No. 16
DETERMINATION OF EFFECTIVE DATE OF REGISTRATION FOR UNPUBLISHED WORKS WHERE THE MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR REGISTRATION CONTAINED A CLEAR DISCREPANCY WHICH THE COPYRIGHT OFFICE SHOULD HAVE OBSERVED BEFORE COMPLETING THE ENTRY
1. The following hypothetical case illustrates the problem: an application Form E, resitration fee, and one copy of an unpublished musical work are received in the Copyright Office on May 15, 1967. Registration of the claim is made and a registration number assigned to the work on May 22, 1967. On May 26th an error is discovered substantially affecting the registration which the Copyright Office should have observed prior to making the entry on May 22nd. The Copyright Office requests a new application Form B which E received on June 5, 1967, and which bears the latter date of receipt. The effective date of registration for an unpublished work is the date on which the last of the three elements required for registration, that is, the application, copy, and fee, is received in acceptable form in the Copyright Office.
2. In cases of this kind involving unpublished works, the date of registration should ordinarily be the date which would have been used it the registration had not involved an error which the Copyright Office should have observed prior to making the entry. In the above mentioned example, the effective date of the registration would be May 15, 1967. Accordingly, the later date of receipt would be removed from the new application Form E and replaced by the earlier date, namely, May 15, 1967.
3. In cases where the error necessitates requesting a new copy of an unpublished. work, determination of the effective date of registration will depend upon the nature of the new copy. Thus, for example, assuming the sequence of dates given in the first paragraph of this memorandum:
