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C. Searching the Copyright Office and Library of Congress Records

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Now that you have isolated the information necessary for searching, you can begin examining the records at the Copyright Office and at the Library of Congress. Each of these databases has valuable information about public domain status and copyright ownership:

  • Think of the Copyright Office as the source for copyright records. Search this database if you want specific information about copyright ownership, publication, transfers and derivative works.
  • Consider the Library of Congress as a 200-year-old library catalog. Search the catalogs if you want general information about a work such as the author, date of publication, subject matter and publisher.

One common search strategy is to use Library of Congress files to identify an author, title or publisher and then use that information to search the Copyright Office records. In 2001, the Library of Congress replaced the antiquated search system known as Telnet that has been previously used for searching Library of Congress and Copyright Office records. We explain the new system in the sections below. If you are uncomfortable searching online, consider hiring the Copyright Office to perform the search on your behalf.

1. Define Your Search

Your search of Copyright Office records will vary depending on what your goal is. Most likely, you have one of two goals: you want to find the current owner of copyright, or you want to know whether the work has fallen into the public domain. Depending on which one of these goals is yours, you'll search different Copyright Office records.

a. Ownership Searching

When trying to determine the owner of copyright, review:

  • certificates of registration, and
  • assignments or other transfer documents.

Both of these documents are issued by and recorded with the Copyright Office. The registration will indicate who initially acquired ownership and the assignment will indicate if the registration has been transferred to another party. The certificate of registration is issued by the Copyright Office and is the basic copyright document establishing date of publication, author, source of underlying material, contact person and initial owner of copyright. The owner's name is listed in the space in Section 4 entitled "Copyright Claimant." If the owner is a different person than the author, the method of acquiring ownership (for example, "by written contract") is indicated in the space in Section 4 entitled "Transfer."

Assignments are transfers of copyright ownership. For example, an author may transfer rights to a publisher by signing an assignment of copyright, often included as part of a publishing agreement. Filing an assignment with the Copyright Office is not mandatory, but many copyright owners do so. When searching online via Telnet at the Copyright Office, the person acquiring rights (the assignee) is usually listed as PARTY2 or PTY2 and the person transferring rights (the assignor) is usually listed as PARTY1 or PTY1.

b. Public Domain Searching

When researching whether a work is in the public domain, review:

  • copyright registrations or other records containing the date of first publication, or
  • renewal notices.

Both registrations and renewal notices are issued by and recorded with the Copyright Office. The registration is the initial statement of copyright information about a work and indicates the author, date of registration, copyright claimant (at the time of filing the registration) and date of first publication. A renewal is a document required to be filed in order to extend the length of protection for works published or registered before 1964. Although a renewal is no longer required for works published or registered after 1963, many copyright owners still file it.

Works published during the years of 1923 through 1963 receive 95 years of protection if they were renewed during their 28th year. If not, they are in the public domain. Works published during the years of 1963 through 1977 receive 95 years of protection. Works created after 1977 and all unpublished works are protected for life of the author plus 70 years.

You may be able to determine if a work was published before 1923 (and is in the public domain) by examining the date in the work's copyright notice. For example, we determined that James Joyce's Dubliners is in the public domain because the Library of Congress database indicated that Dubliners was first published before 1923.

Note that copyright notice dates included in a book are not always accurate, because many public domain works are often republished with new dates in their copyright notices. For example, current editions of James Joyce's Dubliners have copyright notices with dates after 1980. These "new" dates reflect the fact that the work contains some new material such as a preface, notes or previously unpublished material. Only this new material is protected under the copyright claim. The public domain work remains in the public domain.

EXAMPLE: To determine if the James Joyce short story collection, Dubliners, is in the public domain (that is, was published before 1923), we reviewed the Library of Congress records. The Library of Congress record, below, indicates that the work was first published in 1916.

Title Search For: Dubliners /

ITEM 1.CALL NUMBER: Microfilm 76492 PZ

AUTHOR: Joyce, James, 1882-1941

TITLE: Dubliners,

PUBLISHED: New York, B. W. Huebsch, 1916.

DESCRIPTION:2 p.l., 7-278 p. 20 cm.

