Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 196 / Thursday, October 12, 2017 / Proposed Rules 47415 

would result in such expenditures by 

state, local, or tribal governments, or the 

private sector. The Department also 

does not expect that the proposed rule 

will have any material economic 

impacts on State, local or tribal 

governments, or on health, safety, or the 

natural environment. 

6. Federalism Statement 

Executive Order 13132 outlines 

fundamental principles of federalism, 

and requires the adherence to specific 

criteria by federal agencies in the 

process of their formulation and 

implementation of policies that have 

‘‘substantial direct effects’’ on the 

States, the relationship between the 

national government and States, or on 

the distribution of power and 

responsibilities among the various 

levels of government. Federal agencies 

promulgating regulations that have 

federalism implications must consult 

with State and local officials and 

describe the extent of their consultation 

and the nature of the concerns of State 

and local officials in the preamble to the 

Final Rule. 

This proposed rule does not have 

federalism implications because it 

merely delays the applicability date of 

the rule. Therefore, the proposed rule 

has no substantial direct effect on the 

States, the relationship between the 

national government and the States, or 

the distribution of power and 

responsibilities among the various 

levels of government. In compliance 

with the requirement of Executive Order 

13132 that agencies examine closely any 

policies that may have federalism 

implications or limit the policy making 

discretion of the States, the Department 

welcomes input from States regarding 

this assessment. 

7. Executive Order 13771: Reducing 

Regulation and Controlling Regulatory 

Costs 

Executive Order 13771, titled 

Reducing Regulation and Controlling 

Regulatory Costs, was issued on January 

30, 2017. Section 2(a) of EO 13771 

requires an agency, unless prohibited by 

law, to identify at least two existing 

regulations to be repealed when the 

agency publicly proposes for notice and 

comment, or otherwise promulgates, a 

new regulation. In furtherance of this 

requirement, section 2(c) of EO 13771 

requires that the new incremental costs 

associated with new regulations shall, to 

the extent permitted by law, be offset by 

the elimination of existing costs 

associated with at least two prior 

regulations. This proposed rule is 

expected to be an EO 13771 

deregulatory action. 

List of Subjects in 29 CFR Part 2560 

Claims, Employee benefit plans. 

For the reasons stated above, the 

Department proposes to amend 29 CFR 

part 2560 as follows: 

PART 2560—RULES AND 

REGULATIONS FOR ADMINISTRATION 

AND ENFORCEMENT 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 2560 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 29 U.S.C. 1132, 1135, and 

Secretary of Labor’s Order 1–2011, 77 FR 

1088 (Jan. 9, 2012). Section 2560.503–1 also 

issued under 29 U.S.C. 1133. Section 

2560.502c–7 also issued under 29 U.S.C. 

1132(c)(7). Section 2560.502c–4 also issued 

under 29 U.S.C. 1132(c)(4). Section 

2560.502c–8 also issued under 29 U.S.C. 

1132(c)(8). 

§ 2560.503–1 [Amended] 

■ 2. Section 2560.503–1 is amended by 

removing ‘‘on or after January 1, 2018’’ 

and adding in its place ‘‘after April 1, 

2018’’ in paragraph (p)(3) and by 

removing the date ‘‘December 31, 2017’’ 

and adding in its place ‘‘April 1, 2018’’ 

in paragraph (p)(4). 

Signed at Washington, DC, this 6th day of 

October, 2017. 

Timothy D. Hauser, 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program 

Operations, Employee Benefits Security 

Administration, Department of Labor. 

[FR Doc. 2017–22082 Filed 10–10–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4510–29–P 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

U.S. Copyright Office 

37 CFR Parts 201, 202 

[Docket No. 2017–15] 

Group Registration of Unpublished 

Works 

AGENCY: U.S. Copyright Office, Library 

of Congress. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Copyright Office is 

proposing to create a new group 

registration option for a limited number 

of unpublished works. To qualify for 

this group option, all the works must be 

created by the same author or the same 

joint authors, and the author or joint 

authors must be named as the copyright 

claimant for each work. The claim to 

copyright in each work must be the 

same, and each work must be registered 

in the same administrative class. In 

general, applicants will be allowed to 

include up to five works in each 

submission. Applicants will be required 

to submit an online application and 

upload their works to the electronic 

registration system, although the Office 

may waive these requirements in 

exceptional cases. This new group 

registration option will replace the 

current ‘‘unpublished collections’’ 

option, which the Office has determined 

is an ineffective mechanism for 

registration of multiple unpublished 

works; among other things, it allows 

applicants to register an essentially 

unlimited number of works. The 

proposed rule will allow the Office to 

more easily examine each work for 

copyrightable authorship, create a more 

robust record of the claim, and improve 

the efficiency of the registration process. 

The Proposed Rule also makes unrelated 

technical amendments to the ‘‘unit of 

publication’’ regulation. 

DATES: Comments must be made in 

writing and must be received in the U.S. 

Copyright Office no later than 

November 13, 2017. 

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 Web site at https://

www.copyright.gov/rulemaking/groupunpublished/. If electronic submission 

of comments is not feasible due to lack 

of access to a computer and/or the 

internet, please contact the Office for 

special instructions using the contact 

information below. 

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; or Regan A. Smith, Deputy 

General Counsel, by telephone at 202– 

707–8040 or by email at rkas@loc.gov, 

ebertin@loc.gov, and resm@loc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

A. Group Registration Under the 1976 

Act 

When Congress enacted the Copyright 

Act of 1976 (the ‘‘Act’’), it authorized 

the Register of Copyrights (the 

‘‘Register’’) to specify by regulation the 

administrative classes of works for the 

purpose of seeking a registration and the 

nature of the deposits required for each 

class. In addition, Congress gave the 

Register the discretion to allow groups 

of related works to be registered with 

one application and one filing fee, a 


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1The interim regulation also established a 

procedure for registering published works ‘‘that are 

included in a single unit of publication.’’ 37 CFR 

202.3(b)(4)(i)(A). The Office refers to this as the 

‘‘unit of publication’’ option. As discussed below, 

the Office is proposing to make certain technical 

amendments to this portion of the regulations. 

