52224 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 217 / Monday, November 13, 2017 / Rules and Regulations 

Registration, recordation and related services Fees 

($) 

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(16) Recordation of a document, including a notice of intention to enforce ........................

Single title ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 105 

Additional titles (per group of 1 to 10 titles) ................................................................................................................................. 35 

Additional titles provided in an electronic title list 

1 to 50 additional titles .......................................................................................................................................................... 60 

51 to 500 additional titles ...................................................................................................................................................... 225 

501 to 1,000 additional titles ................................................................................................................................................. 390 

1,001 to 10,000 additional titles ............................................................................................................................................ 555 

10,001 or more additional titles ............................................................................................................................................. 5,550 

Correction of online Public Catalog data due to erroneous electronic title submission (per title) ............................................... 7 

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* * * * * 

Dated: October 24, 2017. 

Karyn Temple Claggett, 

Acting Register of Copyrights and Director 

of the U.S. Copyright Office. 

Approved by: 

Carla D. Hayden, 

Librarian of Congress. 

[FR Doc. 2017–24526 Filed 11–9–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 1410–30–P 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

Copyright Office 

37 CFR Part 202 

[Docket No. 2017–8] 

Secure Tests 

AGENCY: U.S. Copyright Office, Library 

of Congress. 

ACTION: Interim rule with request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Copyright Office is 

issuing an update to its interim rule, 

issued June 12, 2017, governing 

registration of secure tests. Based on the 

initial comments received on that 

interim rule, the Office has determined 

that there is an immediate need to 

establish a new group registration 

option for secure test questions and 

answers and other related materials 

(referred to as ‘‘test items’’) that are 

stored in an electronic database, test 

bank, or other medium of expression. 

This interim rule incorporates most of 

the same procedures that the Office 

adopted in its recent interim rule on 

secure tests and adds additional 

procedures for group registration. To 

seek a group registration, applicants will 

be required to submit an online 

application, upload a redacted copy of 

the individual test items to the 

electronic registration system, and 

complete and submit a brief 

questionnaire. If, based on the answers 

to the questionnaire, the test items 

appear to be eligible for the group 

registration option, the Office will 

contact the applicant and schedule an 

appointment to deliver these materials 

to the Office in person. On the 

appointed date, the applicant must 

bring a copy of the application and a 

complete unredacted copy of the actual 

test items. In addition, the applicant 

must bring a redacted copy of the test 

items, and a signed declaration 

confirming that this copy is identical to 

the redacted copy that was uploaded to 

the electronic registration system. The 

Office will examine each test item to 

determine if it contains sufficient 

copyrightable authorship. If the Office 

registers the claim, the registration will 

cover each test item as a separate work 

of authorship, and the registration will 

be effective as of the date the Office 

initially received the application, filing 

fee, and the redacted copy of the test 

items in proper form through the 

electronic registration system. To be 

clear, the previous interim rule 

otherwise remains in effect, and 

applicants may continue to use that rule 

to register individual secure tests. The 

Office welcomes public comment on 

both this interim rule and the June 12, 

2017 interim rule. 

DATES: Effective November 13, 2017. 

Comments on this interim rule and the 

interim rule published on June 12, 2017 

(82 FR 26850), must be made in writing 

and must be received by the U.S. 

Copyright Office no later than December 

11, 2017. 

ADDRESSES: For reasons of government 

efficiency, the U.S. 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 on the U.S. Copyright 

Office Web site at http://copyright.gov/ 

rulemaking/securetests/. 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; Sarang Vijay Damle, 

