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Category: music

One of the original covers of the sheet music for "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," featuring cameo portrait of Trixie Friganza, vaudeville performer, girlfriend to lyricist Jack Norworth. Also pictured is a partial image of the sheet music for the song.

Taking Copyright Out to the Ball Game: A Closer Look at Baseball’s Most Famous Tunes

Posted by: Nicole McNew Chen

In 1908, lyricist Jack Norworth and composer Albert Von Tilzer wrote what would become one of the most recognized and most sung musical works in the United States: “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” This blog post explores the copyright connection to this popular musical work along with other baseball-themed music.

Photograph of hands on a keyboard, colored in blues and yellows.

A.I., Art, and Copyright: The Human Element That Makes All the Difference

Posted by: Ann Tetreault

This blog post is adapted from an article written by Copyright Office staff that was originally published in WIPO Magazine’s special edition on Music and IP, April 2025, a publication of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The capabilities of the latest generative AI technologies raise significant questions about the nature and scope of human …

An open book lays on a wooden table with a blue background. Musical notes, film, and pages come out of the book.

Lifecycle of Copyright: 1929 Works in the Public Domain

Posted by: Alison Hall

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 1929, 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 2025.

Lightly blue tinted image of the bottoms of a series of marble columns with a silver set of scales, representing the scale of justice in the right foreground. White text in the top right says "Copyright Claims Board" next to a white copy of the U.S. Copyright Office seal

How the Copyright Claims Board Can Lighten the Federal Court Docket

Posted by: Nora Scheland

This post is adapted from an article written by Copyright Claims Officers Brad Newberg, Monica McCabe, and David Carson about how the CCB can help lighten the federal docket that was originally published in The Judges’ Journal, Volume 63, Number 4, Fall 2024.

Background looks like a brown wooden table. On it, are two beige parchments showing early Copyright laws. On the right are two photographs with white frames around them. One is black and white and shows people working in a file room. The other is a color photograph of an aerial view of the Jefferson and Madison buildings on Capitol Hill

New Learning Engine Video Highlights the History of Copyright

Posted by: Nora Scheland

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.

1928 over an hourglass breaking with musical notes and film

Lifecycle of Copyright: 1928 Works in the Public Domain

Posted by: Alison Hall

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.

Two pink registration application cards set against a blurred background of a bookshelf in an office suite. Text reads: Over One Million Card Catalog Records Digitized in Copyright Public Records System Pilot, A Copyright: Creativity at Work Blog Post

Over One Million Card Catalog Records Digitized in Copyright Public Records System Pilot

Posted by: Nora Scheland

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.

Blue background with legal icons (gavel, check mark, scales of justice, document with check mark). Text reads: Copyright Claims Board CCB.gov #CASEAct

Checking in with the Copyright Claims Board Nearly Eighteen Months After Opening Day

Posted by: Nora Scheland

As we approach the eighteen-month mark for the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), we revisit a conversation with the CCB's three Copyright Claims Officers, David Carson, Monica McCabe, and Brad Newberg, from the one-year anniversary and share updated statistics about the Board's work between June 2022 and October 2023.

Blue dotted background spelling out a large A and I; text reads: Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Webinars

Our Summer of Artificial Intelligence: Copyright Office Hosts Two Webinars on Copyright and AI

Posted by: Nora Scheland

In June and July 2023, the Copyright Office hosted two public virtual webinars on the use of artificial intelligence technologies to generate works in creative fields. This blog post provides a brief recap of and links to the webinars, which focused on copyright registration guidance for AI-generated works and perspectives on how AI impacts copyright systems across the globe.