66182 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Proposed Rules 

1The Office recently issued a notice of proposed 

rulemaking clarifying that the Single Application 

may not be used to register an architectural work. 

The Single Application is an electronic application 

designed ‘‘for those authors who file the simplest 

kind of [claim].’’ 78 FR 38843, 38845 (June 28, 

2013). Architecture claims are not a good fit for this 

application because they tend to be very complex. 

83 FR 5227, 5228 (Feb. 6, 2017). To avoid potential 

confusion, the proposed rule removes the word 

‘‘single’’ wherever it appears in the regulation on 

architectural works. 

2As with other rules recently promulgated by the 

Office, the proposed rule would allow the Office to 

waive the online filing requirement in exceptional 

cases. Applicants who do not have internet access 

and are unable to use the Standard Application may 

request a waiver in writing. The Office will review 

each request and will make accommodations for 

applicants who receive a waiver, such as making 

staff available to assist with filling out the 

application. 

Education at: LBJ Building, 400 

Maryland Ave. SW, Washington, DC 

20202. 

The January meeting will be held in 

room 288–04. The February meeting 

will be held in room 288–04. The March 

meeting will be held in room 288–04. 

Subcommittee meetings are not open 

to the public. The subcommittee 

meetings will be made available to the 

public through a Department-provided 

livestream. 

Accessible Format: Individuals with 

disabilities can obtain this document in 

an accessible format (e.g., braille, large 

print, audiotape, or compact disc) by 

contacting Aaron Washington, U.S. 

Department of Education, 400 Maryland 

Ave. SW, Room 294–12, Washington, 

DC 20202. Telephone (202) 453–7241. 

Email: Aaron.Washington@ed.gov. 

Electronic Access to this Document: 

The official version of this document is 

the document published in the Federal 

Register. Free internet access to the 

official edition of the Federal Register 

and the Code of Federal Regulations is 

available at www.govinfo.gov. At this 

site you can view this document, as well 

as all other documents of this 

Department published in the Federal 

Register, in text or Portable Document 

Format (PDF). To use PDF you must 

have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is 

available free at the site. You may also 

access documents of the Department 

published in the Federal Register by 

using the article search feature at: 

www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, 

through the advanced search feature at 

this site, you can limit your search to 

documents published by the 

Department. 

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1098a. 

Dated: November 17, 2018. 

Diane Auer Jones, 

Principal Deputy Under Secretary Delegated 

to Perform the Duties of Under Secretary and 

Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary 

Education. 

[FR Doc. 2018–27761 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

U.S. Copyright Office 

37 CFR Part 202 

[Docket No. 2018–13] 

Simplifying Copyright Registration for 

Architectural Works 

AGENCY: U.S. Copyright Office, Library 

of Congress. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: The Copyright Office is 

proposing to amend its regulations 

pertaining to the registration of 

architectural works. To improve the 

efficiency of this process, applicants 

will be required to submit their claims 

through the online application process, 

rather than a paper application, and 

they will be encouraged to upload a 

digital copy of their works through the 

electronic registration system, instead of 

submitting a physical copy. The 

proposed rule also clarifies that a date 

of construction is needed only if the 

architectural work was embodied in 

unpublished plans or drawings on or 

before December 1, 1990 and if the work 

was constructed before January 1, 2003. 

The Office invites public comment on 

the proposed changes. 

DATES: Comments on the proposed rule 

must be made in writing and must be 

received in the U.S. Copyright Office no 

later than February 11, 2019. 

ADDRESSES: For reasons of government 

efficiency, the Copyright Office is using 

the regulations.gov system for the 

submission and posting of public 

comments in this proceeding. All 

comments are therefore to be submitted 

electronically through regulations.gov. 

Specific instructions for submitting 

comments are available on the 

Copyright Office website at http://

www.copyright.gov/rulemaking/ 

architecturalworks/. If electronic 

submission of comments is not feasible 

due to lack of access to a computer and/ 

or the internet, please contact the Office 

using the contact information below for 

special instructions. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Robert J. Kasunic, Associate Register of 

Copyrights and Director of Registration 

Policy and Practice; Erik Bertin, Deputy 

Director of Registration Policy and 

Practice; Jordana Rubel, Assistant 

General Counsel by telephone at 202– 

707–8040 or by email at rkas@

copyright.gov, ebertin@copyright.gov, 

and jrubel@copyright.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: As part of 

the U.S. Copyright Office’s ongoing 

effort to improve the quality and 

readability of its regulations, the Office 

is proposing to amend the rules 

governing the registration of 

architectural works, which have 

remained essentially unchanged since 

1992. 57 FR 45307 (Oct. 1, 1992); 68 FR 

38630 (June 30, 2003). The regulation 

pertaining to the registration and 

application requirements is set forth in 

37 CFR 202.11, the regulation governing 

the deposit requirements for registration 

is set forth in 37 CFR 202.20(c)(2)(xviii). 