General Counsel and Associate Register 

of Copyrights; Erik Bertin, Deputy 

Director of Registration Policy and 

Practice; or Abioye Ella Mosheim, 

Attorney-Advisor, by telephone at 202– 

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

sdam@loc.gov, ebertin@loc.gov, and 

abmo@loc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

A. General Provisions Regarding 

Copyright Registration 

Under the Copyright Act of 1976, the 

U.S. Copyright Office (the ‘‘Copyright 

Office’’ or ‘‘Office’’) is responsible for 

registering copyright claims. See 17 

U.S.C. 408. In doing so, the Office has 

a statutory obligation to confirm that the 

legal and formal requirements for 

registration have been met, such as 

confirming fixation and examining the 

work for copyrightable authorship. See 

17 U.S.C. 410(a) (obligating the Register 

of Copyrights (the ‘‘Register’’) ‘‘after 

examination’’ to ‘‘determine[ ] that . . . 

the material deposited constitutes 

copyrightable subject matter and that 

the other legal and formal requirements 

of this title have been met’’). 

The Office has the further obligation 

to obtain a registration deposit that is 

sufficient to verify the scope of the 

claim, and to provide an adequate 

archival record of what was examined 

and registered. Id. 408(b) (generally 

requiring a ‘‘complete’’ copy of works 

deposited for registration); id. 705(a) 

(requiring the Register to ‘‘ensure that 


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1The regulation defined a ‘‘secure test’’ as ‘‘a 

nonmarketed test administered under supervision 

at specified centers on specific dates, all copies of 

which are accounted for and either destroyed or 

returned to restricted locked storage following each 

administration. For these purposes a test is not 

marketed if copies are not sold but it is distributed 

and used in such a manner that ownership and 

control of copies remain with the test sponsor or 

publisher.’’ 37 CFR 202.20(b)(4) (1978). 

2See e.g., PSI Comments at 7–8; Am. Board of 

Fam. Med., Inc., Comments at 2; NBCRNA 

Comments at 2. In addition, many comments called 

for updates to the longstanding regulatory 

definition of ‘‘secure test,’’ which is defined as ‘‘a 

nonmarketed test administered under supervision 

at specified centers on scheduled dates, all copies 

of which are accounted for and either destroyed or 

returned to restricted locked storage following each 

administration.’’ 37 CFR 202.13(b)(1). Although the 

Continued 

records of deposits . . . are 

maintained’’); id. 705(b) (requiring the 

Register to make ‘‘the articles deposited 

in connection with completed copyright 

registrations and retained under the 

control of the Copyright Office . . . 

open to public inspection’’). In the case 

of unpublished works, the Office is 

statutorily required to keep the deposit 

for the full term of copyright protection. 

17 U.S.C. 704(d). 

B. Secure Test Registration Procedures 

In 1978, as part of the regulations 

implementing the 1976 Copyright Act, 

the Office issued a regulation that 

established a special procedure to 

exempt ‘‘secure tests’’ from some of the 

otherwise applicable rules for 

registration, deposit, and examination. 

The Office explained that this procedure 

was specifically designed for tests ‘‘used 

in connection with admission to 

educational institutions, high school 

equivalency, placement in or credit for 

undergraduate and graduate course 

work, awarding of scholarships, and 

professional certification’’ and that it 

was intended to protect the confidential 

nature of these works. See 42 FR 59302, 

59304 & n.1 (Nov. 16, 1977) (noting 

correspondence from the Educational 

Testing Service, American College 

Testing Program, The College Entrance 

Examination Board, The American 

Council on Education, the Law School 

Admission Council, the National Board 

of Medical Examiners, the Federation of 

State Medical Boards, and the National 

Conference of Bar Examiners, among 

others). In establishing this special 

procedure, the Office adopted a 

definition of ‘‘secure tests’’ that it 

believed would best identify the kinds 

of tests that raised special 

confidentiality concerns.1

Furthermore, the Office observed that 

‘‘although secure tests should be 

deposited in the Copyright Office for 

examination incident to registration 

under section 408, their retention by the 

Office and availability for public 

inspection could severely prejudice the 

future utility, quality, and integrity of 

the materials.’’ Id. Accordingly, the 

Office adopted a regulation providing 

that ‘‘[i]n the case of any secure test the 

Copyright Office will return the deposit 

to the applicant promptly after 

examination.’’ 37 CFR 202.20(c)(2)(vi) 

