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We are pleased that the Office has proposed a solution that can be quickly implemented and takes a pragmatic approach by accepting deposits of identifying material to evaluate for registration. It is imperative that digital news publishers can reasonably and functionally access the full benefits of the copyright system, including the statutory remedies for infringement of their content.

Today’s notice is an important step, but not the end, of the process. The News/Media Alliance looks forward to commenting on the proposal and for the Office to swiftly finalize the rule so that publishers can make use of this group option. Building on past successful consultations in connection with the 2018 group newspaper registration rule, we will continue working with the Office to ensure the registration program meets the needs of media publishers. We look forward to further improvements once the outdated computer registration system is eventually updated, and commit to helping educate news publishers so that they may avail themselves of this new group option and comply with its requirements.

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The below Q&A is from an interview with News/Media Alliance Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Danielle Coffey, published in the February 2023 edition of Editor & Publisher Magazine. The original article is available here.

Q: In what ways have copyright laws and compliance become more complicated in the digital, social media age?

A: There are two sides to this question. First, digital transformation has led to a proliferation in the availability of news sources and content for journalists and publishers, as well as the number of middlemen that publishers have to deal with regularly. As a result, publishers must pay more attention to due diligence — ensuring that they understand the relationships between the original copyright owner and any platforms or middlemen they may use and that they have the necessary rights to any content they publish.

For example, many publishers have recently struggled with the legal uncertainty around using embedded content on Instagram without explicit authorization from the original poster. Related to this, the increased availability of photos and videos taken by amateurs during news events — especially fast-moving ones where time is of the essence — raises important questions on how to acquire the necessary licenses while remaining on top of the newsworthy situation. These conditions require publishers to pay particular attention to ensuring they comply with applicable copyright laws.

Second, the digital age has also made it more complicated for publishers to protect their content against unauthorized uses. These uses range from the overly-expansive use of news content by search and social media platforms, which the Alliance has advocated against at length, to the use of news content for AI training purposes, to the unlawful posting of full-text articles on services often based abroad, often within minutes of publication, threatening the original publishers’ ability to benefit from subscription and digital advertising revenues. These uses are often systematic, and the infringers are hard to detect and locate, making enforcing copyright laws difficult, time-consuming and expensive.

Q: How have U.S. copyright laws and protections been challenged in the courts in recent years? Are there particular cases that news publishers should be familiar with — or concerned about?

A: There have been a few cases in the last five years with implications for news publishers, with some of the most important being Fox News Network v. TVEyes (2018), Goldman v. Breitbart (2018), and Warhol v. Goldsmith (ongoing).

TVEyes concerned a service that copied broadcasts from over 1,400 TV and radio stations and allowed its subscribers to search, download, watch and share clips of these programs. The District Court had found that both the search function and the watch function were fair use. Fox appealed the decision as it related to the watch function, and the Circuit Court reversed, finding the fourth fair use factor — related to potential market harm — decisive. This was a key victory for rightsholders, with the Court correctly noting that the market effect on the copyright owner should be a major factor in fair use analysis and giving leverage to the argument that even the use of clips of protected content can hurt the copyright owner and should be subject to serious scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Goldman focused on publishers’ ability to embed third-party content from social media. Specifically, the defendants had embedded a tweet with the plaintiff’s photograph of Tom Brady without the original poster’s authorization. Rejecting the Ninth Circuit’s “server test,” the Second Circuit agreed with Goldman, finding that the embedding violated his exclusive rights despite the image being hosted on a third-party server. Similar questions have since arisen in other cases, often concerning Instagram — which recently introduced an option to opt-out of embedding following discussions with the News/Media Alliance — with one publisher settling a case brought by a photographer in New York and Instagram managing to squash a class-action lawsuit against itself related to its embedding function in California. This remains an important debate for publishers to follow.

Lastly, we’re also eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision on Warhol, which concerns Andy Warhol’s paintings of Prince, based on a portrait taken by photographer Lynn Goldsmith for Vanity Fair before Prince became famous. Following Prince’s death, Goldsmith discovered that Warhol had made a whole series of paintings based on the photo without her permission. The case raises important questions about what amounts to “transformative use” within fair use analysis. The Alliance submitted an amicus brief in support of neither party, outlining some of the delicate considerations the case raises, including how an overly broad definition of “transformative use” could threaten the copied work right. The Court heard oral arguments in the case this past October, with the decision due this spring.