The regulation governing the mandatory 

deposit requirements, set forth in 37 

CFR 202.19(d)(2)(viii), will remain 

unchanged. The Office welcomes 

comments on these proposed changes. 

Application Requirements 

The current regulation states that 

applicants must use a paper application 

to register an architectural work and 

that the claim must be submitted on 

Form VA. 37 CFR 202.11(c)(3). This 

does not reflect the Office’s current 

practices. Since 2008, the Office has 

accepted claims submitted through the 

Office’s electronic registration system 

(‘‘eCO’’), and in fact, many architecture 

claims are filed in this manner. 

Under the proposed rule, applicants 

will be required to submit their claims 

through the eCO system using the 

Standard Application. The Office will 

no longer accept architectural works 

submitted for registration on a paper 

application using Form VA. If a paper 

application is received after the effective 

date of this rule, the Office will refuse 

registration and instruct the applicant to 

resubmit the claim on the Standard 

Application.1

A substantial majority of the U.S. 

population has access to the internet, 

and the Office expects that most 

architects will be able to use the 

electronic system. See 81 FR 86643, 

86648 & nn. 15–16 (Dec. 1, 2016). 

Architects typically use sophisticated 

computer software to create their works, 

and thus, should be capable of using the 

Standard Application to register their 

claims.2

The Office believes that requiring 

applicants to use the Standard 

Application, rather than Form VA, is 

necessary to improve the overall 

efficiency of the registration process. 

Most claims submitted on Form VA 

require correspondence or other action 

from the Office. Applicants often fail to 

provide information expressly requested 

on the form, or add extraneous 

information that is not requested. In 


amozie on DSK3GDR082PROD with PROPOSALS1
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Proposed Rules 66183 

3The list of acceptable file formats is posted on 

the Office’s website at https://www.copyright.gov/ 

eco/help-file-types.html. 

each case, the Office must scan these 

paper applications into the registration 

system and input the relevant 

information by hand. This is a 

cumbersome, labor-intensive process. 

Addressing these issues imposes 

significant burdens on the Office’s 

limited resources, and has had an 

adverse effect on the examination of 

other types of works within the Visual 

Arts Division. 

The regulation also states that 

applicants should provide ‘‘[t]he date of 

construction of the building,’’ and ‘‘[i]f 

the building has not yet been 

constructed’’ the application should 

include a statement to that effect. The 

proposed rule clarifies that this 

information is only needed if the 

architectural work was embodied in 

unpublished plans or drawings on or 

before December 1, 1990 and if the 

building was constructed before January 

1, 2003. See 37 CFR 202.12(d)(3)(i) 

(buildings constructed before December 

1, 1990 not eligible for copyright 

protection); id. at 202.12(d)(3)(ii) 

(unconstructed buildings embodied in 

unpublished drawings or plans as of 

December 1, 1990 not eligible for 

copyright protection unless the building 

was constructed by December 31, 2002). 

In all other cases, a date of construction 

is not needed. 

Deposit Requirements for Registration 

Under the current rule, to register an 

architectural work with the Copyright 

Office, applicants must submit ‘‘one 

complete copy of an architectural 

drawing or blueprint in visually 

perceptible form showing the overall 

form of the building and any interior 

arrangements of spaces and/or design 

elements’’ being registered. If the 

building has been constructed, 

applicants also must submit 

photographs of the work. 37 CFR 

202.20(c)(2)(xviii)(A), (B). The proposed 

rule clarifies that the ‘‘overall form of 

the building’’ refers to exterior 

elevations of the building when viewed 

from the front, rear, and sides, while 

‘‘interior arrangements of spaces and/or 

design elements’’ refers to walls or other 

permanent structures that divide the 

interior into separate rooms and spaces. 

In addition, the proposed rule would 

amend the deposit requirement by 

allowing applicants to submit drawings, 

and photographs of an architectural 

work in any form that allows the Office 

to access, perceive, and examine the 

entire copyrightable content of the 

work, including by being uploaded 

through the electronic registration 

system in an acceptable file format.3 In 

doing so, the proposed rule removes 

language listing an order of preference 

for drawings and photographs that are 

submitted in a physical format. 

The Office routinely accepts digital 

copies of architectural works instead of 

requiring physical copies as stated in 

the current regulation, and in fact, it 

prefers to receive digital—rather than 

physical—copies. The Office does not 

need physical drawings, or photographs 

to examine an architectural work for 

copyrightable authorship, or to 

determine whether the applicant 

satisfied the formal and legal 

requirements for registration. See 17 

U.S.C. 410(a) (providing that the 

Register of Copyrights must determine 

whether ‘‘material deposited [for 

registration] constitutes copyrightable 

subject matter’’). Electronic submissions 

take less time to process and are easier 

to handle than physical copies, in part, 

because a registration specialist can 

examine a digital copy as soon as it has 

been uploaded to the electronic 

registration system. By contrast, when 

an applicant files an online application 

and mails a physical copy to the Office, 

it takes added time to connect the 

application with the correct deposit. 