2These practices were reflected in an internal 

manual that the Office developed under the 1909 

Act. See U.S. Copyright Office, Compendium of 

U.S. Copyright Office Practices S–6 (1st ed. 1973). 

3See, e.g., Grundberg v. Upjohn Co., 137 FRD. 

372, 384–85 (D. Utah 1991) (concluding that the 

Office erred as a matter of law by registering more 

than 90,000 documents as an unpublished 

collection, including ‘‘documents which are not 

copyrightable, mixed in and listed indiscriminately 

with copyrightable documents’’ without providing 

a ‘‘reasonable or workable means’’ for identifying 

the documents that should have been excluded 

from the claim). 

procedure known as ‘‘group 

registration.’’ See 17 U.S.C. 408(c)(1). 

Pursuant to this authority, the Register 

issued regulations permitting the U.S. 

Copyright Office (the ‘‘Office’’) to issue 

group registrations for certain limited 

categories of works, provided that 

certain conditions have been met. See 

generally 37 CFR 202.3(b)(5)–(7), (9)– 

(10), 202.4. 

As the legislative history explains, 

allowing ‘‘a number of related works to 

be registered together as a group 

represent[ed] a needed and important 

liberalization of the law. . . .’’ H.R. Rep. 

No. 94–1476, at 154 (1976); S. Rep. No. 

94–473, at 136 (1975). Congress 

recognized that requiring applicants to 

submit separate applications for certain 

types of works may be so burdensome 

and expensive that authors and 

copyright owners may forgo registration 

altogether, since copyright registration 

is not a prerequisite to copyright 

protection. Id. If copyright owners do 

not submit their works for registration 

under this permissive system, the public 

record will not contain any information 

concerning those works. This creates a 

void in the public record that 

diminishes the value of the Office’s 

database. 

At the same time, when multiple 

works are combined in one application, 

information about the individual works 

may not be as robustly captured than if 

the applicant had submitted individual 

applications for each work. Therefore, 

group registration options require 

careful balancing of the need for an 

accurate public record and the need for 

an efficient method of examining, 

indexing, and cataloging each work. 

B. The Existing Regulation on 

Unpublished Collections 

When first implementing the 

Copyright Act of 1976, the Office issued 

a regulation that established a procedure 

for registering certain ‘‘multiple selfcontained works’’ as a ‘‘single work’’ 

‘‘on a single application and upon 

payment of a single registration fee.’’ 

See 43 FR 965, 966 (Jan. 5, 1978); 37 

CFR 202.3(b)(4)(i). The regulation 

provided that ‘‘[i]n the case of 

unpublished works, all copyrightable 

elements that are otherwise recognizable 

as self-contained works, and are 

combined in a single unpublished 

‘collection’ ’’ ‘‘shall be considered a 

single work.’’ 37 CFR 202.3(b)(4)(i). The 

Office refers to this procedure as the 

registration accommodation for 

‘‘unpublished collections.’’ 1

The unpublished collection regulation 

provides that ‘‘a combination of such 

elements shall be considered a 

‘collection’ if: (1) The elements are 

assembled in an orderly form; (2) The 

combined elements bear a single title 

identifying the collection as a whole; (3) 

The copyright claimant in all of the 

elements, and in the collection as a 

whole, is the same; and (4) All of the 

elements are by the same author, or, if 

they are by different authors, at least 

one of the authors has contributed 

copyrightable authorship to each 

element.’’ Id. § 202.3(b)(4)(i)(B). The 

regulation further provides that a 

‘‘[r]egistration of an unpublished 

‘collection’ extends to each 

copyrightable element in the collection 

and to the authorship, if any, involved 

in selecting and assembling the 

collection.’’ Id. § 202.3(b)(4)(i). 

When the Office issued the regulation, 

it did not rely on its statutory authority 

to issue a group registration under 

section 408(c)(1) of the 1976 Act. The 

Office ‘‘reserved for implementation in 

a separate proceeding, the possibility of 

providing for ‘a single registration for a 

group of [ ]related works’ under 

paragraph (c)(1) of section 408’’ and 

invited ‘‘comments and suggestions as 

to the types of related works that could 

appropriately be covered by [a] group 

registration. . . .’’ 43 FR at 966. 

Instead, the regulation was ‘‘based on 

existing Copyright Office practices.’’ Id.2

In codifying these practices, the Office 

relied on its general authority to issue 

registrations for individual works under 

sections 408(a) and 409 of the statute, 

rather than its authority to issue a group 

registration under section 408(c)(1). See 

17 U.S.C. 408(a), 409 (authorizing the 

Office to register a ‘‘work’’); 43 FR at 

966; Kay Berry, Inc. v. Taylor Gifts, Inc., 

421 F.3d 199, 205 (3d Cir. 2005) (‘‘The 

single work registration provision [for 

registering a unit of publication] . . . 

was promulgated pursuant to the 

language of 17 U.S.C. 408(a)’’ and 

‘‘codified the pre-existing Copyright 

Office practice of allowing copyright 

owners to register multiple works 

published together as a single work for 

a single fee.’’). 

C. Issues Involving Unpublished 

Collections 

The regulatory accommodation for 

unpublished collections was wellintentioned but has imposed an 

increasing burden on the administration 

of the copyright registration system. 