(1978). At the same time, the Office 

recognized the need to retain some 

evidence of the work that had been 

examined and registered. Accordingly, 

the regulation required that ‘‘sufficient 

portions, description[s], or the like [be] 

retained so as to constitute a sufficient 

archival record of the deposit.’’ Id. In 

promulgating this regulation, the Office 

also offered that ‘‘[a]s a matter of 

practice, special arrangements can be 

made for the examination of such 

materials under strict conditions of 

security and in the presence of a 

representative of a copyright owner.’’ 42 

FR at 59304. 

Initially, this procedure was used to 

register secure tests administered with 

physical booklets, as that was the type 

of ‘‘work’’ the Office had in mind when 

the regulation was adopted. Beginning 

in the 1990’s, the Office expanded its 

procedures—without altering the 

underlying regulation—to permit secure 

registration of tests administered in a 

machine-readable format and secure 

tests administered with physical 

booklets containing questions taken 

from an automated database. This 

procedure mirrored the procedure 

described above, with the exception of 

the deposit requirement. Specifically, 

applicants could bring an unredacted 

copy of the entire test to the in-person 

appointment, or alternatively, they 

could bring 50 unredacted pages from 

the test or the database of test questions. 

With respect to the redacted copy of the 

test, applicants could use the same 

procedure used to examine physical test 

booklets, or alternatively, they could 

submit 50 redacted pages from the test 

or the underlying database of test 

questions. Still later, the Office 

modified this procedure—again without 

revisiting the regulation—stating that 

applicants could submit the title page of 

the test, a redacted copy of the last page 

of the test, and 50 pages from the test 

or database of test questions (either in 

redacted or unredacted form). While the 

Office described these procedures in a 

circular (Copyright Registration of 

Secure Tests (Circular 64)), they were 

never incorporated into the Office’s 

regulations and were never the subject 

of a formal rulemaking. 

While these post-1978 changes to the 

secure test procedure were an attempt to 

be responsive to developments in the 

marketplace—as the testing industry 

moved from using static test booklets to 

randomized or adaptive tests delivered 

by a computer—they did not ensure, 

among other things, an adequate deposit 

that could serve as a long-term record of 

what material was examined and 

registered. As a result, over time the 

Office’s special procedures for 

registration of secure tests came into 

increasing tension with the general rules 

governing copyright registration. 

As a result, on June 12, 2017, the 

Office issued an interim rule that 

memorialized certain aspects of its 

secure test procedure, and adopted new 

procedures to increase the efficiency of 

its examination of secure tests. See 82 

FR 26850 (June 12, 2017). In addition, 

the interim rule brought secure test 

registration procedures back into 

alignment with the underlying statutory 

and regulatory framework for copyright 

registration. In particular, the Office 

made clear that only those works that 

satisfy the regulatory definition of a 

‘‘secure test’’ would be eligible for the 

secure test procedure. Id. at 26851. In 

addition, the Office noted that, under its 

longstanding regulation, the redacted 

copy must contain a sufficient archival 

record of what was submitted for 

registration, and that its prior practices 

allowing for the registration of test item 

banks were in considerable tension with 

that requirement. Id. at 26851. The 

Office therefore declined to permit 

registration of test item banks under 

those prior practices. 

The Office issued the June 12, 2017 

rule on an interim basis and before 

receiving public comments, in part, 

because it memorialized most of the 

Office’s longstanding procedures for 

examining secure tests, and because the 

improvements in that process were 

expected to provide immediate benefits 

for test publishers. See 82 FR 26853. 

The Office invited comment on the 

interim rule and provided a generous 

amount of time for public input before 

issuing a final rule to give applicants 

and the Office an opportunity to 

evaluate the new procedures based on 

actual experience. 

