Page:Compendium of US Copyright Office Practices (1973).pdf/26

2.4.4

Preparation and Suitability for Oral Delivery.

I.

Preparation in the first instance for oral delivery.

a.

A manuscript that has clearly been pre­pared in the first instance for publi­cation and individual reading, rather than for oral delivery before an

audience, is not registrable in un­ published form, although in rejecting the claim the Office may point out the possibility of registration in Class A as a "book" after publication with notice.

Examples:

 

(1)

A 300-page novel

(2)

The usual poem

(3)

A manuscript consisting primarily of statistical tables and formulae

(4)

A Ph.D. dissertation

b.

In determining whether a manuscript con­stitutes a work prepared for oral de­livery or an unpublished book, some significance may be attached to the form in which the work is presented,and the presence of such elements as a little page, preface, foreword, table of contents, chapter headings, bibliog­raphy, footnotes, index, references to "the reader," specific page references in the text, illustrations, etc. The presence of some of these elements need not necessarily be conclusive, however.

c.

If the applicant insists that the manu­script was prepared in the first instance for oral delivery, and this does not seem altogether implausible, registration may be made in Class C.

[1973]