Q: Copyright was at the heart of the news publisher v. Big Tech negotiations in Europe. Can you share a synopsis of those negotiations and where things stand in Europe? Also, help us wrap some context around what’s happened in Europe and what it may mean for news publishers here in the States.

A: The European Union’s adoption in 2019 of its Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, including Article 15, which requires member states to create a so-called “Publishers’ Right,” was a landmark development. It acknowledged the inability of publishers to effectively protect their content online against unauthorized uses by online platforms and provided publishers with an independent right to do so. In France, the first country to implement Article 15 in national law, publishers soon encountered problems negotiating with Google. In 2019, soon after the law’s adoption, Google refused to pay publishers and indicated it would stop showing excerpts in search results unless a publisher waived its right to compensation. Following a challenge by French publishers, the French competition authority issued an interim ruling, finding that Google likely engaged in anticompetitive behavior and required Google to engage in negotiations. While Google engaged in negotiations and reached some deals after the decision, the French competition watchdog issued a €500 million fine against Google a year later for failing to comply with the orders on conducting such negotiations. Following this fine, Google proposed commitments in early 2022 to change its practices and to resolve the investigation into its anticompetitive practices. The competition authority accepted Google’s commitments in June, with Google expected to negotiate with a broader selection of publishers in good faith.

From the publishers’ viewpoint in the United States, Europe established a precedent that Australia improved upon. The Alliance has embraced a model similar to Australia based on competition law, where the anticompetitive conduct and power of the monopolies are more squarely addressed. The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, considered by Congress during the last session, would have adopted a similar approach in the U.S. to the Australian model, while Canada, the UK, and India are also considering similar approaches. All of the approaches attempt to address the disparities in the digital ecosystem that allow dominant online platforms not only to set the rules of the game but to reap the vast majority of rewards. Publishers need more leverage to negotiate fairer terms and compensation that help preserve high-quality journalism for future generations.

Q: Is the News/Media Alliance engaged in lobbying Congress for any changes to copyright law or protections granted to news publishers?

A: In comments submitted with the Copyright Office, the Alliance recommended that Congress explore a sui generis, or quasi-property right, that would recognize an exchange of value outside of the fair use factors but within copyright law. We are also actively advocating for changes that would allow publishers to register dynamic web content, which is currently impossible. This would significantly affect the publishers’ ability to register and protect their content online effectively.

Q: Who, typically or ideally, should be concerned with or tasked with copyright compliance at the news publisher?

A: This depends a lot on the type and size of the publication, with no easy one-size-fits-all answer. Some large publishers may have whole teams responsible for ensuring compliance with various laws, including copyright, while smaller outlets may rely on an individual person, such as an image editor. The most important thing is that whoever is responsible for compliance takes their job seriously, has the time and resources to do so properly, and has the authority to affect publishing decisions.

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By Johannes Munter, outside consultant, and Allison Reed

In late June, the U.S. Copyright Office released its long-awaited report on copyright protections for news publishers. The report, requested by Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and others last year, focused on whether the United States should adopt similar ancillary copyright protections for news publishers as those created by the European Union in 2019.

Article 15 of the EU’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market – a broader package to harmonize copyright laws across the Union – required members states to implement national laws to better allow publishers to protect their content online and to negotiate with online platforms for compensation. This so-called “publishers’ right” was warranted due to considerable variance in rights afforded to news publishers across the EU, leaving many publishers with no independent rights to protect their works.

The study – informed by two comment periods and a public roundtable, all of which the News/Media Alliance participated in – does not recommend the creation of new ancillary copyright protections for news publishers in the U.S. This conclusion was consistent with the News/Media Alliance views.  This recommendation is based on the undisputable fact that American publishers in most case already own the copyrights to the content they publish, in addition to which, they have at their disposal various other ways to protect their content – including paywalls, technological circumvention protections under Section 1201, and contractual provisions. Implementing new ancillary rights would not lead to a significant improvement or change for U.S. publishers, especially as the marketplace is characterized by an uneven playing field and bargaining power between publishers and a few dominant online platforms.

The report closely follows our recent white paper on Google’s abusive business practices and the recommendations made by the Alliance in our comments and during the roundtables in highlighting the current state of news media, acknowledging the existing protections, and noting the imbalanced bargaining power that prevents publishers from enforcing their rights effectively in the digital ecosystem. The Alliance’s comments noted that U.S. publishers already enjoy protections similar to those established by the EU Copyright Directive, while being unable to effectively enforce those rights due to existing power imbalances. Consequently, the Alliance called on the Copyright Office to endorse the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) as a potential solution to the competition problem and to conclude that the use of news content by aggregators is not, in most cases, fair use.