The Office did not set a limit on the 

number of works that may be registered 

with this accommodation. As a result, 

applicants are able to submit dozens, 

hundreds, even thousands of works 

with one application and one filing fee. 

See, e.g., Palladium Music, Inc. v. 

EatSleepMusic, Inc., 398 F.3d 1193, 

1195 (10th Cir. 2005) (noting that the 

plaintiff registered its works as an 

unpublished collection to offset the 

expense of submitting ‘‘several 

thousand works’’). This has strained the 

resources of all three divisions within 

the Registration Program. It also creates 

an imperfect record of what was 

submitted for registration and what was 

actually reviewed for copyrightable 

authorship. When confronted with such 

a voluminous amount of material, it is 

difficult for the Office to conduct a full 

and complete examination of each and 

every work in the collection, and in 

many cases it would be impossible to do 

so for the fee paid for this option 

(currently $55). See U.S. Copyright 

Office, Compendium of U.S. Copyright 

Office Practices § 1108 (3d ed. 2017) 

(‘‘Compendium (Third)’’). Use of the 

unpublished collections option in this 

manner has led to courts to raise 

concerns.3

The unpublished collection option 

also blurs the distinction between an 

unpublished collection and a collective 

work. A collective work is defined in 

the statute as a type of a compilation, 

and specifically, ‘‘a work . . . in which 

a number of contributions, constituting 

separate and independent works in 

themselves, are assembled into a 

collective whole.’’ 17 U.S.C. 101. An 

‘‘unpublished collection,’’ however, 

doesn’t usually exist as a ‘‘work’’—it is 

often assembled solely for purposes of 

registration. At the same time, the 

unpublished collection option was not 

promulgated as a form of group 

registration, even as it has some of those 

features (e.g., it covers each work that is 

eligible for copyright protection). This 

‘‘neither-fish-nor-fowl’’ feature of the 

unpublished collections option has 

always made it an oddity in Copyright 

Office practice. 


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4The Compendium, Third provides a detailed 

discussion of the definition of ‘‘publication’’ and 

‘‘the public,’’ as well as specific examples on how 

the Office applies these definitions to different 

types of works. See generally Compendium (Third) 

§§ 1000–1900. 

5See, e.g, Ledesma v. Del Records, Inc., No. 2:15– 

cv–4266–ODW–GJSx, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 

163109, at *8 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 4, 2015); Family Dollar 

Stores, Inc. v. United Fabrics Int’l, Inc., 896 F. 

Supp. 2d 223, 231 (S.D.N.Y. 2012); Determined 

Productions, Inc. v. Koster, No. C 92–1697 BAC, 

1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4586, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 

13, 1993). 

6The Office will not accept an application that 

includes a compilation, a collective work, a 

database, or a Web site, because they often contain 

individual works of authorship. Examining a work 

comprised of individual works increases the 

complexity of a claim and requires significantly 

more time than a claim that is limited to one 

individual work. Likewise, the Office will not 

accept claims involving multiple architectural 

works, because the regulations expressly state that 

‘‘a single application may cover only a single 

architectural work.’’ 37 CFR 202.11(c)(2). 

7When submitting an online application, the 

applicant must select ‘‘sound recording’’ as the type 

of work. When submitting a paper application, the 

applicant must use Form SR. 37 CFR 202.3(b)(1)(iv), 

(b)(2)(ii). 8To be clear, applicants would be able to submit 

a group of sound recordings that each contain one 

musical work, dramatic work, or literary work. 

Applicants would not be able to submit a group of 

recordings that each contain a combination of 

musical, dramatic, and literary works. 

9The title for the group will be used to identify 

the registration in the online public record, and it 

will consist of the title of the first work followed 

by the phrase ‘‘and [1, 2, 3, or 4] other unpublished 

works.’’ 

II. The Proposed Rule 

To address these issues and improve 

the quality and efficiency of the 

registration process, the Office is 

proposing to create a new group 

registration option for unpublished 

works. The new procedure, known as 

the ‘‘group option for unpublished 

works’’ or ‘‘GRUW,’’ will replace the 

administrative accommodation that 

allows applicants to register their works 

as an unpublished collection. Key 

details of the proposal are discussed 

below. The Office welcomes public 

comment on each aspect of the 

proposed rule. 

A. Eligibility Requirements 

1. The Group Must Be Limited to 

Unpublished Works 

As with the current unpublished 

collection option, applicants may use 

this option only if all the works in the 

group are unpublished. The applicant 

will be responsible for making this 

determination, and generally, the Office 

will accept that determination unless it 

is contradicted by the information 

contained within the registration 

materials.4 But if the applicant provides 

the wrong information, there is a risk 

that the registration may be challenged 

or invalidated in an infringement 

action.5

2. The Works Must Be Registered in the 

Same Administrative Class 

All the works within the group must 

be registered in the same administrative 

class. For example, an applicant could 

register a group of unpublished poems, 

essays, and short stories, because each 

work would be classified as a ‘‘literary 

work.’’ By contrast, an applicant could 

not register a group of unpublished 

stories, photographs, and songs, because 

these works fall within different 

administrative classes. 

There are two reasons for this 

requirement. First, the Office assigns 

each claim to the division that 

specializes in examining literary works, 

visual arts works, or works of the 

performing arts. If the applicant 

included different types of works within 

the same claim, the Office would have 

to assign those works to different 

examiners in different divisions. This 

would slow the examination and delay 

the final registration decision. Second, 

the Office assigns one registration 

number to the certificate of registration 

for a group of unpublished works. The 

prefix for this number is based on the 

administrative classification that best 

describes the works in the group (TXu 

for literary works, VAu for visual arts 

works, PAu for performing arts works, 

and SRu for sound recordings). If an 

applicant included different types of 

works within the same claim, the 

registration number would not match 

the group as a whole. 

