Top of page
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Frances Carden, technical writer in the Copyright Modernization Office. I joined the Copyright Modernization Office (CMO) straight from a background in federal consulting. I honestly hadn’t planned to change jobs, but was drawn in by CMO’s posted job description requesting a technical writer namely because a) I’m a …
Posted in: Copyright, technology
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Emma Kleiner, Barbara A. Ringer Program fellow. Can a gossip website use copyrighted images of celebrities without first obtaining a license? Is an author allowed to incorporate elements from a Dr. Seuss book into his own manuscript? You can find clues to answer these questions–and many others–in the …
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Shawn Gallagher, management and program analyst. As a child growing up in the 1970s, one of my most prized possessions was a Luke Skywalker action figure. He was the hero of my youth, and I was surprised to learn recently that Luke wasn’t always a Skywalker. He was …
Posted in: Copyright, virtual card catalog
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Cindy Abramson, assistant general counsel. The Copyright Office has been hard at work trying to find ways to decrease wait times for registration applications and to decrease burdens placed on applicants. We are excited to announce today that we have published a new rule that helps further both …
Posted in: Copyright, Registration, Uncategorized
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Samantha Kosarzycki, legal intern, Office of Public Information and Education. It just wouldn’t feel like the holidays in our house without the annual showing of It’s a Wonderful Life, Holiday Inn, Scrooged, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Out of all the heartwarming holiday classics, I always considered It’s …
Posted in: Copyright, Supreme Court
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Whitney Levandusky, attorney-adviser, Office of Public Information and Education. Greetings, copyright applicants! When you visit the U.S. Copyright Office’s online registration on December 18, you may notice a few differences. We’re updating our software! I’m here to talk about the Single Application. It’s a simplified registration method that …
Posted in: Copyright, Registration
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Jason Sloan, attorney-advisor. The December 31 deadline is soon approaching for online service providers to re-register their previous DMCA agent designations with the U.S. Copyright Office. What’s this all about? Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), certain kinds of online service providers—for example, those that allow users …
Posted in: DMCA, online service provider
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Aurelia J. Schultz, counsel for policy and international affairs. At its annual meeting in Geneva in October, the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) discussed the future work of the Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore—called the IGC for short. The IGC’s …
Posted in: Copyright, Uncategorized, WIPO
Posted by: George Thuronyi
The following is a guest post by Erik Bertin, deputy director of registration policy and practice. Today is an important milestone in U.S. copyright law. It is the last possible day for serving a notice of termination under section 304(d) of the Copyright Act, which governs some older works. Authors or their heirs may use …
Posted in: Copyright, recordation, termination