ArtUntitled.com ... Electronic Copyright Registration Information and Worksheet Portal

Copyright Registration Options for Visual Art

Copyright registration may be filed by either the barcoded CO form or via the online electronic process. The U.S. Copyright Office's online registration system (eCO) can be accessed here.

eCO online registration versus CO barcode form registration

The eCO process is a straight forward screen-by-screen process for officially registering a work of visual art (or other copyrightable matter) online. It is an easy to use system, but some terminology and information may be confusing for new users. Most users should be able to use this system, so long as a digital image or data file for your work is available. When you register your work online in the eCO process, including the upload of the artwork image (the deposit), it transferred to the Copyright Office servers and you can verify that the material has been received. If registration is time-critical, this is typically the preferred process primarily for that reason. The online registration fee is currently $35.

The Form CO barcode-based process has largely replaced the old standard paper VA form for most users that do not use the eCO online process. It is essentially a fusion of the online system and the traditional mail-in deposit process. The form is completed and then the deposit is mailed in to the Copyright Office seperately. This process might be used by persons who do not have or cannot create digital images or files of their artwork. When using the CO process is important to follow the instructions carefully for completing the form. Data or information cannot be added into the form after it is printed and improperly completed forms are subject to an automatic higher fee of $65. At this date, the basic cost for using the CO barcoded process is $50.

Group registration, including serials,¹ cannot be registered on Form CO. Group registration includes visual art published as contributions to periodicals, certain published photographs, and some collections of photographs. Generally, group registration cannot be used to register a "series" of artworks.² However, some photographs may be registered collectively as a group if they fulfill certain conditions.³ Group registration usually also requires companion paper forms for each single work included. Those forms are described in the next paragraph. See this page for more information about group registrations.

The standard paper based forms for Visual Arts (Form VA), as well as Form PA (performing arts, motion pictures), Form SR (sound recordings) and Form TX (literary works) are still available. However, the cost for using them has risen to $65 and the forms are only available by request.

Processing your registration

Collecting and organizing the information needed for either eCO or CO registration is the key to streamlining the registration process. ArtUntitled has created a worksheet for Copyright Registration for Visual Art that is intended to help with organizing and understanding the relevant information.

The artuntitled.com worksheet can be accessed below. However, if you are unfamiliar with copyright concepts and the (legal) terminology, it is suggested that–as a minimum–copyright basics should be reviewed prior to using the worksheet or the official online registration application. Additional information and advice may be sought through a legal services provider, by self research on the Copyright Office's website or through other sources. The Copyright Office also has excellent information for new users of the registration system and for those seeking to learn more about copyrights.

Go to the ArtUntitled worksheet. (html, 5 pages)

Go to the U.S. Copyright Office

Additional Resources:

"Circular 1: Copyright Basics" contains general registration information published by the Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf.

See also, [Art] Work Made for Hire, Authorship & Ownership and Copyright Basics (on ArtUntitled.com)

¹ Serials are defined by the Copyright Office as "groups of serial publications, such as newspapers, magazines, newsletters, journals..." This refers to the entire publication, rather than individual works. It does not included non-published series of artworks.

²Form GR/CP may only be used to register visual, literary and other works which will or have been published as a contribution to a newspaper or periodical, by the same author (artist) and claimant (person registering the work). For group registration, the work must have all been published within one calendar year, along with certain registration/deposit requirements. Such publication must be the first publication of the work. Also, works made for hire are not eligible for this type of registration. Completion of a form VA (or other subject matter form) is required along with form GR/CP. Form GR/CP cannot be used to obtain the registration of a series of artwork, such as a group of paintings, which has not been published in a periodical as noted above. For more information about GR/CP for Visual Arts, see the official instruction and forms: http://www.copyright.gov/forms/formgr_va.pdf

³Published photographs may be registered as a group with one filing fee if: "(a) all the photographs are by the same photographer...(b) all the photographs are published in the same calendar year; and (c) all the photographs have the same copyright claimant." For photos published as contributions to periodicals, similar conditions apply, but employers-for-hire cannot be named as the author of the works for group registration. See this page for more information.

In some circumstances, collections of unpublished photographs may be registered as a group (or as single works). See the last paragraphs of this page for more information and requirements. Please note that the Copyright Office's website, on this topic, uses the slightly ambiguous word "collection," rather than "collective work," which is the criteria specified in the Copyright Act (along with "compilations"). "Collective work" is defined by the Copyright Act as "a work, such as a periodical issue, anthology, or encyclopedia, in which a number of contributions, constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole." There may be a discrete difference in registering photographs as a collection (thereby defining them as a whole) rather than registering them seperately as individual works, and this may be a consideration in certain circumstances.