3. The Number of Works That May Be 

Included in the Group 

The Office proposes that as a general 

rule, applicants may include up to five 

works in each claim. This represents a 

change from the current regulation, 

which has no limit on the number of 

works that may be included in an 

unpublished collection. As discussed 

above, this reduces the quality of the 

registration record, and makes it 

difficult to examine each work for 

copyrightable authorship. 

The Copyright Office is committed to 

creating the best public record possible 

for a group registration, including 

pertinent information and an 

appropriate assessment of the 

copyrightability of each work within 

that group. To further those statutory 

goals, the Office must impose some 

limit on the number of works that may 

be submitted, given its limited 

examination staff and the modest filing 

fee for a group registration of multiple 

works. The Office has determined that 

a limit of five works would allow it to 

examine each work for copyrightable 

authorship and to confirm that the legal 

and formal requirements for registration 

have been met. Under the proposed 

rule, the application will contain only 

five title fields and a pop up warning for 

anyone that inserts punctuation into a 

title field warning that only five works 

may be listed. If an applicant submits 

more than five works the Office may ask 

the applicant to exclude the additional 

works from the claim or may simply 

refuse registration.6

There is a limited exception for sound 

recordings. Under the current 

regulations governing applications for 

individual works, an applicant may 

register a sound recording together with 

the musical work, dramatic work, or 

literary work embodied in that 

recording, provided that both works are 

fixed in the same phonorecord, the 

applicant has submitted one application 

for both works,7 and the claimant for 

both works is the same person or 

organization. 37 CFR 202.3(b)(1)(iv)(A)– 

(C). Similarly, under the proposed rule, 

applicants can include up to five sound 

recordings, together with a musical 

work, literary work, or dramatic work 

embedded in each recording with each 

group registration application.8 To do 

so, they must satisfy the same 

conditions that apply with respect to 

individual sound recording 

registrations, as well as the generally 

applicable requirements for this group 

registration option, including that the 

author for each sound recording and the 

works embodied in those recordings 

must also be the claimant for those 

works, and that the authorship and 

ownership must be identical for each 

work. For example, applicants would be 

able to register a group of songs and 

sound recordings jointly written and 

performed by Peter and Paul, but they 

would not be able to register a song 

written by Peter and Paul together with 

a recording performed solely by Mary. 

The reasons for these additional 

requirements are discussed below. 

4. Titles of the Works 

Applicants will be required to provide 

a title for each work in the group. By 

contrast, they will not need to provide 

a title for the group as a whole, because 

that information will be added 

automatically by the electronic 

registration system.9 This represents a 

change from the current regulation, 

under which applicants are expected to 

provide a title for the collection as a 

whole but not for the works themselves. 

Id. § 202.3(b)(4)(i)(B)(2). This change 

will improve the quality of the 

registration record. Interested parties 


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10See generally 81 FR 63440, 63441 (Sept. 15, 

2016) (proposed rule regarding removal of 

personally identifiable information); 82 FR 9004 

(Feb. 2, 2017) (final rule). 

11While the statute states that the application 

shall include ‘‘the name . . . of the copyright 

claimant,’’ 17 U.S.C. 409(1), Congress also clearly 

intended to give authors the ability to register their 

works anonymously or under an assumed name, Id. 

§ 409(3). Allowing applicants to provide a fictitious 

name in one part of the application, while requiring 

them to disclose the author’s real name in the other, 

would undermine that objective and discourage 

anonymous or pseudonymous authors from 

registering their works with the Office. 

typically search for works by title, and 

it may be difficult to find a particular 

work if the applicant fails to provide 

this information in the application. 

Indeed, the lack of titles for individual 

works in an unpublished collection has 

created confusion as to whether a 

registration for an unpublished 

collection covers the individual works 

or the collection as a whole. See, e.g., 

Szabo v. Errisson, 68 F.3d 940, 942–44 

(5th Cir. 1995). The proposed rule 

addresses these issues by providing an 

efficient and straightforward way to 

identify the individual works, while 

providing clear guidance that the 

registration covers the individual works. 

5. The Author and Claimant for Each 

Work Must Be the Same 

Under the proposed rule, all the 

works in the group must be created by 

the same author or the same joint 

authors. For example, an applicant 

could submit five songs created solely 

by Peter or five songs created jointly by 

Peter, Paul, and Mary. But the applicant 

could not submit two songs created by 

Peter together with three songs created 

by Peter, Paul, and Mary. In this 

situation, the applicant would need to 

separate the songs into two groups and 

submit a separate application for each 

group. 

This represents another change in 

policy. The current unpublished 

collections regulation states that all the 

elements in the collection must be 

created by the same author—unless they 

were created by multiple authors, in 

which case at least one author must 

contribute copyright authorship to each 

element. 37 CFR 202.3(b)(4)(i)(B)(4). 

This standard has made the examination 

of these claims unnecessarily 

complicated. Requiring the author or coauthors of each work to be the same 

simplifies eligibility requirements, 

which will improve the efficiency of the 

examination by allowing the Office to 

focus on the works themselves. 

The proposed rule provides that the 

copyright claimant for each work must 

be the same person or organization, 

similar to the regulation that currently 

governs unpublished collections. Id. 

