The U.S. Copyright Office has published a proposed regulation that would dramatically raise fees for all copyright registration applications. For example, the “standard” application is set to go up from $65 today to $85. The increase for groups of photographs would go from $55 to $85. Also, the Office’s lowest fee option, $45 for the “single work” application, is being discontinued.
What can you do? Public comments are being accepted from today through May 4th. If you agree that these increases will be too much of a burden on creators, we urge you to write to the Copyright Office. If you are an American citizen, you can also write to your Congressman and Senators. Congress has the power to disapprove the proposed fee increases, but they would have to act in the next three months.
We expect serious opposition to these proposed fee increases but they could go forward, anyway. If you have back-catalog that you have been meaning to register, NOW is the time. You can save yourself a LOT of money by getting those registration applications in BEFORE the fees go up.
Either way, RightsClick will be here to help you protect, manage, and enforce your rights. Because, it’s your work.
To submit your comments to the USCO, go here.
