U.S. Copyright Office - Do You Register Your Work

[Steven Rowley]

I'm curious as to how many of you actually register your best work

with the U.S. Copyright Office, and what methods use use. I know

it's not necessary, but wouldn't hurt. I've read about putting a

bunch on 1 cd and registering them as a group that way.

[stnoonan]

Hi Steven,

 

<p>Your method of registering images depends on whether or not the images have been published (even by you, if only on your own website). My recommendation is to read <a href="http://www.asmp.org/commerce/legal/copyright/">the ASMP tutorial on copyright registration</a>.

 

<p>Good luck,

 

<p>Sean

<br><a href="http://www.stnphotography.com">www.stnphotography.com</a>

[qtluong]

I register everything I put on

<a href = "http://www.terragalleria.com/">terragalleria.com</a>, usually as published, at a 3 month interval so as to take advantage of the period of grace that gives published works the same protection as unpublished. There are a number of technicalities you have to be aware of to do it right. See <a href = "http://www.editorialphotographers.com/">

editorialphotographers.com</a> for resources.

[rubens_abboud]

Steven,

 

You will find the ASMP tutorial to be quite helpful -- that's what I followed to register my images.

 

The only thing I would add is that, if you register your images as a group (preferable to save registration costs), you will find it more efficient to do so before your images are published.

 

Group registration of unpublished images requires a single VA form to be completed. Group registration of published images requires each image to be itemized on a separate VA/GR/PPh form, where you will need to provide date & nation of first publication + image number & name. This can be quite a hassle to fill out for each image.

 

You can submit copies of your images as JPGs on a CD.

 

Best regards,

 

Rubens.

http://www.TheImageNation.com

Travel stock photography

[spanky]

Thanks for the ASMP link Sean. My quick question is do I really have to send in two copies of a work for the deposit to the copyright office? I have a cd burner, but no scanner. Since I shoot film, I was going to start sending in contact prints to register my work as a unpublished group. It seems silly to send in two identical contact prints of the same images, but hey, if that's what it takes...

Thanks,

Marc