LCCN NUMBER:17-24698

Works published in the United States after 1922 and before 1964 are also in the public domain if the owner failed to file a renewal during the 28th year after first publication. Unlike copyright registrations or assignments, renewal notices for works published before 1964 had to be filed with the Copyright Office. If a work published after 1922 and before 1964 was not renewed, it fell into the public domain. According to Copyright Office surveys, the great majority of pre-1964 works were never renewed and therefore are in the public domain. Unfortunately, the Copyright Office does not maintain lists of public domain materials. Copyright Office records must be searched to determine whether a renewal was timely filed for a work.

2. Searching Copyright Office Records

Once you have all the available information about your work and know what you're searching for, you need to choose the search method that best suits your purposes. You can either hire a search firm or work directly with the Copyright Office, who will do your search for a fee. Another option, searching the Copyright Office online, is discussed in the next section.

What Else Can You Get From the Copyright Office?

Besides copyright research, the Copyright Office offers the following:

  • information circulars
  • answers to common questions
  • announcements of changes in federal regulations
  • compulsory licensing guidelines, and
  • information on pending legislation.

These materials can be obtained by writing to the Copyright Office or by visiting the Copyright Office website at www.copyright.gov. Circulars and publications can also be ordered by calling the Forms and Publications 24-Hour Hotline.

a. Hire a Private Search Company

For a fee, you can hire a private company to search Copyright Office records. These companies provide additional services such as tracing the copyright history of a fictional character or locating similarly titled works. These companies may be able to determine if a work is in the public domain or whether rights can be obtained to use the work.

The advantage of using these companies is their speed and thoroughness. Search companies compile comprehensive reports using Copyright Office records as well as other databases and can deliver the materials within two to ten days. The disadvantage is the cost, often $300 or more per search. The largest and best known copyright search company is Thomson & Thomson Copyright Research Group, which can be reached at 800-356-8630.

b. Pay the Copyright Office to Perform the Search

Upon request, the Copyright Office staff will search its records at the statutory rate of $150 for each hour or fraction of an hour consumed. You can initiate a search by submitting a Search Request Form or by calling the Copyright Office at 202-7076850. The Copyright Office will quote you a fee for the job you need done.

Although the cost of a Copyright Office search is often lower than a private search company, the disadvantage is that it may take one or two months to receive a response. The Copyright Office will conduct an expedited search if you pay a higher fee. For more information, see Copyright Circular 22. Also, note that the search fee does not include the cost of additional certificates, photocopies of deposits or copies of other Copyright Office records. For information concerning these services, request Copyright Office Circular 6.

Below is an example of the Copyright Office's Search Request Form. You can use this form to have the Copyright Office locate registrations, renewals, assignments and addresses of copyright owners. A tear-out copy of the form is located in the Appendix at the end of this book.

The Search Request Form is on the forms disk in the back of this book under the file name COPSRCH.

Search Request Form

TYPE OF WORK:

____ Book ____ Music ____ Motion Picture ____ Drama ____ Sound Recording

____ Photography / Artwork ____ Map ____ Periodical ____ Contribution

____ Computer Program ____ Mask Work

SEARCH INFORMATION YOU REQUIRE:

____ Registration ____ Renewal ____ Assignment ____ Address

SPECIFICS OF WORK TO BE SEARCHED:

TITLE:

AUTHOR:

COPYRIGHT CLAIMANT (if known): (name in copyright notice)

APPROXIMATE YEAR DATE OF PUBLICATION/CREATION:

REGISTRATION NUMBER (if known)

OTHER IDENTIFYING INFORMATION:

If you need more space please attach additional pages. YOUR NAME:

DATE:

ADDRESS:

DAYTIME TELEPHONE NO.:

Convey results of estimate/research by telephone? ____ Yes ____ No

Fee Enclosed? ____ Yes. Amount $________ ____ No

If You Only Need a Certificate of Registration

It's possible that all you need is the certificate of registration--the document recorded at the Copyright Office indicating who owns the work. You can use the search form above to obtain a copy or simply furnish a letter to the Copyright Office with the following information:

  • title of the work
  • type of work involved (novel, lyrics, etc.)
  • the registration number, including the preceding letters (for example, TX000-000)
  • year of registration or publication
  • the author(s), including any pseudonym by which the author may be known, and * any other information needed to identify the registration.