While the report recognizes that problems in the digital marketplace are largely competition-based, and therefore outside the Copyright Office’s remit, it highlights the JCPA as a potential non-copyright solution to the problem. The report also includes an extended fair use discussion, balancing both sides of the argument, and acknowledging that not all uses of news content by aggregators are likely to be fair use. Related to the Alliance’s argument that systemic aggregation has a noticeable negative effect on the demand for news content, the Office notes that “widespread aggregation may significantly impede the ability of press publishers to obtain payment for their expression” and that “[t]o the extent that aggregation provides a substitute that ‘satisfies most demand for the full original’ and decreases the resources available for original news reporting, this would cut against a finding of fair use.” This conclusion captures the essence of the Alliance’s fair use argument and provides an important marker for courts analyzing cases involving systemic aggregation of news content.

In addition to its fair use and bargaining power discussions, the report also addresses the inability of news publishers to register dynamic web content – a major impediment to effective protection and an issue highlighted by the Alliance in our comments. The Office recognizes the importance of the issue and notes that it is actively considering ways to address it during the ongoing Copyright Office modernization efforts. The Alliance will continue working with the Office to ensure that these changes get implemented expeditiously in order to allow publishers to register and better protect their content online.

Despite arguments by some detractors to the contrary, the Alliance has never requested the Copyright Office to recommend the creation of additional ancillary copyright protections for publishers. Our members already have the tools to protect their content. However, the abusive practices of the dominant online platforms, together with the disparate bargaining power between them and news publishers, make enforcing those rights effectively next to impossible. By providing a time-limited period during which publishers could come together to negotiate with the large platforms for fair compensation, the JCPA would help balance the playing field and provide a lifeline for high-quality journalism in America. The Copyright Office’s report closely follows the Alliance’s comments and amounts to an important acknowledgment of the issues faced by news publishers. We look forward to working together with the Office to ensure that news publishers are well-positioned to utilize their existing rights to protect news content online, while continuing to push Congress to act on the anticompetitive practices of the dominant online platforms.

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Asks Copyright Office to amend policies, documents regarding copyrightability of words and short phrases, study need to clarify laws around substantial takings,
systematic use of news content by aggregators

Arlington, VA – On January 5, the News Media Alliance submitted additional comments to the Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, in response to a request for additional comments to assist it in the preparation of the “Publishers’ Protection Study.” The study, requested by Congress last year, will examine the state and effectiveness of current protections for publishers and whether additional protections are desirable and appropriate. The Alliance highlighted the urgency of the situation and the need for swift action to better protect news publishers in both its initial and additional comments.

In this round of comments, the Alliance built upon its original comments, filed on November 23, 2021, with additional recommendations for the Office’s consideration. In addition, the Alliance responded to comments submitted by other groups, as well comments provided during the Publishers’ Protections Study Roundtable, held by the Copyright Office on December 9 and in which the Alliance was represented on all three panels.

In rebutting comments from other groups alleging that the use of news content by online aggregators is fair use or not infringing, the Alliance comments state that such “substantially inaccurate statements… have the effect of obscuring the truth in an effort to circumvent long-established U.S. copyright jurisprudence, as well as case-by-case fair use analysis,” in addition to misrepresenting the nature and extent of the aggregators’ use of news content.

The Alliance also made four more recommendations – in addition to the recommendations made in its original comments – in order to further improve the sustainability of high-quality journalism, including: 1) amending the Copyright Office’s policies and documents regarding the copyrightability of “words and short phrases”; 2) clarifying the law around substantial takings and systematic use of news content; 3) studying the need for sui generis protections for news publishers; and 4) studying the need for further guidance or congressional action with regards to the use of news content for artificial intelligence applications.

Alliance Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Danielle Coffey, said, “While the Constitution is intended to protect creative works, quality journalism is not adequately compensated by aggregators under our current legal system. News publishers make massive investments in reporters and newsrooms, and they must have the ability to exercise their rights and receive a return on that investment, including through the ability of publishers to receive fair compensation for the use of their content online.”

In its initial comments, submitted in November, the Alliance suggested measures to rebalance the existing system to prevent further abuse of news publishers’ online content by the dominant tech platforms such as Google and Facebook.

