A year or two ago I bought licenses for using Publisher Rocket and also Atticus so I am on Dave Chesson’s email distribution list. Mr Chesson is the CEO of Aegis Investments, and the founder of Publisher Rocket, Atticus and more.
In an email received today, subject: Why copyright registration just became non-negotiable, Dave had this to say:
“Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI model, scraped hundreds of thousands of books from pirate sites. When the case went to court, the judge ruled that using pirated books isn’t fair use.
The result? About 465,000 books were identified as part of the case, and the rights holders of those books are now eligible for payments of around $3k per title.
But here’s what most people missed: Not every impacted author gets a check.
Only those with registered copyrights are eligible.”
So, is it true? Is this something else indy authors need to do?
I had checked this out previously and from the copyright.gov/engage/writers page they state the following:
- Copyright protection does not extend to names, titles, short phrases, ideas, methods, facts, or systems. It does, however, cover specific creative expression. For example, copyright does not protect the general idea of a group of friends who journey on a heroic quest to defeat evil. However, it will protect the creative expression of this idea, like the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. As a copyright owner, you have the right to make, sell, or otherwise distribute copies; adapt the work; and publicly recite or display your work.
- Second, you should know that copyright protection exists from the moment an original work is “fixed” in a tangible medium. For writers, fixation occurs when your ideas are written down on paper or typed using a computer, for example. You don’t need to do anything else for your work to be protected by copyright.
- Although your work is protected by copyright from the moment it is fixed, the U.S. Copyright Office recommends registering your work with us to create a public record of your ownership and for additional legal benefits like the ability to bring an infringement claim for U.S. works in either federal court or with the Copyright Claims Board (discussed below). Applying for registration with the U.S. Copyright Office requires an application, a filing fee, and a copy of the work (which the Office calls a “deposit”).
- The filing fee for registering a copyright for a single literary work online is approximately $45, while paper filing costs about $125.
If you want to dive into this deeper, on the Copyright.gov site, specifically the registration of literary works page, there are a bunch of resources for your learning experience that are as follows.
Rather watch than read? The U.S. Copyright Office also has a YouTube channel.
So, I thought, what the hell. I’ll do it. Some notes from the process are as follows.
Here is where you create an Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) account: https://eservice.eco.loc.gov/siebel/app/eservice/enu?SWECmd=GotoView&SWEView=VBC+User+Registration+Initial+Form+View&SWERF=1&SWEHo=&SWEBU=1&SWEApplet0=VBC+User+Registration+Initial+Form+Applet&SWERowId0=VRId-0
Once I logged in I used the One Work by One Author
I went through the eCO process and here are some of the decisions I made.
- I used the same exact book title as I had registered in Bowker for the ISBNs I purchased.
- I registered my book in Bowker same day I published it on Barnes & Noble Press so I used that date. For the creation date, I used the year I finished the first draft which was three years before the publish date.
- You’ll need to go through several screens where you may, like me, need to add the same personal information repeatedly – use the Add Me option to load your info rather than rekey it all.
- I required no Special Handling therefore skipped that screen – Continue >>
- When I got to the Review Information before submitting screen I checked it and then printed a copy to a .pdf file.
- I paid my $45. Printed that receipt, too. Then, I uploaded the version I published. That was it.
After I finished I realized I’d probably made a mistake. I have two ISBNs assigned for my novel. One for the hardcopy paperback, the other for the eBook. I decided to only do one so I registered the paperback. I still only want to spend the $45 for one but I realize it probably should be the e-version. I mean, AI scrapes digital content, right? *sigh*
One last thing. Bowker offers a CopyrightsNow service. $90 for 1.
Bowker claims this on it’s CopyrightsNow page:
“Your time to act is limited!
You only have 3 months to register your copyright once your work is 1. Published/Distributed, and 2. before infringement occurs, to recover full damages and attorney fees.
If you’ve written a book or created some other original work such as a blog, photo, or illustration, you must register your copyright to prevent unauthorized use. CopyrightsNow simplifies copyright registration, protecting you against illegal copying, theft, or plagiarism of your work. But you must register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office to fully enforce your rights.“
I didn’t see that on the copyright.gov site (although I also didn’t look very diligently) so I asked my AI Assistant about this 90 day business.
“No, you do not have to copyright your novel within 90 days; copyright protection is automatic as soon as your work is created and fixed in a tangible form. However, registering your work can provide legal advantages if you need to enforce your rights later. The 90-day timeframe is often mentioned in relation to certain legal benefits, such as eligibility for statutory damages in infringement cases. However, you are not required to register your novel within 90 days to maintain copyright protection.“
Bowker… beware because as I’ve said before – they hold the purse strings with regard to ISBNs but they’re not exactly a completely trusted source of information.
Please comment regarding your thoughts and experiences with copyrighting your writings would be appreciated.
Oh, BTW, Dave Chesson has his own article about copyrighting a book. You can check it out here.