II. Group Registration of Secure Test 

Items 

Although the deadline for submitting 

comments does not expire until 

December 11, 2017, many commenters 

have expressed significant concerns 

about the June 12, 2017 interim rule, 

contending that it restricts their ability 

to register, in a secure manner, test 

items (i.e., sets of questions and 

answers) stored in or pulled from 

electronic databases and test banks.2


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Office is not in a position to amend that regulatory 

definition at this time, it acknowledges that the 

administration of secure tests has changed in many 

ways since this definition was first promulgated in 

1978, and it is continuing to consider those 

comments that have asked the Office to update this 

definition to account for these changes. 

3To be clear, the interim rule issued on June 12, 

2017 otherwise remains in effect, and may continue 

to be used to register individual secure tests. 37 

CFR 202.13(b)(1). 

4Because of the confusion surrounding the 

treatment of test items stored in databases under the 

June 12, 2017 interim rule, the Office intends to 

apply this interim rule to pending registration 

applications, but where applicable, the Office will 

request a revised application and deposit materials. 

If these requirements are met, the Office will assign 

an effective date of registration based on the date 

that the initial application and deposit were 

received. 

The Office appreciates the commenters 

bringing these issues to our attention. 

The Office recognizes that secure tests 

serve an important societal function, 

and that providing a secure method for 

registering copyright claims in those 

tests furthers the public good. Although 

the June 12, 2017 interim rule was 

aimed to better align secure test 

registration procedures with the Office’s 

statutory obligations and general good 

practices for copyright registration, the 

Office also recognizes that the interim 

rule did not provide secure test 

publishers with a means for registering 

individual test items that are stored in 

a database or test bank without 

disclosing the content of these works. 

To address these legitimate concerns, 

the Office has decided to issue another 

interim rule as part of this rulemaking, 

and to make that rule effective 

immediately. 

A. Group Registration Generally 

This interim rule establishes a new 

group registration option for test items 

prepared for use in a secure test. 

When Congress enacted the Copyright 

Act, it authorized the Register to specify 

by regulation the administrative classes 

of works for the purpose of seeking a 

registration and the nature of the 

deposit for each such class. Congress 

also gave the Register the discretion to 

allow groups of related works to be 

registered with one application and one 

filing fee. See 17 U.S.C. 408(c)(1). This 

procedure is known as group 

registration. Pursuant to this authority, 

the Office issued regulations creating 

group registrations for certain limited 

categories of works, provided that 

certain conditions have been met. See 

generally 37 CFR 202.3(b)(1)–(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), reprinted in 

1976 U.S.C.A.N.N. 5659, 5770; 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 record that diminishes the 

value of the Office’s database. 

Allowing a number of related works 

to be submitted on one application, 

however, is not without its issues. When 

large numbers of works are grouped 

together in one application, information 

about the individual works may not be 

adequately captured. Group registration 

options, therefore, require careful 

balancing of the need for an accurate 

public record and the need for an 

efficient method of facilitating the 

examination of those works. 

The new procedure will be known as 

the ‘‘group registration option for secure 

test items’’ or ‘‘GRSTQ’’. The rule will 

allow a group of test items that are 

derived from a test bank or database to 

be registered using the same basic 

procedure for registering an individual 

secure test.3 The test items must be 

prepared for use in a ‘‘secure test,’’ as 

defined in § 202.13(b)(1) of the earlier 

interim rule. And if certain 

requirements have been met, the test 

items may be registered by submitting a 

redacted copy of the works and 

presenting an unredacted copy of these 

materials to the Office for an in-person 

examination. 

Under this interim rule, each 

individual test item may constitute one 

work if the item is determined to be 

copyrightable in itself. While there is no 

limit to the number of test items that 

may be included in each submission, 

each work must share certain traits. 

Specifically, the test items contained in 

a single group must all be either 

published or unpublished. They must 

all be created by the same author or coauthors, and the copyright claimant(s) 

must be the same for each item. Because 

an overwhelming majority of secure 

tests are works made for hire, the Office 

is considering whether to limit these 

registrations to works made for hire, 

although it did not include this 

restriction in this interim rule. The 

Office welcomes public comments on 

whether this requirement should be 

included in the final rule. 

