you like, but as a practical matter the photograph is protected regardless of what size is depicted. If the photographs have been previously published in a magazine or book, you must provide two copies of the “best edition” of these print productions. Enclose your registration form, a check for $30 made out to the “Register of Copyrights,” and the one or two copies of the content, as required, and send them all off to the U.S. Copyright Office.
Be sure to send these Express Mail, because according to currently-posted policy (subject of course to change), your copyright registration will be effective from the first day after mailing, and you will automatically get a receipt from the Post Office for this date. Put this receipt in your records, and you will have evidence of the first date of registration, a valuable thing. The Copyright Office will process your application for registration and return you a nice-looking officially stamped record of the registration, which you will file away carefully along with your copy of the content itself.
PLAN TO COMPLY WITH SECTION 2257 NOTICE REQUIREMENTS
Now you're ready to upload the content to the site, right? Well, not quite. Be sure you have a § 2257 notice in the form provided in the Legal Documents posted on the website. This has to provide the name of a real flesh and blood individual who is the custodian of the § 2257 age-identification documents. As noted previously, your agreement with the photographer can provide that he or she serves as the custodian for the records, and this is commonly done.
If you sell or license this content to anyone else, they will also post a § 2257 notice on their website or other content-distribution medium. Accordingly, they will post a copy of your § 2257 “custodian” information on their website, CD, DVD or videotape.