United States Copyright Office
The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that registers copyright claims, records information about copyright ownership, provides information to the public, and assists Congress and other parts of the government on a wide range of copyright issues.[1] It maintains online records of copyright registration and recorded documents within the copyright catalog, which is used by copyright title researchers who are attempting to clear a chain of title for copyrighted works.
For the laws that this administers, see Copyright law of the United States and Law of the United States.
The Register of Copyrights heads the Copyright Office. Shira Perlmutter is the 14th and current Register, since October 26, 2020.[2]
The Copyright Office is located in the James Madison Memorial Building of the Library of Congress, at 101 Independence Avenue SE, in Washington, DC.[3] While open to the general public, appointments must be made to visit the Public Information Office and Copyright Public Records Reading Room.
History[edit]
The United States Constitution provides for establishing a system of extensive copyright laws in the United States. The first federal copyright law, the Copyright Act of 1790, was enacted on May 31, 1790, and covered only books, maps, and charts. Claims were originally recorded by Clerks of U.S. district courts. On June 9, 1790, the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania registered the first work, the Philadelphia Spelling Book by John Barry.[4]
In 1870, copyright functions were centralized in the Library of Congress under the direction of the then Librarian of Congress - Ainsworth Rand Spofford. Between 1870 and 1897, the Librarian of Congress also served as the head of the Copyright Office.[1] The Copyright Office became a separate department of the Library of Congress on February 19, 1897, and Thorvald Solberg was appointed the first Register of Copyrights on July 22, 1897.[5]
The 1909 Copyright Act was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 4, 1909, which expanded protection to additional types of works. [6]
In the 1930s, the Copyright Office moved from its location in the Thomas Jefferson Building to new quarters in what is now the John Adams Building and in the 1970s it moved again, to its present quarters in the James Madison Memorial Building.
On October 19, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford signed into law the Copyright Act of 1976, which became effective on January 1, 1978. This law lengthened duration copyright protection and again expanded the types of works that covered under federal copyright protection, and with amendments made since then, is the current copyright law in effect.[7]