§ 202.3(b)(4)(i)(B)(3). But the proposed 

rule adds an additional requirement, 

namely, that the author or joint authors 

must be named as the claimant for each 

work in the group. Thus, if the applicant 

submitted five songs created jointly by 

Peter, Paul, and Mary, those individuals 

must also be named as co-claimants for 

each song—even if a different party 

actually owned the copyright in those 

works. This requirement comports with 

the basic principle that an author may 

always be named as the copyright 

claimant, id. § 202.3(a)(3), as well as the 

Office’s longstanding view that an 

author may be named as a claimant, 

even if the author does not own any of 

the exclusive rights when the claim is 

submitted, see Compendium (Third) 

§ 619.7 (citing 42 FR 48944, 48945 

(Sept. 26, 1977)). 

Requiring the author(s) to be named 

as the copyright claimant(s) will again 

simplify the registration process. Under 

general Copyright Office practice, if the 

author and claimant are not the same 

person, the applicant is required to 

provide a transfer statement explaining 

how the claimant acquired all of the 

rights that initially belonged to the 

author. When registering unpublished 

collections, applicants often name a 

third party as the copyright claimant, 

but fail to provide a transfer statement. 

In such cases, the Office must 

correspond to determine if the claimant 

actually owns all of the exclusive rights 

in the works, which delays the 

registration decision and contributes to 

the overall backlog of pending claims. 

Given the reduced fee for examination 

of multiple works, the Office must 

minimize known problems. Moreover, 

imposing this limitation will help target 

the group registration option to its 

intended beneficiaries: Individual 

creators or small businesses who might 

not otherwise use the more expensive 

standard registration application to 

register their unpublished works on an 

individual basis. The Office has taken a 

similar approach with the group 

registration options for serials, 

newsletters, and published photographs. 

37 CFR 202.3(b)(6)(i)(F), (b)(9)(iv), 

(b)(10)(i)–(ii). Based on this experience, 

the Office expects that this same 

approach will produce an optimal 

public record, while reducing the 

administrative burden that these claims 

impose on the Office. 

While the Office proposes this change 

to facilitate the efficiency of 

examinations, it also expects that, in 

practice, this requirement will not prove 

difficult for those individual creators 

and small businesses who are the targets 

of this group registration option. Of 

course, those applicants who do not 

qualify for the group registration option 

may still register unpublished works 

individually using the standard 

application. 

6. Anonymous Works and 

Pseudonymous Works 

This group registration option may be 

used to register anonymous works or 

pseudonymous works, but all the works 

in the group must all be either 

anonymous or created under the same 

pseudonym. For example, an applicant 

could submit stories by ‘‘Anonymous’’ 

or stories by ‘‘Mark Twain’’ (a.k.a. 

Samuel Clemens) but could not register 

these stories with the same application. 

As with the regular registration 

application, the applicant should be 

careful not to inadvertently include the 

author’s real name, as it would become 

part of the public records and cannot be 

changed after registration.10 In the 

context of this group registration 

application, this includes ensuring that 

the author and claimant fields in the 

application are the same (i.e., both list 

‘‘anonymous’’ or both list the 

pseudonym).11

7. Works Made for Hire 

An unpublished work may be 

registered as a work made for hire if it 

is identified as such in the application 

and if the employer is named as the 

author/claimant. Likewise, an applicant 

may register an unpublished work that 

was jointly created by an individual and 

an organization. But, under the 

proposed rule, because the author(s) and 

claimant(s) for each work must be the 

same, an applicant would not be able to 

submit works created for a company 

pursuant to a work made for hire 

agreement, together with works created 

by an individual and acquired by that 

same company through a transfer of 

ownership. 

8. The Authorship Statement for Each 

Work Must Be the Same 

Under the proposed rule, the 

applicant must provide a brief statement 

that describes the new copyrightable 

authorship, and the authorship 

statement for all works must be exactly 

the same. For example, if the author 

created five songs, the applicant would 

state ‘‘unpublished musical works 

(without or without lyrics).’’ If the 

author created five sound recordings 

and the songs embodied in each 

recording, the applicant would state 

‘‘unpublished sound recordings and 

musical works (without or without 

lyrics).’’ 

This represents a change in practice, 

in that the current regulation focuses on 

the ‘‘copyrightable elements’’ of the 


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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 196 / Thursday, October 12, 2017 / Proposed Rules 47419 

12See 82 FR 27424, 27424–25 (June 15, 2017) 

(final rule for supplementary registration); 82 FR 

29410, 29410–11 (June 29, 2017) (final rule for 

group registration of contributions to periodicals). 13See 82 FR at 72425. 

submitted works, rather than the works 

as a whole themselves, and the online 

application accordingly contains a 

series of checkboxes, such as ‘‘text,’’ 

‘‘music,’’ and ‘‘lyrics.’’ 37 CFR 

202.3(b)(4)(i)(B). This may encourage 

applicants to assert a claim in the 

individual elements of their works, 

rather than asserting a claim in the 

works as a whole. 

9. Limitation of Claim 

If the works contain an appreciable 

amount of material that has been 

previously published or previously 

registered, the applicant must exclude 

that material from the claim. Likewise, 

applicants should disclaim material that 

is owned by a third party or material 

that is in the public domain. This basic 

rule is the same as under the current 

regulation, though the new online 

application will implement it 

differently, by giving the applicant an 

opportunity to identify any elements 

that should be excluded from the claim 

using his or her own words, rather than 

a set of predetermined checkboxes. The 

new online application will also remove 

the requirement to identify the new 

material that should be ‘‘included’’ in 

the claim. As described above, 

applicants will be asked simply to 

identify the type of work the author 

created, and the Office will assume that 

the applicant intends to register all 

copyrightable aspects of the work that 

have not been expressly disclaimed. 

