US Copyright Office: ar-1993

8/14/2019 US Copyright Office: ar-1993

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A N N U A LR E P O R TO F T H EL I B R A R I A N F C O N G R E S S

FOR TH E FISCAL YEAR EN DING30 SEPTEMBER 19 93

LI BRARY O F CO NG RE SSW A S H I N G T O N

1994


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Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East on "The U.S. Stake ina Democratic Russia."

Copyright To testify on the Copyright Reform Act of 1993, the Librarian andthe Register of Copyrights appeared on 4 March before the Subcom-mittee on Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration of theHouse Committee on the Judiciary. Activity on this proposed legisla-tion continued throughout the year. The Library worked extensivelywith Congress to accommodate the legitimate concerns for fairtreatment for American authors while at the same time assuring thatacquisitions through copyright registration and mandatory depositare maintained at least a t their present 1evel.The Library establishedan Advisory Committee on Copyright Registration and Deposit(ACCORD), chaired jointly by Barbara Ringer, former Register ofCopyrights, and Robert Wedgeworth, interim university librarian atthe University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Recommendationsdeveloped with the assistance of ACCORD were incorporated intoproposed legislation and would provide alternative inducements toregistration, improve registration and mandatory deposit systems,and provide for a review of the effects of legislative changes on t hecollections of the Library and the registration system. A separatelegislative proposal would also eliminate the Copyright Royalty Tri-bunal, transferring its functions to independen t ad hoc arbitrationpanels administratively supported by the Library and the CopyrightOffice. The Library has incorporated plans to assume this responsi-bility as part of the fiscal 1995 budget proposal. Neither proposalhad passed as the fiscal year ended.In addition to testifying on the Copyright Reform Act, the Registerof Copyrights testified on several other issues relating to the copy-right law during the fiscal year. On 17 March, he endorsed legisla-tion before the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property andJudicial Administration that would extend the satellite car rier com-pulsory license; on 25 March, he recommended to the same sub-committee a public performance right for sound recordings thatwould protect both performers and record producers; and on 29April he testified before the subcommittee on distribution rights atan oversight hearing on a possible protocol to the Berne Conven-tion, an international copyright convention that the United States


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joined in 1988. When hearings before the subcommittee continuedon 29 May, the register submitted written testimony on nationaltreatment under the Berne Convention and the move by the Euro-pean Union away frdm national treatment.The Copyright Office in December submitted to Congress tworeports on the status of artists' rights, which Congress requestedwhen it passed the Visual Artists' Rights Act of 1990 (P.L. 01-650).One dealt with the feasibility of implementing a resale royalty onvisual arts works. The other was a study of the effect of the waiverprovision of the moral rights of attribution and integrity grantedto visual artists by the act. This interim report summarized publiccomments received by the Copyright Office and outlined otherpossible steps to be taken to gather information for a final report,due 1December 1995.


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W r i g h t During fiscal 1999, the Copyright Office registered 604.894 claimss h m to copyright and mask works and completed cataloging of 565,625

items. It providqd assistance to 29,806 persons who visited the office,responded in writing to 139,209 inquiries, and answered 336,583telephone inquiries, for a grand total of 505,598 instances of directreference service.

On 1 October 1992, the Copyright Office issued final regulationsonregistration and deposit of architectural works, established by law asa new category of copyrightable subject matter. The regulation limitsregistration of architectural works to buildings occupied or inhabitedby humans. The new regulations specify that architectural works andtechnical drawings or blueprints must be registered separately.


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On 41 December, the Copyright Office amended its regulations gov-erning renewal registration practices to implement provisions of theCopyright Renewal Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-307). The act grants au t ematic renewal to extend copyright to full terms for all works eligiblefor renewal on o r after 1 anuary 1964.Th e office also issued several interim regulations to implement theAudio Home Recording Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-5681, which Congresspassed early in the fiscal year. The act requires manufacturers,importers, and distributors of digital audio recording equipmentand media in the United States to file certain statements and toremit royalties to the Copyright Ofice.