If you do not have all this information, you can furnish what you have. If the information furnished is insufficient for locating the certificate, you may need to pay for a copyright search.

There is an $40 fee for a certtified copy of the Certificate of Registration. Your check or money order payable to the Register of Copyrights should accompany the request.

All requests for copies of Copyright Office records should be submitted to the Certifications and Documents Section, LM-402, Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20559; 202707-6787. It is also possible to go to the office and request records in person (see the Sidebar "Searching in Person").

Searching in Person

It's possible to inspect Copyright Office records by visiting the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. It's located at 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., on the 4th floor of the James Madison Memorial Building. It is open on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is a card catalog available to the public in Room 459. You can use the catalog to obtain essential facts about registrations, such as copyright ownership and whether a work was renewed. Alternatively, you may ask the Reference and Bibliography Section in Room 450 to conduct a search for an hourly fee. You can get extensive information on the Copyright Office Card Catalog by visiting the Copyright Office website and downloading Circular 23.

Another important research tool you can access in person is The Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE). The CCE contains the same information as the card catalog, but is in book form (and is actually more complete than the card catalog). The CCE is available not only at the Copyright Office but in many libraries throughout the country -- typically large university research libraries and city libraries such as the New York Pubic Library. Portions of the CCE are available only in microfiche form (a photographic format requiring a special viewer). The CCE contains essential facts about registrations, such as copyright ownership and whether a work was renewed, but does not include verbatim reproductions of the registration record. In addition there is a time lag, and more recent registrations may not be included. Finally, the CCE cannot be used for researching the transfer of rights, since it does not include entries for assignments or other recorded documents.

3. Searching Copyright Office Records Online: Welcome to LOCIS

There is good news about online searching of the Copyright Office records. It’s free and as of 2001, Telnet has been replaced by an easy to use online interface search system.

You can search through Copyright Office files by visiting the Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov/search/. Copyright information is located in the following three directories (see Fig__):

  • Books, Music, Etc.: Contains information about works registered since January 1978. Included are published and unpublished text works, maps, motion pictures, music, sound recordings, works of the performing and visual arts, graphic artworks and games. Also included are renewals of previous registrations. You can search by author, claimant, title and registration number. This file is updated weekly. Note: The renewal information is available only for works published after 1949.
  • Serials: contains information about serial publications (magazine or other periodic publications) and is updated twice yearly.
  • Documents: This file is a collection of legal records maintained by the Copyright Office since January 1, 1978. The file includes transfers of copyright, termination notices, statements that an author is still alive or that an author has died, documents identifying anonymous or pseudonymous authors, and statements identifying an erroneous name in a copyright notice. A typical document contains the names of the parties involved, the date of recordation and the date of execution, and the titles of the works involved. The file is updated weekly.

4. Searching Library of Congress Records

In addition to Copyright Office records, there is another catalog of helpful information at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world and has been collecting and cataloging materials for over 200 years. (Contrary to popular belief, the Library of Congress does not contain copies of every work ever published in the United States.) We recommend using the Library of Congress LOC catalog for basic research such as locating the publisher or owner of a work and for researching public domain information. The Library of Congress catalog (http://www.loc.gov/catalog/) includes data for books, serials, (magazines and periodicals) music and sound recordings, maps, visual materials such as photos and graphics, computer files from 1975 and an index of names and subjects. It also includes an incomplete, unedited listing of books cataloged between 1898 and 1975.
Unlike Copyright Office files, the LOC catalog is searchable by subject matter—for example you can search for books on Constitutional law. Or, you can search by the ISBN, ISSN or LCCN (Library of Congress catalog number). You can even limit or define your search by language. For example, you can search for books that are not in English. You may be able to use Library of Congress files to identify an author, title or publisher and then use that information to search the Copyright Office records. There are several methods of searching including the EZ Search Form that allows searching by title and author's name.

 

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