300-15
319
Author deceased before date of creation of work. (cont'd)
will refuse to register the claim, since a deceased person cannot be a copyright claimant. Where the deceased person is named as the only author and another person or an organization is named as claimant, the Office will also refuse registration, since any transfer from the deceased author to the claimant could not fulfill the requirement of the copyright law that transfers of copyright ownership be in writing and signed by the transferor.
320
Machine-readable works. A machine-readable work is either an unpublished work which is fixed, or a published work which is published only in the form of machine-readable copies from which the work cannot ordinarily be perceived except with the aid of a machine or device. Works published in a form requiring the use of a machine or device for purposes of optical enlargement (such as film, filmstrips, slide films, and works published in any variety of microform), and works published in visually perceptible form but used in connection with optical scanning devices, are not within this category. Examples of nondramatic literary works which are machine-readable are computer programs and data bases. Such works may be embodied in the form of magnetic tapes or disks, computer chips, punched cards, or the like. See 37 C.F.R. 202.20(c)(2)(vii).
320.01
Literary works embodied in machine-readable form. Nondramatic literary works embodied in machine-readable form include computer programs and data bases, as well as other textual works, such as, instructional manuals, educational coursework, and the like.
321
Computer programs. A computer program is a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result. 17 U.S.C. 101.
[1984]
