Copyrights - 17 USC Section 404

01/19/04

Sec. 404. Notice of copyright: Contributions to collective works

(a) A separate contribution to a collective work may bear its own
notice of copyright, as provided by sections 401 through 403.
However, a single notice applicable to the collective work as a
whole is sufficient to invoke the provisions of section 401(d) or
402(d), as applicable with respect to the separate contributions it
contains (not including advertisements inserted on behalf of
persons other than the owner of copyright in the collective work),
regardless of the ownership of copyright in the contributions and
whether or not they have been previously published.
(b) With respect to copies and phonorecords publicly distributed
by authority of the copyright owner before the effective date of
the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, where the person
named in a single notice applicable to a collective work as a whole
is not the owner of copyright in a separate contribution that does
not bear its own notice, the case is governed by the provisions of
section 406(a).

HISTORICAL AND REVISION NOTES
HOUSE REPORT NO. 94-1476
In conjunction with the provisions of section 201(c), section 404
deals with a troublesome problem under the present law: the notice
requirements applicable to contributions published in periodicals
and other collective works. The basic approach of the section is
threefold:
(1) To permit but not require a separate contribution to bear
its own notice;
(2) To make a single notice, covering the collective work as a
whole, sufficient to satisfy the notice requirement for the
separate contributions it contains, even if they have been
previously published or their ownership is different; and
(3) To protect the interests of an innocent infringer of
copyright in a contribution that does not bear its own notice,
who has dealt in good faith with the person named in the notice
covering the collective work as a whole.
As a general rule, under this section, the rights in an
individual contribution to a collective work would not be affected
by the lack of a separate copyright notice, as long as the
collective work as a whole bears a notice. One exception to this
rule would apply to "advertisements inserted on behalf of persons
other than the owner of copyright in the collective work."
Collective works, notably newspapers and magazines, are major
advertising media, and it is common for the same advertisement to
be published in a number of different periodicals. The general
copyright notice in a particular issue would not ordinarily protect
the advertisements inserted in it, and relatively little
advertising matter today is published with a separate copyright
notice. The exception in section 404(a), under which separate
notices would be required for most advertisements published in
collective works, would impose no undue burdens on copyright owners
and is justified by the special circumstances.
Under section 404(b) a separate contribution that does not bear
its own notice, and that is published in a collective work with a
general notice containing the name of someone other than the
copyright owner of the contribution, is treated as if it has been
published with the wrong name in the notice. The case is governed
by section 406(a), which means that an innocent infringer who in
good faith took a license from the person named in the general
notice would be shielded from liability to some extent.

AMENDMENTS
1988 - Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100-568, Sec. 7(d)(1), substituted
"to invoke the provisions of section 401(d) or 402(d), as
applicable" for "to satisfy the requirements of sections 401
through 403".
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 100-568, Sec. 7(d)(2), substituted "With
respect to copies and phonorecords publicly distributed by
authority of the copyright owner before the effective date of the
Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, where" for "Where".
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.

Last modified: April 19, 2006