Digital uploads may also provide 

architects with more prompt legal 

benefits. When the Office registers an 

architectural work and issues a 

certificate of registration, the effective 

date of registration is the date on which 

the Office received the application, 

filing fee, and deposit in proper form. 

When an applicant uploads a digital 

copy to the electronic system, the Office 

typically receives the application, filing 

fee, and deposit on the same date. But 

when an applicant sends physical 

drawings, or photographs, the deposit 

may arrive long after the date that the 

application and filing fee were 

received—thereby establishing a later 

effective date of registration. Moreover, 

digital copies are easier to store and 

retrieve than physical copies, including 

if the copyright owner or other 

interested parties need to obtain a copy 

of a particular work for use in litigation 

or another legitimate purpose. 

Finally, the proposed rule explicitly 

identifies architectural works as one of 

the types of work for which only a 

single copy is required to be deposited 

under section 202.20(c)(2)(i). This is a 

technical edit because the current rule 

already states that only one deposit 

copy is required. See 37 CFR 

202.20(c)(2)(xviii). 

Mandatory Deposit Requirements 

To be clear, the proposed rule only 

applies to copies that are submitted for 

purposes of registering an architectural 

work under section 408 of the Copyright 

Act and sections 202.11 and 202.20 of 

the Office’s regulations. It makes no 

amendment to the rules regarding 

copies submitted for the purpose of 

complying with the mandatory deposit 

requirement under section 407 of the 

statute or section 202.19 of the 

regulations. 37 CFR 202.20(a) (‘‘The 

provisions of this section are not 

applicable to the deposit of copies and 

phonorecords for the Library of 

Congress under section 407 of title 17, 

except as expressly adopted in 

§ 202.19.’’). 

Section 407 states that if a work is 

published in the United States, the 

copyright owner or the owner of the 

exclusive right of publication should 

deposit two copies of the ‘‘best edition’’ 

of that work with the Library of 

Congress within three months after 

publication. 17 U.S.C. 407(a)–(b). Under 

the current regulations, architects may 

satisfy this requirement by registering 

their works with the Office, or by 

sending copies directly to the Copyright 

Office’s Copyright Acquisitions Division 

for use or disposition by the Library 

without seeking a registration. Because 

the same copies can potentially be used 

for both registration and mandatory 

deposit, the deposit requirements for 

architectural works currently set forth in 

sections 202.19 and 202.20, are 

essentially identical and they both refer 

to physical drawing submissions. 

As noted above, the proposed rule 

would let architects register their works 

by providing an electronic copy of their 

drawings, and photographs instead of a 

physical copy. But to be clear, a digital 

copy submitted for purposes of 

registration does not satisfy the 

mandatory deposit requirement under 

section 407, which is outlined in 37 

CFR 202.19(d)(2)(viii). To satisfy this 

requirement, architects submitting 

electronic registration deposits are 

expected to deposit a physical copy of 

the most finished form of presentation 

drawings, as defined in 37 CFR 

202.19(d)(2)(viii), within three months 

after the work has been published in the 

United States, and if an appropriate 

deposit is not received within that time 

frame, the Copyright Acquisitions 

Division may issue a written demand for 

that material under section 202.19 of the 

regulations. 

Technical Amendments 

Finally, the proposed rule codifies the 

Office’s longstanding view that 


amozie on DSK3GDR082PROD with PROPOSALS1
66184 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 246 / Wednesday, December 26, 2018 / Proposed Rules 

architectural works are considered 

‘‘works of the visual arts’’ for purposes 

of registration, and as such, they may be 

registered in Class VA. It also improves 

the organization and readability of the 

regulation by removing superfluous 

references and moving the text of two 

footnotes into the main body of the 

regulation. See 37 CFR 202.11(a), (b)(1). 

List of Subjects in 37 CFR Part 202 

Copyright. 

Proposed Regulations 

For the reasons set forth in the 

preamble, the Copyright Office is 

proposing to amend 37 CFR part 202 as 

follows: 

PART 202—PREREGISTRATION AND 

REGISTRATION OF CLAIMS TO 

COPYRIGHT 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 202 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 17 U.S.C. 408(f), 702. 

■ 2. In § 202.3, add a sentence at the end 

of paragraph (b)(1)(iii) to read as 

follows: 

§ 202.3 Registration of copyright. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(1) * * * 

(iii) * * * This class also includes 

published and unpublished 

architectural works. 

* * * * * 

■ 3. Amend § 202.11 as follows: 

■ a. Revise paragraph (a). 

