On August 1, 2024, the Copyright Office hosted a public webinar, Level Up Your Copyright Public Records Search, sharing ways of searching copyright public records using our pilot of the new Copyright Public Records System (CPRS). CPRS is an easy-to-navigate, highly searchable database with the ability to download, save, email, and share public records such as …
This blog post introduces the U.S. Copyright Office’s newest Learning Engine video, “History of Copyright,” which chronicles the history of copyright and the Copyright Office. The Office has released the video, and this blog post, timed with the 234th anniversary of the Congressional bill that eventually became the first federal copyright law.
Every year on January 1, a new class of creative works enters the public domain in the United States. This year, a variety of works published in 1928, ranging from motion pictures to music to books, joined others in the public domain. The public domain has important historical and cultural benefits in the lifecycle of copyright. Here we highlight a selection of works entering the public domain in 2024.
This summer, the Copyright Office reached a new milestone in our modernization efforts: one million card catalog records have been digitized with searchable metadata and added to the Office’s Copyright Public Records System (CPRS) pilot. Learn more about CPRS, the Office’s digitization efforts, and historical registration application cards in this blog post.
The U.S. Copyright Office has now released over 9 million digitized pages documenting copyright registrations for books, periodicals, and unpublished musical works found in the Copyright Historical Record Books Collection
This Native American Heritage Month, we are celebrating the "firsts" in a blog series called, "Celebrating the Firsts: Shining a Light on Trailblazing Artwork by Native Artists." This blog features the first novel by a Native American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize. The novel is called House Made of Dawn and was written by N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa).
This Native American Heritage Month, we are celebrating the "firsts" in a blog series called, "Celebrating the Firsts: Shining a Light on Trailblazing Artwork by Native Artists." This blog features the first painting by a Native American artist acquired by the National Gallery of Art. The painting is called I See Red: Target and is by Juane Quick-to-See Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation).
This year, we are celebrating Native American Heritage Month and Native American Heritage Day with a blog series called Celebrating the Firsts: Shining a Light on Trailblazing Artwork by Native Artists. In this four-part series, we are recognizing five indigenous creators who have participated in our copyright system and enriched our culture. Join us on a …
The early days of motion pictures were a time of experimentation and discovery, not only for pioneers who invented new formats and methods, but also for copyright law and the U.S. Copyright Office, keeping pace with innovative, creative endeavors. A recent discovery has shed light on one of the key facts missing from our understanding …