Discontinuance of Form CO in Registration Practices, 60774-60777 [2011-25230]

Agencies

• Library of Congress
• Copyright Office
• Copyright Office, Library of Congress

[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 190 (Friday, September 30, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 60774-60777]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-25230]


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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Copyright Office

37 CFR Parts 201 and 202

[Docket No. 2011-8]


Discontinuance of Form CO in Registration Practices

AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

ACTION: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The United States Copyright Office is proposing to amend its

[[Page 60775]]

regulations to discontinue use of the Form CO application as an option 
for applying for copyright registration; and remove the references to 
CON 1 and CON 2 sheets. Form CO applications comprise only a small 
percentage of all applications submitted but they contain a significant 
number of errors, thus requiring a disproportionate amount of the 
Office's time, effort and resources to process. The proposed amendments 
would remove references to Form CO and would instead allow applicants a 
choice to file an application for registration either by filing the 
application electronically or by using the appropriate printed 
application form that relates to the subject matter of the application 
(i.e., Form TX for nondramatic literary works, Form PA for works of the 
performing arts, Form VA for works of visual art, Form SR for sound 
recordings, and Form SE for serials). Additionally, the proposed 
amendment would remove the references to CON 1 and CON 2 sheets, which 
were never developed or made available to the public, and would instead 
refer only to the continuation sheets currently available for 
applicants filing paper applications.

DATES: Comments must be received in the Office of the General Counsel 
of the Copyright Office no later than November 29, 2011.

ADDRESSES: The Copyright Office strongly prefers that comments be 
submitted electronically. A comment submission page is posted on the 
Copyright Office Web site at https://www.copyright.gov/docs/formco/. The 
Web site interface requires submitters to complete a form specifying 
name and other required information, and to upload comments as an 
attachment. To meet accessibility standards, all comments must be 
uploaded in a single file in either the Adobe Portable Document File 
(PDF) format that contains searchable, accessible text (not an image); 
Microsoft Word; WordPerfect; Rich Text Format (RTF); or ASCII text file 
format (not a scanned document). The maximum file size is 6 megabytes 
(MB). The name of the submitter and organization should appear on both 
the form and the face of the comments. All comments will be posted 
publicly on the Copyright Office Web site exactly as they are received, 
along with names and organizations if provided. If electronic 
submission of comments is not feasible, please contact the Copyright 
Office at (202) 707-8380 for special instructions.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tanya Sandros, Deputy General Counsel, 
Copyright Office, GC/I&R, P.O. Box 70400, Washington, DC 20024. 
Telephone: (202) 707-8380. Telefax: (202) 707-8366.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 2007, the Copyright Office began an 
extensive business process reengineering initiative that had an impact 
on a variety of registration-related activities. See 72 FR 36883 (July 
6, 2007). As part of this initiative, the Office promulgated interim 
regulations regarding how the public submits and the Office processes 
copyright applications. Id. In these interim regulations, the Office 
announced four ways to file an application for registration. At the 
time, the Office used the term ``Form CO'' generically in its 
regulations to cover all four approaches to registration. With the 
implementation of the new electronic registration practices, however, 
Form CO was used to describe a specific form that is filled out on a 
computer and that uses barcodes to capture the information entered by 
the claimant. This newer incarnation of Form CO, first made available 
in 2008, was intended to simplify the application process and replace 
the traditional paper forms Forms TX, VA, PA, SR, and SE. See 72 FR at 
36885; 37 CFR 202.3(b)(2)(ii). However, following the implementation of 
reengineering, it eventually became clear (for reasons discussed below) 
that Form CO did not live up to its expectations because many users of 
the form made entries on the form that were not captured in the 
barcodes and therefore were not carried over into the Office's 
registration records. Indeed, experience of the past couple of years 
has demonstrated that the costs to the Office in offering and 
processing Form CO far outweigh the benefits, and the Office proposes 
to eliminate this application option.
    The regulations also referred to two additional continuation 
sheets, CON 1 and CON 2, which the Office intended to be used in 
connection with Form CO and would have allowed applicants to provide 
additional information that would not fit within the bar codes to be 
generated by Form CO. See 72 FR at 36886. However, the Office never 
developed these new continuation sheets and continued to accept the 
traditional Form CON for providing additional information. See https://www.copyright.gov/forms/formcon.pdf. For this reason, the Office 
proposes to amend its regulations by removing references to CON 1 and 
CON 2.
    1. Issues with Form CO. Although Form CO is not commonly used, it 
does present a disproportionate number of problems for the Office. For 
example, sometimes after filling out Form CO using the free Adobe 
Reader software, printing the form and closing out the program, the 
applicant would like to provide additional information. As many people 
are aware (and as the product itself warns), the free Adobe Reader 
software does not save the content once the document is closed, leaving 
the applicant with two choices to make corrections: To fill out the 
form again online or fill in the missing elements by hand. Many 
applicants have elected to fill in the additional information by hand. 
Unfortunately, writing on the form does not embed the added information 
into the barcode and, as a result, either additional time and resources 
are required for the Office to manually input this information into the 
system, or it may be missed in the ingestion process altogether.
    The Office has also noted that some applicants using the more 
expensive Adobe Professional software work from a previously submitted 
form when preparing a new application for another work. In this 
scenario, the applicant prints out the original saved form because it 
includes all the basic information needed for registering the new work 
except for perhaps the title and the date of publication. The applicant 
then proceeds to ``white-out'' the erroneous information and type in or 
write in the new data associated with the later work. The new data 
entered manually on the form is not embedded into the barcode.
    Errors like these result in discrepancies between the text on the 
application and the information embedded in the barcode. Because the 
errors occur on a fairly regular basis, Copyright Office staff are 
unsure whether and when to rely on the information that appears in the 
barcode of the applications. In order to exercise due diligence, staff 
instead undertake time-consuming comparisons of the printed text 
against the information ingested through the barcode, a process that 
defeats all the efficiencies promised by this technology.
    Human error is not the only concern. The use of barcodes presents 
other unique problems associated with the technology. Barcodes can be 
compromised and thus fail to function properly. For example, the 
barcodes may be torn on one or more pages of the printed form or the 
applicant's printer may have distorted the barcode due to a number of 
technical difficulties, e.g., low toner, making it impossible to scan 
the data into the system. In these cases, the information on a Form CO 
application must be manually entered into the online registration 
system.