■ b. Revise paragraphs (b)(1) and (2). 

■ c. Remove paragraph (c)(2) and 

redesignate paragraph (c)(5) as (c)(2). 

■ d. Revise paragraphs (c)(3) and (c)(4). 

■ e. Add new paragraph (c)(5). 

The revisions and additions read as 

follows: 

§ 202.11 Architectural works. 

(a) General. This section prescribes 

rules pertaining to the registration of 

architectural works. 

(b) Definitions. (1) For the purposes of 

this section, the term building means 

humanly habitable structures that are 

intended to be both permanent and 

stationary, such as houses and office 

buildings, and other permanent and 

stationary structures designed for 

human occupancy, including but not 

limited to churches, museums, gazebos, 

and garden pavilions. 

(2) Unless otherwise specified, all 

other terms have the meanings set forth 

in §§ 202.3 and 202.20. 

(c) * * * 

(3) Registration limited to one 

architectural work. For published and 

unpublished architectural works, an 

application may cover only one 

architectural work. Multiple 

architectural works may not be 

registered using one application. For 

works such as tract housing, one house 

model constitutes one work, including 

all accompanying floor plan options, 

elevations, and styles that are applicable 

to that particular model. Where dual 

copyright claims exist in technical 

drawings and the architectural work 

depicted in the drawings, any claims 

with respect to the technical drawings 

and architectural work must be 

registered separately. 

(4) Online application. (i) The 

applicant must complete and submit the 

Standard Application. The application 

should identify the title of the building. 

If the architectural work was embodied 

in unpublished plans or drawings on or 

before December 1, 1990, and if the 

building was constructed before January 

1, 2003, the application should also 

provide the date that the construction 

was completed. 

(ii) In an exceptional case, the 

Copyright Office may waive the online 

filing requirement set forth in paragraph 

(c)(4)(i) of this section, subject to such 

conditions as the Associate Register and 

Director of the Office of Registration 

Policy and Practice may impose on the 

applicant. 

(5) Deposit requirements. (i) For 

designs of constructed or unconstructed 

buildings, the applicant must submit 

one complete copy in a visually 

perceptible format of the most finished 

form of an architectural drawing 

showing the overall form of the building 

(i.e., exterior elevations of the building 

when viewed from the front, rear, and 

sides), and any interior arrangements of 

spaces and/or design elements in which 

copyright is claimed (i.e., walls or other 

permanent structures that divide the 

interior into separate rooms and spaces). 

The deposit should disclose the name(s) 

of the architect(s) and draftsperson(s) 

and the building site, if known. For 

designs of constructed buildings, the 

applicant also must submit identifying 

material in the form of photographs 

complying with § 202.21, which clearly 

show several exterior and interior views 

of the architectural work being 

registered. 

(ii) The deposit may be submitted in 

any form that allows the Copyright 

Office to access, perceive, and examine 

the entire copyrightable content of the 

work being registered, including by 

uploading the complete copy and 

identifying material in an acceptable file 

format to the Office’s electronic 

registration system. Deposits uploaded 

to the electronic registration system will 

be considered solely for the purpose of 

registration under section 408 of title 17 

of the United States Code, and will not 

satisfy the mandatory deposit 

requirement under section 407 of title 

17 of the United States Code. 

* * * * * 

■ 4. Amend § 202.20 as follows. 

■ a. Add paragraph (c)(2)(i)(M). 

■ b. Remove and reserve paragraph 

(c)(2)(xviii). 

The addition reads as follows: 

§ 202.20 Deposit of copies and 

phonorecords for copyright registration. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(2) * * * 

(i) * * * 

(M) Architectural works, for which 

the deposit must comply with the 

requirements set forth in § 202.11. 

* * * * * 

Dated: December 19, 2018. 

Regan A. Smith, 

General Counsel and Associate Register of 

Copyrights. 

[FR Doc. 2018–27866 Filed 12–21–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 1410–30–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 52 

[EPA–R01–OAR–2018–0637; FRL–9987–95– 

Region 1] 

Air Plan Approval; Maine; 

Infrastructure State Implementation 

Plan Requirements for the 2010 Sulfur 

Dioxide NAAQS 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is proposing to approve 

elements of the State Implementation 

Plan (SIP) submission from Maine that 

addresses the infrastructure and 

interstate transport requirements of the 

Clean Air Act (CAA or Act) for the 2010 

sulfur dioxide (SO2) National Ambient 

Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The 

infrastructure requirements are designed 

to ensure that the structural components 

of each state’s air quality management 

program are adequate to meet the state’s 

responsibilities under the CAA. This 

action is being taken under the Clean 

Air Act. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

received on or before January 25, 2019. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–R01– 

OAR–2018–0637 at https://

www.regulations.gov, or via email to 


amozie on DSK3GDR082PROD with PROPOSALS1