The Library and the Copyright Off~ cenitiated a project to developan electronic Copyright Management System in conjunction withthe Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) and theAdvanced Research Project Agency. CNRI, with the assistance of theCopyright Office and Information Technology Services, beganpreparing a system in which copyright registration, deposit, storage,and retrieval of research papers will be managed electronically.

Major progress was made in fiscal 1993 on development of the Copy-right Imaging System to permit copyright certificates to be pro-duced from images of original applications stored in the system.Integration of the new image system with the existing work trackingsystem was completed.

On 29 September 1993, the Library accepted the first copyright CD-ROM deposit copies that will be available for public use at theLibrary under new model agreements with organizations represent-ing electronic publishers. The deposits came after a year and a halfof negotiations to produce agreem ents endorsed by the Library ofCongress and members of the Information Industry Association, theNational Federation of Abstracting and Information Services, andthe Association of American Publishers. The agreements establishground ru les for access by the public to the CD-ROMs the Libraryacquires through copyright and adds to its collections. Previously,CD-ROM publishers had been reluctant to deposit the ir copyrightedworks at the Library, as required by law, because of concerns about


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COPYRIGHT REGISI'RAnONSFubWd va- T&Nondramatic literarywotks

Monographs and mac hii rea dab le works 150.073 49,164 199,ZSerials 87,777 - 87.7:

TOTAL 237.850 49,164 287.01Works of the performing arts, including

musical works, dramatic works, choreographyand pantomimes. and motion picturesand filmsmps 47.708 115,430 163,1!

Works of the visual arts, ncludingdimensional work of fine and graphicart,sculptural works, technical drawings andmodels, photographs, ca r w p h i c works,commercial prints and labels, and works ofapplied art 55.564 23.164 78,?

Sound recordings 11,867 22,839 S4.RTOTAL 352,989 210,597 563s

Renewals - - 4 0 9TOTAL.,all copyright regisvations 603,92

Semiconductor Chip Ro te do n ActMask work +nations

COPYRIGHTBUSINESS:SUMMARYSTATEMENT

Copyright claimsRenewalsGrou p Serials

TOTAL FEESA I L CLAIMSRecording documentsCertified documen tsSearches madeSpecial handling .Expedited servicesMask works at $20Section 407 deposits at $2Other services (photocopying, etc.)TOTAL FEES EXCLUSIVE OFCOPYRIGHTC W M STOTAL RECEIPTS

Fees processed and ~ T U M ~ C T T ~ ~To appropriationTo miscellaneous receiptsTOTAL FEES TRANSFERRED


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Copyright The Copyright Office's International Copyright Institute conductedthree sessions of training in Washington for officials from developing countries, newly industrialized countries, and countries in tran-sition from nonmarket to market economies. The purpose was topromote worldwide understanding and cooperation in providingprotection to intellectual property. Eighteen officials from Indone-sia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnamattended the 22 to 26 February session. From 17 to 25 May, theCopyright Office and the World Intellectual Property Organizationoffered a program to twenty-seven officials from Barbados, Belize,Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala,Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, St.Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Countries representedamong the fifteen officials at a 13 to 17 September program wereAlgeria, Egypt, Jordan , Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia,Tunisia, and Yemen.The Copyright Office continued to be active in a wide variety ofbilateral activities, assisting the Office of the U.S. Trade Representa-tive in its bilateral initiatives, especially those involving newly in&pendent countries. The Copyright Office provided technical assibtance to the following countries during the fiscal year: Taiwan,Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Poland, and Russia, which passed a copy-right law after four and a half years of consultations. The office alsoworked extensively with the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Hun-gary. Bilateral intellectual property agreements were reached withHungary and Ecuador, and the office participated in bilateral d i scussions with the European Union and with a number of LatinAmerican and Asian countries.

Documents

US Copyright Office: ar-1993