[[Page 60776]]

    For these reasons, and because Form CO represents a very small 
percentage of applications received by the Office, (e.g., approximately 
two percent of applicants submitted since January 2011 have been 
submitted on Form CO), the Office has concluded that the use of Form CO 
should be discontinued.
    Eliminating Form CO will simplify the registration process for the 
Copyright Office and leave applicants with two options to register 
their works: They may submit applications for registration 
electronically or they may use the traditional paper forms, e.g., Form 
TX, Form PA, Form VA, Form SR, and Form SE. Applications submitted 
electronically allow processing more quickly. However, both methods 
will lead to higher probability of accuracy than using Form CO.
    2. CON 1 and CON 2 Forms. Although the regulations published in 
2007 envisioned the creation and use of specialized continuation sheets 
for use with Form CO, the Copyright Office never created these forms. 
In the meantime, in circumstances when it is necessary or desirable to 
provide additional information, applicants continue to use the existing 
continuation sheet, Form CON. Because the Office is proposing to 
discontinue Form CO and never created the CON 1 and CON 2 forms that 
were to be used with Form CO, the Office now proposes to amend its 
regulations to remove references to the CON 1 and CON 2 forms. Note, 
however, that those applicants using paper applications may continue to 
use existing Form CON See https://www.copyright.gov/forms/formcon.pdf.
    Accordingly, the Office proposes to amend its regulations to 
formally discontinue use of Form CO, and to eliminate references to CON 
1 and CON 2. In lieu of these options, applicants may use the online 
registration system to file applications electronically (in cases where 
electronic filing is available) or use the existing paper application 
forms. As a related point of clarity, the Office also proposes to amend 
Sec. Sec.  202.3(b)(10)(iv)(D) and (v) of the regulations, relating to 
group registration of published photographs, to clarify that the 
references therein to ``special continuation sheet'' are references to 
Form GR/PPh/CON.

List of Subjects

37 CFR Part 201

    Copyright, General provisions

37 CFR Part 202

    Copyright, Registration of claims to copyright.

