![All rights reserved](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/All_rights_reserved.jpg)
In
United States copyright law
The copyright law of the United States grants monopoly protection for "original works of authorship". With the stated purpose to promote art and culture, copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of thei ...
, a copyright notice is a notice of statutorily prescribed form that informs users of the underlying claim to
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
ownership in a published work.
Copyright is a form of protection provided by US law to authors of "original works of authorship". When a work is published under the authority of the copyright owner, a notice of copyright may be placed on all publicly distributed copies or phonorecords. The use of the notice is the responsibility of the copyright owner and does not require permission from, or registration with, the Copyright Office.
Use of the notice informs the public that a work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of first publication. Furthermore, in the event that a work is infringed, if the work carries a proper notice, the court will not give any weight to a defendant's use of an innocent infringement defense—that is, to a claim that the defendant did not realize that the work was protected. An innocent infringement defense can result in a reduction in damages that the copyright owner would otherwise receive.
US law no longer requires the use of a copyright notice, although placing it on a work does confer certain benefits to the copyright holder. Prior law did, however, require a notice, and the use of a notice is still relevant to the copyright status of older works.
For works first published on or after March 1, 1989, use of the copyright notice is optional. Before March 1, 1989, the use of the notice was mandatory on all published works. Omitting the notice on any work first published from January 1, 1978, to February 28, 1989, could have resulted in the loss of copyright protection if corrective steps were not taken within a certain amount of time. Works published before January 1, 1978, are governed by the 1909 Copyright Act. Under that law, if a work was published under the copyright owner's authority without a proper notice of copyright, all copyright protection for that work was permanently lost in the United States.
Form of notice
![Copyright-1870-stereotype-mark](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Copyright-1870-stereotype-mark.jpg)
Section 401 of the Copyright Act specifies the form and location of the copyright notice. The form used for "visually perceptible" copies—that is, copies that can be seen or read, either directly (such as books) or with the aid of a machine (such as films)—differs from the form used for phonorecords of sound recordings (such as compact discs or cassettes).
Form of notice for visually perceptible copies
The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain all three elements described below. They should appear together or in close proximity on the copies.
# The symbol
© (letter C in a circle); the word “Copyright”; or the abbreviation “Copr.”
# The year of first publication. If the work is a derivative work or a compilation incorporating previously published material, the year date of first publication of the derivative work or compilation is sufficient. Examples of derivative works are translations or dramatizations; an example of a compilation is an
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
. The year may be omitted when a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with accompanying textual matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or useful articles.
# The name of the copyright owner, an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of owner.
''Example:'' © 2012 Jane Doe
The “C in a circle” notice is used only on “visually perceptible” copies. Certain kinds of works, such as musical, dramatic, and literary works, may be fixed not in “copies” but by means of sound in an audiorecording. Since audiorecordings such as audiotapes and phonograph discs are “phonorecords” and not “copies,” the “C in a circle” notice is not used to indicate protection of the underlying musical, dramatic, or literary work that is recorded.
Form of notice for phonorecords of sound recordings
The copyright notice for phonorecords embodying a sound recording is different from that for other works. Sound recordings are defined as “works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken or other sounds, but not including the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audio visual work.” Copyright in a sound recording protects the particular series of sounds fixed in the recording against unauthorized reproduction, revision, and distribution. This copyright is distinct from the copyright of the musical, literary, or dramatic work that may be recorded on the phonorecord.
Phonorecords can be phonograph records (such as LPs and 45s), audiotapes, cassettes, or discs. The notice should contain the following three elements appearing together on the phonorecord.
#The
symbol ℗ (the letter P in a circle).
#The year of first publication of the sound recording.
#The name of the copyright owner of the sound recording, an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner. If the producer of the sound recording is named on the phonorecord label or container and if no other name appears in conjunction with the notice, the producer's name will be considered a part of the notice.
''Example:'' ℗ 2012 X.Y.Z. Records, Inc.
Location of notice
The Copyright Office has issued regulations concerning the position of the notice and methods of affixation. Generally, the copyright notice should be placed on copies or phono records in such a way that it gives reasonable notice of the claim of copyright. The notice should be permanently legible to an ordinary user of the work under normal conditions of use and should not be concealed from view upon reasonable examination.
Reasons to include an optional copyright notice
![New 3 Stooges Black and White](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/New_3_Stooges_Black_and_White.gif)
A copyright notice may still be used as a deterrent against
infringement, or as a notice that the owner intends on holding their claim to copyright. It is also a copyright violation, if not also a federal crime, to remove or modify copyright notice with intent to "induce, enable, facilitate, or conceal an infringement". Also worth noting is that copyright notice has never been required on "unpublished" works, the copyright of which may last for well over 100 years. A copyright notice also gives a clear statement of ownership and date of publication, in the event of a
work for hire
A work made for hire (work for hire or WFH), in copyright law in the United States, is a work that is subject to copyright and is created by employees as part of their job or some limited types of works for which all parties agree in writing to the ...
or collaborative effort; explicitly stating the copyright claimant can reduce disputes over ownership, while explicitly stating the year of publication can (particularly in the cases of works claimed by corporations) make it clear when said copyright expires, thereby reducing the chances of the work being
orphaned
An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died.