A group registration for secure test 

items will cover each work in the group, 

i.e., each test item will be deemed to be 

registered as a separate work. Claims in 

the selection, coordination, or 

arrangement of the group as a whole 

will not be permitted.4 Each of these 

requirements is discussed below. 

A. Eligibility Requirements 

1. Test Items That May Be Included in 

the Group 

To qualify for the GRSTQ option, all 

the test items in the group must be 

prepared for use in a secure test, as 

defined in § 202.13(b)(1) of the earlier 

interim rule. A database or test bank 

does not qualify as a ‘‘secure test’’ in 

and of itself. But the Office recognizes 

that when test items are selected from 

a test bank and assembled together to 

form an actual secure test, they share 

the same security concerns that 

prompted the Office to create the special 

accommodation for individual secure 

tests. For this reason, test items that are 

prepared for use in a secure test will be 

eligible for the GRSTQ option. 

For the purposes of registration, a 

‘‘test item’’ is a question (or ‘‘stem’’), the 

correct answer to that question, any 

incorrect answer choices (or 

‘‘distractors’’), and any associated 

material, such as a narrative passage or 

diagram. A single narrative or diagram 

followed by multiple related questions 

and correct and incorrect answers will 

together be considered a single test item. 

Under this interim rule, each test item 

will be considered one work. Thus, if an 

applicant submits one textual passage 

followed by a question and four answers 

related to that passage, this would be 

considered one work for purposes of 

registration. A single narrative or 

diagram followed by multiple sets of 

related questions and answers will also 

be considered one work. The Office 

believes this definition will be broad 

enough to encompass many different 

kinds of test items. It nonetheless 

welcomes public comments on whether 

that definition could be clarified or 

otherwise improved. 

2. The Number of Test Items That May 

Be Included in the Group 

Under this interim rule, the Office 

will allow an unlimited amount of 

works to be included with each group 

registration, and will examine each 

individual test item for copyrightable 

authorship. Applicants should note, 

however, that an extremely large 

number of test items may take a 


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5 If the examiner determines that the test items are 

not eligible for registration under secure test 

procedures, but are eligible under normal (i.e., nonsecure test) examination procedures, the examiner 

will ask the applicant to upload a complete 

unredacted copy of the items, and he or she will 

change the effective date of registration to match the 

date that the unredacted copy is received. 

6The Office will charge the same hourly 

examination rate regardless of whether an applicant 

is seeking to register a secure test or a group of test 

items prepared for use in a secure test. See 37 CFR 

201.3(d)(5). 

significant amount of time—in some 

cases, several days—to examine. 

Moreover, applicants will be required to 

pay an hourly fee for the time spent 

examining these test items during the 

in-person appointment. 

Over time, allowing an unlimited 

number of works to be registered with 

one application may reduce the quality 

of the registration record, or it may 

impose an unreasonable administrative 

burden on the Office. Therefore, the 

Office will monitor this process for 

several months following the issuance 

of this interim rule, and will evaluate 

what effect, if any, allowing an 

unlimited amount of tests items per 

registration may have on the Office’s 

business processes to determine 

whether the number should be limited 

under the final rule. 

When completing the electronic 

application, the applicant must 

reasonably identify the total number of 

test items that are included in the 

application. The applicant should 

provide this information on the 

questionnaire and by numbering each 

test item that appears in the deposit. 

The Office will use this information to 

plan for the in-person examination. 

Numbering the test items will also help 

the Office identify and examine the 

relevant works in the deposit. 

3. Publication 

Under this interim rule, an applicant 

will be allowed to register a group of 

unpublished test items, or a group of 

test items that are published within a 

three-calendar-month period. 

Applicants will not be allowed to 

combine published and unpublished 

test items in the same claim. 

