US Compendium: third edition now live, and larger than life ...

The end of 2014 saw the publication of the third edition of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices. If you are not familiar with this work, the draft of which was plugged on this weblog back in August here, the Federal Register succinctly describes it as follows:

"The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices is the administrative manual of the Register of Copyrights concerning the mandate and statutory duties of the Copyright Office under title 17 of the United States Code. It serves as both a technical manual for the Office's staff, as well as a guidebook for authors, copyright licensees, practitioners,scholars, the courts, and members of the general public. On August 20, 2014 the Office released a public draft of this manual titled, Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition. 79 FR 49343. The first major revision in more than two decades, the Third Edition is a comprehensive overhaul that makes the practices and standards of the Office more accessible and transparent to the public and sets the stage for a number of long-term improvements in registration and recordation policy. The Office is now announcing the release of the official version of the Third Edition. It is available on the Office's Web site at http://copyright.gov/comp3/. The Third Edition is effective as of December 22, 2014 and is the governing administrative manual for registrations and recordations issued by the Office on or after that date."

If any reader of this weblog would like to volunteer to read and review it, will he or she please get in touch with one of the 1709 Blog team members.

Compendious Compendium: a new edition is now in draft

Earlier this week the U.S. Copyright Office released its Public Draft of the new Compendium of Copyright Office Practices (third edition, to be precise, weighing in at 1,222 pages). Our good friend Magali Delhaye introduces it thus:

Whether on the beach, under a tree in the countryside or at the office, readers of the new Draft Compendium will find in its more than 1,200 pages a very comprehensive administrative manual of the Register of Copyrights concerning the mandate and statutory duties of the Copyright Office under Title 17 of the United States Code.

The new Draft´s aim is to provide instructions to agency staff regarding their statutory duties as well as to offer expert guidance to copyright applicants, practitioners, scholars, the courts, and members of the general public regarding institutional practices and related principles of law. The Draft Compendium addresses fundamental principles of copyright law such as standards of copyrightability, joint authorship, work for hire, and termination of transfers, as well as routine questions involving fees, records retrieval, litigation documents, and other procedural matters.

The new Compendium will remain in draft form for approximately 120 days, pending final review and implementation, taking effect on or around 15 December 2014. Members of the public may provide feedback on the Compendium at any time before or after the Third Edition goes into effect.

Thanks so much, Magali!