B. Electronic Filing Requirements 

1. Online Application 

Under the proposed rule, applicants 

will be required to use an online 

application specifically designed for 

this group registration option. If an 

applicant attempts to register multiple 

unpublished works with standard 

online application or a paper 

application, the Office will refuse to 

register the claim. In such cases, the 

applicant will need to submit a new 

application using the designated 

application for GRUW, which will result 

in a later effective date of registration 

and will require a new filing fee and 

deposit. Recently, the Office changed its 

practices to require other applications to 

be filed online, and the rationales 

provided in those rulemaking 

documents apply equally here.12

To facilitate this transition, the Office 

will add appropriate warnings to the 

electronic registration system and the 

instructions for the paper applications. 

The Office will prepare an online 

tutorial that explains how to use the 

new application and ‘‘help text’’ within 

the application itself that will provide 

answers to frequently asked questions. 

In addition, the Office will revise the 

portions of Compendium, Third and 

Circular 34 that discuss the Office’s 

practices and procedures for group 

registrations. 

As with the other rules recently 

promulgated, the proposed rule allows 

the Office to waive the online filing and 

electronic upload requirements in 

exceptional cases. Applicants who do 

not have internet access and are unable 

to use the online application may 

request a waiver in writing. The Office 

will review each request and will make 

accommodations for applicants who 

receive a waiver, including by providing 

a mechanism by which staff will assist 

in filling out the application.13

2. Supplementary Registration 

A supplementary registration is a 

special type of registration that may be 

used ‘‘to correct an error in a copyright 

registration or to amplify the 

information given in a registration,’’ 

including a registration for a group of 

related works. 17 U.S.C. 408(d); see also 

37 CFR 202.6(b)(1)(i). Specifically, it 

identifies an error or omission in an 

existing registration and places the 

corrected information or additional 

information in the public record. 

The Office recently issued a final rule 

that modified this procedure, in most 

cases requiring supplementary 

registration applicants to file an online 

application. 37 CFR 202.6. The Office 

explained that this online-filing 

requirement would apply to 

supplementary registrations for ‘‘works 

registered as an unpublished 

collection.’’ 81 FR 86656, 86657 (Dec. 1, 

2016). It also noted that if it decided to 

move ‘‘registrations for other classes of 

works into the electronic system, 

supplementary registrations for those 

works will also be subject to this same 

requirement.’’ Id. at 86658. Thus, if 

applicants need to correct or modify 

information appearing in a registration 

for an unpublished collection or a 

registration for a group of unpublished 

works, they must use the online 

application, or the Office will instruct 

the applicant to resubmit the claim 

using the online version of this form. 

See id. 

To be clear, a supplementary 

registration cannot be used to convert a 

registration for an unpublished 

collection into a registration for a group 

of unpublished works. 82 FR 27424, 

27426 (June 15, 2017). Reclassifying an 

unpublished collection as a group 

registration would alter the fundamental 

nature of the claim and would be 

inconsistent with the statutory and 

regulatory provisions stating that a 

supplementary registration augments— 

but does not supersede—a basic 

registration. 17 U.S.C. 408(d); 37 CFR 

202.6(f)(2). 

3. Deposit Requirements 

Under the proposed rule, applicants 

will be required to electronically submit 

one complete copy or phonorecord of 

each work in the group. Specifically, 

applicants must upload each work to 

the electronic registration system as an 

electronic file in one of the acceptable 

file formats listed on the Office’s Web 

site (http://copyright.gov/eco/help-filetypes.html). The Office will not accept 

physical copies or physical 

phonorecords, such as print-outs, 

photocopies, CDs, DVDs, or the like. 

Applicants may save the deposits in 

a .zip file before upload that file to the 

system, but if the .zip file contains any 

unacceptable file types the claim will be 

refused. In all cases, the works must be 

submitted in an orderly manner and the 

size of each upload must not exceed 500 

megabytes. Applicants may compress 

the works to comply with this 

limitation. 

C. Filing Fee 

The filing fee for registering a group 

of unpublished works will be $55, 

which is the amount the Office 

currently charges for registering an 

unpublished collection with the online 

application. 37 CFR 201.3(c)(1)(ii). Once 

the proposed rule has been 

implemented, the Office will monitor 

the cost of examining these claims to 

determine if future fee adjustments may 

be warranted. It also will track the 

number of applicants who request a 

waiver from the online filing and 

electronic upload requirements (if any) 

and the amount of time needed to 

handle these requests. The Office will 

use this information in conducting its 

next fee study. 

D. The Scope of a Group Registration 

As in the recently concluded 

rulemaking for group registration of 

contributions to periodicals, the Office 

proposes to clarify that a registration for 

a group of unpublished works covers 

each work in the group and each one is 

registered as a separate work. 82 FR 

29410, 29414 (June 29, 2017); see also 

81 FR 86634, 86641 (noting that this is 

‘‘the Office’s longstanding position 

regarding the scope of a registration for 

a group of contributions to 


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47420 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 196 / Thursday, October 12, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

periodicals.’’). The proposed rule also 

clarifies that applicants may not assert 

a claim in the selection, coordination, or 

arrangement of the works within the 

group and that the group as a whole is 

not considered a compilation or a 

collective work, or a derivative work. 

See 81 FR at 86641. 

F. Refusals To Register 

Section 410(b) of the Act directs the 

Office to refuse registration if it 

determines that ‘‘the material deposited 

does not constitute copyrightable 

subject matter or that the claim is 

invalid for any other reason.’’ 17 U.S.C. 

410(b). If the Office determines that one 

or more of the works in a group is 

uncopyrightable, the examiner will ask 

the applicant to exclude those works 

from the claim. If the applicant agrees, 

the Office will issue a registration for 

the remaining works in the group. If the 

applicant declines to exclude the 

uncopyrightable works, the Office will 

issue a refusal for the entire group. 37 

CFR 202.4(k). 