In those comments, the Alliance asked the Copyright Office to 1) conclude that the reproduction and public display of news content by aggregators is infringing; 2) implement changes to registration practices that would help protect press publishers; 3) look to Article 15 of the European Union (EU) Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (the “DSM Directive”) to help ensure that American publishers benefit from and receive compensation for the consumption of their content in the EU, by adopting strong national treatment provisions in any bilateral agreements with the EU; and 4) endorse the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2021 (JCPA), intended to help address the market abuse of dominant online platforms.

Coffey continued, “The current imbalance in the digital ecosystem caused by the dominant tech platforms poses an existential threat to high-quality journalism. We cannot afford to lose more of the local news publishers that we trust and rely on for critical information about news and events that impact our lives and communities. The Alliance commends Senator Tillis for his leadership in requesting this study, and the Copyright Office for undertaking this important work, and we look forward to working with the Copyright Office to offer insight and data to assist them in suggesting solutions to Congress to address the current problems facing the industry.”

Read the Alliance’s full comments here.

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Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arlington, VA – The News Media Alliance and National Newspaper Association, both long-standing newspaper advocacy organizations with Washington, D.C., area offices, have created a joint policy group to assist their members in the newspaper industry with postal issues and public policy.

NNA, founded in 1885 as Newspaper Editorial Association, will take the lead on postal issues, an area of expertise for its entire history. News Media Alliance, whose legacy organization was founded in 1887, will advise NNA on digital publishing policies, on which it has sharpened its expertise since the breakup of the Bell telephone companies in the 1990s.

As part of the agreement, the National Newspaper Association Foundation will open its postal training tools to Alliance members and NNA will assist in case-specific postal problems through its Postal Hotline.

The Alliance will continue to factor in the concerns of community newspapers in its advocacy on important industry issues like the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, and the two groups will form an consultative task force to help the industry to speak with one voice on other critical issues, such as journalism and First Amendment advocacy. The Alliance manages the media industry’s News Media for Open Government coalition, which includes organizations that lobby for government transparency. NNA is a founding member of NMOG.

The agreement’s member-benefits offerings will take effect in January 2022, and will feature training for newspapers and publishers in the use of Periodicals mail. Growing numbers of newspaper publishers are turning to mail delivery for distribution. Advocacy consultation has already begun.

NNA Chair Brett Wesner and Alliance Executive Vice President & General Counsel Danielle Coffey said they saw this agreement as a powerful combination to create efficiency in newspaper industry advocacy and training.

“These are the two organizations that have been the voices for newspapers in Washington for more than a century, NNA representing the smaller newspapers and NMA the larger ones,” Wesner, president of Wesner Publications, Cordell, Oklahoma, said. “The demands and expenses of doing this work have accelerated in recent years and we see that this trajectory is going to continue. It seemed to both of us that we could do a better job if we eliminate duplication and amplify our voices wherever possible.”

“The News Media Alliance is pleased to partner with NNA to help amplify our voice on key shared issues of importance to our members,” Coffey said. “We look forward to collaborating with NNA to help drive important public policy results that will benefit local news publishers, as well as equip our members with resources and training to help navigate the changing postal landscape.”

While NNA and NMA will handle the public policy side, the NNA Foundation’s role will be the third leg of this innovative partnership, bringing a broad educational piece to the table.

“NNA Foundation has been accelerating its newspaper training programs all year,” NNA Foundation President Matt Adelman, publisher of the Douglas (Wyoming) Budget, said. “We have periodic webinars on all sorts of subjects. This agreement will become part of our new Max Heath Postal Institute, whose mission is to make newspapers and printers better users of the mail. NMA’s members will be eligible to join us for this training. We look forward to working together.”

The faculty for the joint training endeavors will be the Washington office and headquarters personnel for NNA and NMA, including Danielle Coffey, News Media Alliance executive vice president and general counsel; Lynne Lance, NNA executive director; Tonda Rush, NNA General Counsel; and Matthew Paxton, publisher of the News-Gazette, Lexington, Virginia, and Bradley Hill, president of Interlink Inc., a postal software company.

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The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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Copyright Office should allow creators to register website content, provide protection against tech platforms exploiting news publisher content

Arlington, VA – The News Media Alliance submitted comments to the Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, in response to the U.S. Copyright Office’s notice and request for public input to assist it in the preparation of the “Publishers’ Protection Study,” requested by Congress in order to provide a detailed examination of the online problems confronting press publishers, including the nature, scope and severity of the crisis facing the news publishing industry from the unlicensed uses of their online content, and its impact on the continued viability of news publishers to provide the public with important news and information in order to sustain a strong democracy.