In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...
and left in a legal limbo.
Inclusion of a proper copyright notice on the originals is also evidence that the copyright owners may use to defeat a defense of "innocent infringement", to avoid "statutory damages", other than in certain cases claiming a "fair use" defense.
Foreign works published in the US without copyright notice
Certain foreign works published in the US without copyright notice prior to 1989, which made them
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
, have had their copyrights "restored" under the
Uruguay Round Agreements Act
The Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA; ) is an Act of Congress in the United States that implemented in U.S. law the Marrakesh Agreement of 1994. The Marrakesh Agreement was part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations which transformed the General ...
, provided the rights had not already expired in their country of original publication prior to 1996. This creates the anomaly that foreign works from 1923 to 1989 may be afforded more US copyright protection than domestic US works published in that same period, even though they were both published without any copyright notice.
Technical requirements
![Copyright](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Copyright.svg)
There are technical requirements as to the information a copyright notice must contain.
Under the 1870 law, in effect until 1909, the copyright owner had to write "Entered according to act of Congress, in the year _________________, by A. B., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington." Starting in 1874, the copyright owner could also write "Copyright, 18_________________, by A. B."
Under the 1909 law, in effect until 1978, the notice for printed literary, musical, or dramatics works had to contain the name of the author, the year, and "Copyright" or "Copr." Other works did not need to include the year and could use the © symbol. In books or other printed works, the notice were required to have appeared on the
title page
The title page of a book, thesis or other written work is the page at or near the front which displays its title (publishing), title, subtitle, author, publisher, and edition, often artistically decorated. (A half title, by contrast, displays onl ...
or the page immediately following the title page.
Under the 1978 US law, a copyright notice must contain the
copyright symbol
The copyright symbol, or copyright sign, (a circled capital letter C for copyright), is the symbol used in copyright notices for works other than sound recordings. 17 U.S.C. The use of the symbol is described by the Universal Copyright Conv ...
(a lower case letter c completely surrounded by a circle) or its equivalent. The word "copyright" or the abbreviation "Copr." are also accepted in the US, but not in other countries. Works distributed outside the US use the © symbol. The copyright notice must also contain the year in which the work was first published (or created), and the name of the copyright owner, which may be the
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
(including the legal author/owner of a
work made for hire), one or more joint authors, or the person or entity to whom the copyright has been transferred. According to
US copyright law
The copyright law of the United States grants monopoly protection for "original works of authorship". With the stated purpose to promote art and culture, copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of thei ...
the copyright notice must be affixed and positioned to give "reasonable notice of the claim of copyright".
There are slightly different technical requirements for copyright notice on phonographic recordings, specifically using a
sound recording copyright symbol
The sound recording copyright symbol or phonogram symbol, represented by the graphic symbol , is the copyright symbol used to provide notice of copyright in a sound recording (phonogram) embodied in a phonorecord ( LPs, audiotapes, cassette ta ...
("℗") instead of the "©" symbol.
Overstatement of rights
![Vitprägel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Vitpr%C3%A4gel.jpg)
Legal scholar
Wendy Seltzer
Wendy Seltzer is an American attorney and a staff member at the World Wide Web Consortium, where she is the chair of the Improving Web Advertising Business Group. She was previously with Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy. Selt ...
has pointed out how many organizations overstate their rights in their copyright notices. For her law class in 2007, Seltzer copied the televised copyright notice of the
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
, during
Super Bowl XLI
Super Bowl XLI was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...
, using her rights under
fair use
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
. She then posted this snippet to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
. The NFL sent an official
DMCA
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or s ...
request to YouTube that the recording be removed. Seltzer, who had expected this, challenged the takedown, and the snippet was restored.
[Wendy's Blog: Legal Tags - My First Youtube: Super Bowl Highlights or Lowlights](_blank)
Seltzer has also posted the overreaching claims of
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
.
[Wendy's Blog: Legal Tags - Foul ball: Baseball’s copyright warnings](_blank)
See also
*
Anti-copyright notice
An anti-copyright notice is a specific statement that is added to a work in order to encourage wide distribution. Such notices are legally required to host such specific media; under the Berne Convention in international copyright law, works are p ...
*
Copyfraud
A copyfraud is a false copyright claim by an individual or institution with respect to content that is in the public domain. Such claims are wrongful, at least under US and Australian copyright law, because material that is not copyrighted is f ...
*
Copyleft
Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, ''freedoms'' refers to the use of the work for any purpose, ...
*
Copyright formalities
Copyright formalities are legal (generally statutory) requirements needed to obtain a copyright in a particular jurisdiction. Common copyright formalities include copyright registration, copyright renewal, copyright notice, and copyright deposi ...
*
Enclosed C
Enclosed C or circled Latin C (Ⓒ or ⓒ) is a typographical symbol. As one of many enclosed alphanumerics, the symbol is a " C" within a circle.
Encodings
The symbols are encoded by Unicode in the block Latin-1 supplement as and .
Uses
S ...
Notes and references
{{USCopyrightActs
United States copyright law