G. Technical Amendments 

The proposed rule confirms that a 

group of related works may be registered 

with one application and one filing fee 

if the conditions set forth in § 202.4 

have been met. The regulation 

governing the group option for 

unpublished works will be set forth in 

§ 202.4(c), and the regulation governing 

unpublished collections under 

§ 202.3(b)(4)(i)(B) will be removed. It 

also confirms that an application for a 

group of related works may be 

submitted by any of the parties listed in 

§ 202.3(c)(1) of the regulations. 

The proposed rule makes a number of 

other tangentially related technical 

amendments; these are not intended to 

represent substantive changes in policy. 

For example, the proposed rule removes 

the terms ‘‘single’’ work, ‘‘single’’ 

application, ‘‘single’’ registration fee, 

and ‘‘single’’ unit of publication from 

this portion of the regulations. It 

replaces them with the terms ‘‘one 

work,’’ ‘‘one application,’’ ‘‘one filing 

fee,’’ and ‘‘the same unit of 

publication.’’ This is intended to avoid 

potential confusion with the ‘‘single 

application,’’ which may only be used 

to register ‘‘a single work by a single 

author that is owned by the person who 

created it.’’ 37 CFR 202.3(b)(2)(B). For 

similar reasons, the proposed rule 

removes the last sentence from 

§ 202.3(b)(2)(i)(B), which states that an 

unpublished collection or unit of 

publication cannot be registered with 

the Single Application, because once 

the proposed rule goes into effect, this 

clarification will be superfluous. 

IV. Conclusion 

The proposed rule will allow broader 

participation in the registration system 

by expanding the class of works that 

may be registered as a group, increase 

the efficiency of the registration process, 

and create a more robust record of the 

claim. The Office invites public 

comment on these proposed changes. 

List of Subjects 

37 CFR Part 201 

Copyright, General provisions. 

37 CFR Part 202 

Copyright, Preregistration and 

registration of claims to copyright. 

Proposed Regulation 

For the reasons set forth in the 

preamble, the U.S. Copyright Office 

proposes amending 37 CFR parts 201 

and 202, as follows: 

PART 201—GENERAL PROVISIONS 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 201 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 17 U.S.C. 702. 

■ 2. Amend § 201.3 as follows: 

■ a. Redesignate paragraphs (c)(2) 

through (19) as paragraphs (c)(3) 

through (20), respectively. 

■ b. Add new paragraph (c)(2) to read as 

follows: 

§ 201.3 Fees for registration, recordation, 

and related services, special services, and 

services performed by the Licensing 

Division. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(2) Registration for a claim in a group of 

unpublished works ................................ 55 

* * * * * 

PART 202—PREREGISTRATION AND 

REGISTRATION OF CLAIMS TO 

COPYRIGHT 

■ 3. The authority citation for part 202 

continues to read as follows: 

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

■ 4. Amend § 202.3 as follows: 

■ a. In paragraph (b)(2)(i)(B) remove 

‘‘unpublished collections,’’ and remove 

the fifth sentence. 

■ b. Revise the heading of paragraph 

(b)(4). 

■ c. Revise paragraph (b)(4)(i). 

■ d. Remove paragraphs (b)(4)(i)(A), (B), 

and (B)(1) through (4). 

■ e. Redesignate paragraph (b)(4)(ii) as 

paragraph (c)(4). 

■ f. Add new paragraph (b)(4)(ii). 

■ g. Revise newly designated paragraph 

(c)(4), 

The additions and revisions read as 

follows: 

§ 202.3 Registration of copyright. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(4) Registration as one work. (i) A 

group of related works may be registered 

with one application and upon the 

payment of one filing fee if the 

conditions set forth in § 202.4 are met. 

(ii) For the purpose of registration on 

one application and upon the payment 

of one filing fee, the following shall be 

considered one work: In the case of 

published works, all copyrightable 

elements that are otherwise recognizable 

as self-contained works, that are 

included in the same unit of 

publication, and in which the copyright 

claimant is the same. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(4) In the case of applications for 

registration made under paragraphs 

(b)(4) through (b)(10) of this section or 

under § 202.4, the ‘‘year of creation,’’ 

‘‘year of completion,’’ or ‘‘year in which 

creation of this work was completed’’ 

means the latest year in which the 

creation of any copyrightable element 

was completed. 

■ 5. Amend § 202.4 as follows: 

■ a. Revise paragraph (b). 

■ b. Add paragraph (c). 

■ c. Revise paragraph (g) introductory 

text. 

■ d. Remove paragraph (g)(7) and 

redesignate paragraphs (g)(8) and (9) as 

paragraphs (g)(7) and (8), respectively. 

■ e. In paragraph (m) remove 

‘‘paragraph (g) of’’. 

The addition and revisions read as 

follows: 

§ 202.4 Group Registration. 

* * * * * 

(b) Definitions. For the purposes of 

this section, unless otherwise specified, 

the terms used have the meanings set 

forth in § 202.3 and § 202.20. 

(c) Group registration of unpublished 

works. Pursuant to the authority granted 

by 17 U.S.C. 408(c)(1), the Register of 

Copyrights has determined that a group 

of unpublished works may be registered 

in Class TX, PA, VA, or SR with one 

application, the required deposit, and 

the filing fee required by § 201.3(c) of 

this chapter, if the following conditions 

are met: 

(1) All the works in the group must be 

unpublished, and they must be 

registered in the same administrative 

class. 

(2) Generally, the applicant may 

include up to five works in the group. 

If the conditions set forth in 

§ 202.3(b)(1)(iv)(A) through (C) have 


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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 196 / Thursday, October 12, 2017 / Proposed Rules 47421 

been met, the applicant may include up 

to five sound recordings and five 

musical works, literary works, or 

dramatic works in the group. 