In its comments, the Alliance highlights the need for key updates to the existing system to prevent further abuse of news publishers’ online content by the dominant tech platforms such as Google and Facebook.

Facebook and Google currently do not consistently or adequately compensate news publishers for use of their original content. They make millions of dollars off of that content, while also exerting anticompetitive dominance over the digital advertising ecosystem, which news publishers rely on to be able to continue investing in producing high-quality journalism.

According to Pew Research Center, news publisher advertising revenues fell from approximately $50 billion to an estimated $8.8 billion between 2005 and 2020, a reduction of over 80 percent.

The Alliance comments state that, “As the result of the unauthorized and uncompensated taking of headlines, reported and gathered factual data, and portions of news articles (including, for example, ledes) by these [dominant] platforms,” press publishers have lost advertising and subscription revenue which could be used to help fund news content. The platforms, meanwhile, argue that their use of news content is not copyright infringement under the Copyright Act.

Alliance Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Danielle Coffey, said, “Americans are consuming more news than ever, and yet we are facing a crisis in which news publishers across the country are being forced to close because they are not being compensated fairly for use of their original content. The Alliance thanks Senator Tillis for his leadership in requesting this study and commends the Copyright Office for this important undertaking that will highlight this crisis facing the news publishing industry, a critical copyright-based industry that has long benefited publishers, authors, and the news consuming public.”

In its comments, the Alliance recommends that in its study, the Copyright Office should offer “a menu of suggested viable solutions to allow Congress to make informed decisions about any necessary amendments to the Copyright Act, or other federal laws.”

In sum, the Alliance would respectfully ask the Copyright Office to: (1) conclude that the reproduction and public display of news content by aggregators is infringing; (2) implement changes to registration practices that would help protect press publishers; (3) look to Article 15 of the European Union (EU) Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (the “DSM Directive”) to help ensure that American publishers benefit from and receive compensation for the consumption of their content in the EU, by adopting strong national treatment provisions in any bilateral agreements with the EU; and (4) endorse the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2021 (JCPA), intended to help address the market abuse of dominant online platforms.

The Alliance has been vocal in its support of an ancillary copyright and the ability for news publishers to register online content, such as through an ancillary copyright similar to that established in Europe in 2019. The adoption of an ancillary copyright in the United States would help balance the relationship between news publishers and the dominant online platforms and help news publishers get fair compensation for the use of their protected content online.

Earlier this year, Australia passed legislation to require the online platforms to compensate news publishers for the use of their content.

Coffey continued, “Americans cannot afford to lose more of the local news publishers they have come rely on and trust for critical information about news and events around the country and the world, as well as in their backyards, that impact their daily lives. The time to act is now. We must ensure the continued viability of high-quality journalism, which is the solution to combating harmful misinformation, fake news, and hate speech perpetuated via the social media platforms. We look forward to working with the Copyright Office to offer insight and data to assist them in suggesting solutions to Congress to address the current problems facing the industry.”

Read the Alliance’s full comments here.

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Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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Q: The new rules are in effect as of March 1, 2018.  Do the new rules to apply to newspapers that were circulated prior to March 1?

A: Yes, all newspapers that are submitted for group registration as of March 1 must comply with the new rules.  So, to the meet the three-month filing deadline, newspapers circulated in January must be filed by March 31 in PDF, February newspapers by April 30, and so on. There is, however, significant leniency for what constitutes an “attempt” at filing the PDF so as to comply with the new rules and allow for microfilm (as a voluntary, back-up submission) to satisfy the group registration during the transition period.  The Copyright Office will notify filers if the PDF is non-compliant.
 

Q: Would the Copyright Office/Library consider extending these new rules to apply to March 1 papers (to be filed via PDF by May 31), rather than retroactively, so that there is additional time to comply with these new rules?

A: No, the rules will not be extended, but there is leniency for what constitutes an “attempt” at filing the PDF so as to comply with the new rules and allow for microfilm to satisfy the group registration during the transition period.
 

Q: Will there be an automated way to push PDF files through an FTP site like the pilot program, or will the individual uploads be the only option for the foreseeable future?

A: No, there will not be an automated FTP site.
 

Q: Do the new rules apply to mandatory deposits of newspapers (deposit only, not copyright registration), and will the new system/process allow for PDF submissions to the Library for deposit-only submissions?