Proposed Regulations

    In consideration of the foregoing, the Copyright Office proposes to 
amend parts 201 and 202 of 37 CFR, as follows:

PART 201--GENERAL PROVISIONS

    1. The authority citation for part 201 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 17 U.S.C. 702.


Sec.  201.3  [Amended]

    2. Amend Sec.  201.3(c) by removing the line beginning ``Form-D 
barcode application properly completed online) * * *'' and ``; and Form 
CO without barcodes or incomplete information, or information added 
after printing (paper filing)'' from item (1) of the fee chart titled 
``Registration, Recordation and Related Services.''

PART 202--PREREGISTRATION AND REGISTRATION OF CLAIMS TO COPYRIGHT

    3. The authority citation for part 202 reads as follows:

    Authority: 17 U.S.C. 409 and 702.


Sec.  202.3  [Amended]

    4. Amend Sec.  202.3(b) by revising paragraph (b)(2) and (b)(3).
    5. Amend Sec.  202.3(b)(10) by adding ``(Form GR/PPh/CON)'' after 
the phrase ``special continuation sheet'' wherever it appears.
    6. Amend Sec.  202.3(c)(2) by removing ``, electronically or in 
printed form, on the appropriate form prescribed by the Register of 
Copyrights under'' and by adding ``by using one of the methods set 
forth in'' in its place.
    7. In Sec.  202.3 revise paragraphs (b)(2)(i)-(ii) and (b)(3) to 
read as follows:


Sec.  202.3  Registration of copyright.

* * * * *
    (b)(2) Application for registration. For purposes of registration, 
an applicant may submit an application for registration of individual 
works and certain groups of works electronically through the Copyright 
Office's Web site, or by using the printed forms prescribed by the 
Register of Copyrights.
    (i) An applicant may submit an application electronically through 
the Copyright Office Web site [https://www.copyright.gov]. An online 
submission requires a payment of the application fee through an 
electronic fund transfer, credit card, or through a Copyright Office 
deposit account. Deposit materials in support of the online application 
may be submitted in a digital format along with the application and 
payment, or deposit materials in physically tangible formats may be 
separately mailed to the Copyright Office, using a mailing label 
generated during the online registration process, or
    (ii) (A) Alternatively, an applicant may submit an application on 
one of the printed forms prescribed by the Register of Copyrights. Each 
printed form corresponds to a class set forth in paragraph (b)(1) of 
this section and is so designated (``Form TX''; ``Form PA''; ``Form 
VA''; ``Form SR''; ``Form SE''; and ``Form SE/Group''). Printed form 
applications should be submitted in the class most appropriate to the 
nature of the authorship in which copyright is claimed. In the case of 
contributions to collective works, applications should be submitted in 
the class representing the copyrightable authorship in the 
contribution. In the case of derivative works, applications should be 
submitted in the class most appropriately representing the 
copyrightable authorship involved in recasting, transforming, adapting, 
or otherwise modifying the preexisting work. In cases where a work 
contains elements of authorship in which copyright is claimed which 
fall into two or more classes, the application should be submitted in 
the class most appropriate to the type of authorship that predominates 
in the work as a whole. However, in any case where registration is 
sought for a work consisting of or including a sound recording in which 
copyright is claimed the application shall be submitted on Form SR. 
Copies of the printed forms are available on the Copyright Office's Web 
site [https://www.copyright.gov] and upon request to the Copyright 
Public Information Office, Library of Congress.
    (B) Printed form applications may be completed and submitted by 
completing a printed version or using a PDF version of the applicable 
Copyright Office application form and mailing it together with the 
other required elements, i.e., physically tangible deposit copies and/
or materials, and the required filing fee, all elements being placed in 
the same package and sent by mail or hand-delivered to the Copyright 
Office.
    (b)(3) Continuation sheets. A continuation sheet is appropriate 
only in the case when a printed form application is used and where 
additional space is needed by the applicant to provide all relevant 
information concerning a claim to copyright. An application may include 
more than one continuation sheet, subject to the limitations in 
paragraphs (b)(10)(v) of this section.
* * * * *


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    Dated: September 27, 2011.
Maria A. Pallante,
Register of Copyrights.
[FR Doc. 2011-25230 Filed 9-29-11; 8:45 am]
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