(3) The group may include individual 

works, joint works, or derivative works, 

but may not include compilations, 

collective works, databases, or Web 

sites. 

(4) The applicant must provide a title 

for each work in the group. 

(5) All the works must be created by 

the same author or the same joint 

authors, and the author and claimant 

information for each work must be the 

same. 

(6) The works may be registered as 

anonymous works, pseudonymous 

works, or works made for hire if they are 

identified in the application as such. 

(7) The applicant must identify the 

authorship that each author or joint 

author contributed to the works, and the 

authorship statement for each author or 

joint author must be the same. Claims in 

the selection, coordination, or 

arrangement of the group as a whole 

will not be permitted on the application. 

(8) The applicant must complete and 

submit the online application 

designated for a group of unpublished 

works. The application may be 

submitted by any of the parties listed in 

§ 202.3(c)(1). 

(9) The applicant must submit one 

complete copy or phonorecord of each 

work. Each work must be contained in 

a separate electronic file that complies 

with § 202.20(b)(2)(iii). The files must 

be submitted in one of the electronic 

formats approved by the Office, they 

must be assembled in an orderly form, 

and they must be uploaded to the 

electronic registration system, 

preferably in a .zip file containing all 

the files. The file size for each uploaded 

file must not exceed 500 megabytes; the 

files may be compressed to comply with 

this requirement. 

(10) In an exceptional case, the 

Copyright Office may waive the online 

filing requirement set forth in paragraph 

(c)(8) of the section or may grant special 

relief from the deposit requirement 

under § 202.20(d), subject to such 

conditions as the Associate Register and 

Director of the Office of Registration 

Policy and Practice may impose on the 

applicant. 

* * * * * 

(g) Group registration of contributions 

to periodicals. Pursuant to the authority 

granted by 17 U.S.C. 408(c)(2), the 

Register of Copyrights has determined 

that a group of contributions to 

periodicals may be registered in Class 

TX or Class VA with one application, 

the required deposit, and the filing fee 

required by § 201.3(c), if the following 

conditions are met: 

* * * * * 

§ 202.20 [Amended] 

■ 6. Amend § 202.20 in paragraph 

(c)(2)(xx) by removing 

‘‘§ 202.3(b)(4)(i)(B) (unpublished 

collections) or’’ . 

Dated: October 4, 2017. 

Sarang V. Damle 

General Counsel and Associate Register of 

Copyrights. 

[FR Doc. 2017–21722 Filed 10–11–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 1410–30–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 62 

[EPA–R03–OAR–2017–0453; FRL–9969–44– 

Region 3] 

Approval and Promulgation of State 

Air Quality Plans for Designated 

Facilities and Pollutants; City of 

Philadelphia; Control of Emissions 

From Existing Hospital/Medical/ 

Infectious Waste Incinerator Units 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to notify the 

public that it has received a negative 

declaration for the City of Philadelphia 

Air Management Services (Philadelphia 

AMS) for hospital/medical/infectious 

waste incinerator (HMIWI) units. This 

negative declaration certifies that 

HMIWI units subject to the 

requirements of sections 111(d) and 129 

of the Clean Air Act (CAA) do not exist 

within the City of Philadelphia in the 

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. EPA is 

accepting the negative declaration in 

accordance with the requirements of the 

CAA. In the Final Rules section of this 

Federal Register, EPA is accepting the 

negative declaration as a direct final 

rule without prior proposal because the 

Agency views this as a noncontroversial 

submittal and anticipates no adverse 

comments. If no adverse comments are 

received in response to this action, no 

further activity is contemplated. If EPA 

receives adverse comments, the direct 

final rule will be withdrawn and all 

public comments received will be 

addressed in a subsequent final rule 

based on this proposed rule. EPA will 

not institute a second comment period. 

Any parties interested in commenting 

on this action should do so at this time. 

DATES: Comments must be received in 

writing by November 13, 2017. 

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, 

identified by Docket ID No. EPA–R03– 

OAR–2017–0453 at http://

www.regulations.gov, or via email to 

aquino.marcos@epa.gov. For comments 

submitted at Regulations.gov, follow the 

online instructions for submitting 

comments. Once submitted, comments 

cannot be edited or removed from 

Regulations.gov. For either manner of 

submission, the EPA may publish any 

comment received to its public docket. 

Do not submit electronically any 

information you consider to be 

confidential business information (CBI) 

or other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Multimedia 

submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be 

accompanied by a written comment. 

The written comment is considered the 

official comment and should include 

discussion of all points you wish to 

make. EPA will generally not consider 

comments or comment contents located 

outside of the primary submission (i.e. 

on the web, cloud, or other file sharing 

system). For additional submission 

methods, please contact the person 

identified in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section. For the 

full EPA public comment policy, 

information about CBI or multimedia 

submissions, and general guidance on 

making effective comments, please visit 

http://www2.epa.gov/dockets/ 

commenting-epa-dockets. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Michael Gordon, (215) 814–2039, or by 

email at gordon.mike@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For 

further information regarding the 

negative declaration submitted by 

Philadelphia AMS for HMIWI units, 

please see the information provided in 

the technical support document in the 

rulemaking docket and in the direct 

final action, with the same title, that is 

located in the ‘‘Rules and Regulations’’ 

section of this Federal Register 

publication. The negative declaration 

letter submitted by Philadelphia AMS 

and technical support document in 

support of this action are also available 

online at www.regulations.gov. 

Dated: September 19, 2017. 

Cecil Rodrigues, 

Acting Regional Administrator, Region III. 

[FR Doc. 2017–22131 Filed 10–11–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 


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