A: No, the new rules do not apply to deposit-only submissions.  For publishers only submitting newspapers to satisfy the Library of Congress’s mandatory deposit requirement may continue to submit microfilm for the foreseeable future.  The new system will not allow for deposit-only submissions of PDF at this time.
 

Q: Can members use their print ISSN numbers for the PDF submissions?

A: Yes, the Office will accept an application if the publisher uses their print ISSN in the file name for the PDFs.
 

Q: What happens to newspapers that fail to submit PDFs and submit microfilm-only instead.  Will they be notified?

A: Under the new rule, applicants must send PDFs, but may also send microfilm in case the PDF is deficient. If we only get a deficient PDF and no microfilm, the applicant will receive a refusal. If we get only microfilm, an applicant will receive a refusal. The transition period allows the microfilm as a backup to a deficient PDF.
 

Q: The instructions state: “The metadata for each file should contain the publication date in the “dc:date” field, and the ISSN for the newspaper in the “dc:identifier” or “xmp: identifier” fields.”  Do publishers need to actually insert this into each PDF file or is the fact that it appears on the paper enough?

A: No, there is no metadata required.  Only the file name, as specified in the “help text.”
 

Q: May third-party vendors submit periodicals on behalf of publishers for the registration process, including form, payment, and upload of PDFs?

A:  Yes, the Copyright Office and Library rules do not prevent third-party vendors from submitting on behalf of publishers.
 

Q:  While filing microfilm in tandem with the PDFs, will publishers have to pay twice?

A: File the PDF through the online system, create the form, pay the fee, and then print out the SR Number (which is a proof of payment with a tracking number) and send a copy in with the microfilm—no new form, no new check.
 

Q:  Are current microfilm submissions that are being sent to the following address: Register of Copyright, Copyright Off Lm438c/Copyright Acq Div, 101 Independence Ave SE., Washington, DC, 20559-6600, going to this address for the Copyright Office registrations or for deposits? 

A: All microfilm submissions should be sent to the following address:
Library of Congress
U.S. Copyright Office
Attn: 407 Deposits
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20559
Microfilm sent to this location may be used for purposes of satisfying the mandatory deposit requirement under section 407.
Microfilm sent to this address may also be used for purposes of registration, in addition to uploading the required PDF files. If a publisher sends microfilm and uploads PDF files to the electronic system, and if there are deficiencies in any of the PDFs, the Copyright Office may, in its discretion, allow the microfilm to be used to cure those deficiencies. The microfilm must be submitted at the same time as the application and PDF files, and the publisher must attach a “shipping slip” to the package containing the microfilm. If the publisher fails to attach a shipping slip to the microfilm, the Office will not be able to connect it with the group registration application.
To create a shipping slip, publishers should complete the online application, pay the filing fee, and upload the PDF files. Next, they should select the “Create Shipping Slip” button at the bottom of the Case Summary screen, and then open the link and print the shipping slip. For guidance on how to create a shipping slip, consult the tutorial on the U.S. Copyright Office’s website.
 

Q: For newspapers that currently maintain a deposit account with the Copyright Office, which gets charged the monthly fee when the certificate is issued, are those the same accounts to be used in the new system? If so, where in the system can the account holders access them? If not, how do account holders close the account and get the balance back?

A: Yes, the filing fee may be charged to an existing deposit account. Alternatively, it may be paid by credit card, debit card, or with an electronic check.
The filing fee must be paid through the government website, www.pay.gov. To access this site, select “Add to Cart” on the Review Submission screen. Then select “Checkout” on the “My Cart” screen.
Once the payment has been made, you will receive an email confirming the receipt of the application and deposit. To complete the submission process, the publisher then must upload a PDF copy of each issue being registered.
 

Q: The U.S. Copyright Fee website lists fees that the publisher must pay ($55, $25 per issue or $80 for daily newspapers). What criteria determines what each publisher pays? Are these one-time fees, monthly or per issue?

A: The filing fee for a group registration of newspaper issues is $80 for each group (not each issue). Publishers must pay the $80 filing fee for each application that is submitted through the electronic registration system. When the publisher reaches the website, the system will automatically charge the correct amount to their preferred payment method (e.g. credit card, debit card, bank account or deposit account).
 

Q: If the Copyright Office permits tear sheets to satisfy registration requirements, must that be replaced with PDFs?

A: Individual tear sheets are not acceptable.  Publishers must submit a complete copy of each issue published in the month specified in the application.  Each issue must be contained in a separate PDF file with the pages arranged in reading order.
 

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