Registration ©ounts is an ongoing initiative produced by ASMP to create awareness of copyright issues, to encourage all photographers to register their work, and to provide the tools and information needed for registration.

Copyright Registration Member Alert — Update on Group Registrations of Unpublished Images

ASMP has been working closely with the Copyright Office to understand and resolve their recent image-titling suggestion for registering “groups of unpublished images.” It is important to note that even if you have received a letter suggesting this action, these recommendations from the Visual Arts division of the Copyright Office are not mandatory. We have recently learned through tests of our own and those of the Copyright Office that there are previously unknown problems when uploading titles into the current eCO system — errors that do not occur consistently and may not give out any warning signal. Due to these discoveries, the Copyright Office itself has stopped sending out the titling recommendation letters. If you receive one of these letters dated later than October 1st, please inform Susan Carr at carr@asmp.org.

While ASMP does believe that proper titling of the images you register is a good long-term goal, until the eCO system is prepared to receive this information reliably we currently recommend that you do NOT follow the suggestion of adding titles in the “contents title field” of the registration application. For now, we recommend that you continue to follow ASMP Best Practices for Registering. Additionally, ASMP has an instructional podcast that gives you a step by step guide for registering “groups of unpublished images.” This seven-minute instructional podcast is available here.

Photographers whose images were registered by Corbis and whose registrations have recently been held invalid at the District Court level have been in a state of limbo, trying to figure out what to do, pending decisions in the appeals of some of those cases. There is a procedure for filing a supplemental registration (Form CA) to provide the information that did not appear in the original registrations submitted by Corbis and that some District Courts have now said was necessary. Some trade groups have advised photographers to file those registrations as soon as possible. However, after discussions with the Copyright Office, we cannot recommend any particular course of action. Filing a supplemental registration could, under some circumstances, result in confusion in the court as to the effective date of the registration. This might become a serious problem if the earlier registrations are ultimately ruled to be valid by the appellate courts, since it could mean that your registration could be viewed as effective only as of the date of the supplemental registration, and not as of the date of the original registration.

You really need to weigh the pros and cons, and talk to your own lawyer, before deciding how to proceed here. This is not a situation where one approach is good for all photographers.

Next: Copyright Overview