On July 8, 2020, we here at the U.S. Copyright Office celebrated the Office’s 150th birthday. When engrossed in the day-to-day rhythm of our lives, we may feel like not much changes. But looking back over the Office’s historical timeline reveals how different the Office is today compared to when Congress established it.
Copyright Office history reflects the United States’ creative and technical innovations, important judicial rulings, and diplomatic treaties. Look at the Office’s early years and imagine yourself as a young staff member at the start of your copyright career on July 8, 1870. You are learning to register photographs and photographic negatives, which received protection only five years earlier. A few years later, you are celebrating the Copyright Office’s tenth anniversary while adjusting to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that ideas are not protected by copyright—a concept taken as a given in 2020. Still late