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Chapter 1000

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT

1001

Applicability of this chapter. The provisions of this chapter are applicable only to works first published on or after January 1, 1978. The Copy­right Office practices concerning the copyright notice as it relates to works first published before that date are found in Compendium I, which is still in effect for such works.

1002

Unpublished works. No notice of copyright is re­quired on unpublished works. An unpublished work which does not bear a notice of copyright will be accepted for registration. Registration will be made without correspondence by the Copyright Office for an unpublished work which bears a notice of copyright, even though the notice may be defective if used on the work when published.

1003

Published works. As a general rule whenever works protected under the copyright law are published in the United States or elsewhere by authority of the copyright owner, the notice of copyright prescribed by the law should appear on all publicly distributed copies from which the work can be visually perceived and on all publicly distributed phonorecords of sound recordings. See 17 U.S.C. 401(a) and 402(a). If a work is published without notice or with a fatally deficient notice by authority of the copyright owner, and if more than five years have elapsed since such publication, registration is not possible. See section 1008.01 below.

1003.01

Visually perceptible copies. A visually per­ceptible copy is one in which a work is fixed and from which such work can be visually per­ceived, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Examples of visually perceptible copies include books, sheet music, and photographs. Examples of works not embodied in visually perceptible form include literary, dramatic, or musical matter fixed in the re­corded sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work or in phonorecords. When such works are published in phonorecords, no copyright notice is required for the literary, dramatic, or musical material embodied in the phonorecords.

1000-1

[1984]