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Copyrights - 17 USC Section 401
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01/19/04
Sec. 401. Notice of copyright: Visually perceptible copies
(a) General Provisions. - Whenever a work protected under this
title is published in the United States or elsewhere by authority
of the copyright owner, a notice of copyright as provided by this
section may be placed on publicly distributed copies from which the
work can be visually perceived, either directly or with the aid of
a machine or device.
(b) Form of Notice. - If a notice appears on the copies, it shall
consist of the following three elements:
(1) the symbol G6&169; (the letter C in a circle), or the word
"Copyright", or the abbreviation "Copr."; and
(2) the year of first publication of the work; in the case of
compilations, or derivative works incorporating previously
published material, the year date of first publication of the
compilation or derivative work is sufficient. The year date may
be omitted where a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with
accompanying text matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting
cards, postcards, stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful
articles; and
(3) the name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an
abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally
known alternative designation of the owner.
(c) Position of Notice. - The notice shall be affixed to the
copies in such manner and location as to give reasonable notice of
the claim of copyright. The Register of Copyrights shall prescribe
by regulation, as examples, specific methods of affixation and
positions of the notice on various types of works that will satisfy
this requirement, but these specifications shall not be considered
exhaustive.
(d) Evidentiary Weight of Notice. - If a notice of copyright in
the form and position specified by this section appears on the
published copy or copies to which a defendant in a copyright
infringement suit had access, then no weight shall be given to such
a defendant's interposition of a defense based on innocent
infringement in mitigation of actual or statutory damages, except
as provided in the last sentence of section 504(c)(2).
HISTORICAL AND REVISION NOTES
HOUSE REPORT NO. 94-1476
A requirement that the public be given formal notice of every
work in which copyright is claimed was a part of the first U.S.
copyright statute enacted in 1790, and since 1802 our copyright
laws have always provided that the published copies of copyrighted
works must bear a specified notice as a condition of protection.
Under the present law the copyright notice serves four principal
functions:
(1) It has the effect of placing in the public domain a
substantial body of published material that no one is interested
in copyrighting;
(2) It informs the public as to whether a particular work is
copyrighted;
(3) It identifies the copyright owner; and
(4) It shows the date of publication.
Ranged against these values of a notice requirement are its
burdens and unfairness to copyright owners. One of the strongest
arguments for revision of the present statute has been the need to
avoid the arbitrary and unjust forfeitures now resulting from
unintentional or relatively unimportant omissions or errors in the
copyright notice. It has been contended that the disadvantages of
the notice requirement outweigh its values and that it should
therefore be eliminated or substantially liberalized.
The fundamental principle underlying the notice provisions of the
bill is that the copyright notice has real values which should be
preserved, and that this should be done by inducing use of notice
without causing outright forfeiture for errors or omissions.
Subject to certain safeguards for innocent infringers, protection
would not be lost by the complete omission of copyright notice from
large numbers of copies or from a whole edition, if registration
for the work is made before or within 5 years after publication.
Errors in the name or date in the notice could be corrected without
forfeiture of copyright.
Sections 401 and 402 set out the basic notice requirements of the
bill, the former dealing with "copies from which the work can be
visually perceived," and the latter covering "phonorecords" of a
"sound recording." The notice requirements established by these
parallel provisions apply only when copies or phonorecords of the
work are "publicly distributed." No copyright notice would be
required in connection with the public display of a copy by any
means, including projectors, television, or cathode ray tubes
connected with information storage and retrieval systems, or in
connection with the public performance of a work by means of copies
or phonorecords, whether in the presence of an audience or through
television, radio, computer transmission, or any other process.
It should be noted that, under the definition of "publication" in
section 101, there would no longer be any basis for holding, as a
few court decisions have done in the past, that the public display
of a work of art under some conditions (e.g., without restriction
against its reproduction) would constitute publication of the work.
And, as indicated above, the public display of a work of art would
not require that a copyright notice be placed on the copy
displayed.
Subsections (a) of both section 401 and section 402 require that
a notice be used whenever the work "is published in the United
States or elsewhere by authority of the copyright owner." The
phrase "or elsewhere," which does not appear in the present law,
makes the notice requirements applicable to copies or phonorecords
distributed to the public anywhere in the world, regardless of
where and when the work was first published. The values of notice
are fully applicable to foreign editions of works copyrighted in
the United States, especially with the increased flow of
intellectual materials across national boundaries, and the gains in
the use of notice on editions published abroad under the Universal
Copyright Convention should not be wiped out. The consequences of
omissions or mistakes with respect to the notice are far less
serious under the bill than under the present law, and section
405(a) makes doubly clear that a copyright owner may guard himself
against errors or omissions by others if he makes use of the
prescribed notice an express condition of his publishing licenses.
Subsection (b) of section 401, which sets out the form of notice
to appear on visually-perceptible copies, retains the basic
elements of the notice under the present law: the word "Copyright",
the abbreviation "Copr.", or the symbol "G6&169;"; the year of
first publication; and the name of the copyright owner. The year of
publication, which is still significant in computing the term and
determining the status of a work, is required for all categories of
copyrightable works. Clause (2) of subsection (b) makes clear that,
in the case of a derivative work or compilation, it is not
necessary to list the dates of publication of all preexisting
material incorporated in the work; however, as noted below in
connection with section 409, the application for registration
covering a compilation or derivative work must identify "any
preexisting work or works that it is based on or incorporates."
Clause (3) establishes that a recognizable abbreviation or a
generally known alternative designation may be used instead of the
full name of the copyright owner.
By providing simply that the notice "shall be affixed to the
copies in such manner and location as to give reasonable notice of
the claim of copyright," subsection (c) follows the flexible
approach of the Universal Copyright Convention. The further
provision empowering the Register of Copyrights to set forth in
regulations a list of examples of "specific methods of affixation
and positions of the notice on various types of works that will
satisfy this requirement" will offer substantial guidance and avoid
a good deal of uncertainty. A notice placed or affixed in
accordance with the regulations would clearly meet the requirements
but, since the Register's specifications are not to "be considered
exhaustive," a notice placed or affixed in some other way might
also comply with the law if it were found to "give reasonable
notice" of the copyright claim.
AMENDMENTS
1988 - Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100-568, Sec. 7(a)(1), (2),
substituted "General provisions" for "General requirement" in
heading, and "may be placed on" for "shall be placed on all" in
text.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 100-568, Sec. 7(a)(3), substituted "If a
notice appears on the copies, it" for "The notice appearing on the
copies".
Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 100-568, Sec. 7(a)(4), added subsec. (d).
EFFECTIVE DATE OF 1988 AMENDMENT
Amendment by Pub. L. 100-568 effective Mar. 1, 1989, with any
cause of action arising under this title before such date being
governed by provisions in effect when cause of action arose, see
section 13 of Pub. L. 100-568, set out as a note under section 101
of this title.
COMPLIANCE WITH PREDECESSOR NOTICE PROVISIONS; COPIES DISTRIBUTED
AFTER DEC. 31, 1977
Section 108 of Pub. L. 94-553 provided that: "The notice
provisions of sections 401 through 403 of title 17 as amended by
the first section of this Act [sections 401 through 403 of this
title] apply to all copies or phonorecords publicly distributed on
or after January 1, 1978. However, in the case of a work published
before January 1, 1978, compliance with the notice provisions of
title 17 either as it existed on December 31, 1977, or as amended
by the first section of this Act, is adequate with respect to
copies publicly distributed after December 31, 1977."
Last modified: April 19, 2006
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