If an applicant submits a group of 

published test items, and if the items 

were published on the same date, the 

applicant should provide that date in 

the application. If the test items were 

published on different dates, the 

applicant must identify the first date 

that the items were published. Claims 

with a range of publication dates 

outside of a three-calendar–month 

period will be refused. 

4. Title of the Group 

To register a group of test items 

prepared for use in a secure test, the 

applicant must provide a title for the 

group as a whole. In addition, the 

applicant must append the term 

‘‘GRSTQ’’ at the beginning of the title of 

the group, so that the Office can more 

easily assign the claim to an appropriate 

member of the Registration Program. 

Upon request, the examiner will remove 

this term from the title field before the 

claim is approved. 

Applicants must provide additional 

descriptive information in the title that, 

at a minimum, identifies the name of 

the secure test that the items are 

intended for. The title may also include 

any relevant dates. For example, 

applicants can identify the specific test 

where the test items will be used (e.g. 

‘‘GRSTQ: Test items for February 2017 

LSAT’’), the test bank or database from 

which the test items were derived (e.g. 

‘‘GRSTQ: Test items added to the 

FINRA Series 7 Exam item bank in the 

3rd quarter of 2017’’), or the subject 

matter of the test items (e.g. ‘‘GRSTQ: 

SAT reading comprehension test 

items’’). 

5. Author and Claimant 

Under this interim rule, all the test 

items in the group must be authored by 

the same person or organization. 

Likewise, the copyright claimant(s) for 

each work must be the same person or 

organization. If the author(s) and 

claimant(s) are different, the application 

must contain an appropriate transfer 

statement explaining how the claimant 

obtained all of the exclusive rights in 

the works. 

B. The Application Process 

The application process described in 

this interim rule is essentially identical 

to the process described in the interim 

rule announced on June 12, 2017. See 

82 FR 26852–53. To register a group of 

test items, applicants must complete 

and submit an application through the 

electronic registration system using the 

Standard Application, and they must 

pay the $55 filing fee. Prior to 

scheduling an examination 

appointment, applicants must complete 

and upload a brief questionnaire about 

the test items, which may be obtained 

from the Office’s Web site at https://

www.copyright.gov/forms/securetestquestionnaire.pdf, and they must 

upload a redacted copy of all the test 

items being registered. The Office will 

use this information to determine if the 

works are eligible for the GRSTQ option. 

The copy uploaded to the electronic 

registration system should contain a 

redacted copy of each test item, and, as 

mentioned above, each test item should 

be numbered. Most of the content that 

appears on each page may be blocked 

out, provided that the redacted copy 

contains a sufficient amount of visible 

content that may be used to identify 

each item. For instance, the applicant 

may leave a narrow vertical or diagonal 

strip of visible content across each page. 

Alternatively, the applicant may redact 

the content of each test item, except for 

a small number of identifiable words. 

The Office has provided representative 

examples of acceptable redaction 

methods in the most recent version of 

Circular 64 (posted on the Office’s Web 

site on November 13, 2017. 

The questionnaire and the redacted 

copy containing all of the test items 

must be contained in separate electronic 

files, and they must be uploaded to the 

electronic registration system in 

Portable Document Format (PDF). The 

file name for the questionnaire should 

include the word ‘‘Questionnaire’’ and 

the case number assigned to the claim. 

(This eleven-digit number is 

automatically generated by the 

electronic registration system, and it 

appears near the top of each screen of 

the online application.) The file name 

for the redacted copy should match the 

title provided on the questionnaire. 

Once the application, filing fee, 

questionnaire and the redacted copy 

have been received, the Office will 

assign the claim to a Literary Division 

examiner who will examine the claim in 

the date order of the Literary Division’s 

pending overall workload. The 

examiner will review these items to 

determine if the works appear to be 

eligible for the GRSTQ option. If so, the 

examiner will contact the applicant and 

schedule an in-person appointment to 

examine the works under secure 

conditions. The fact that the examiner 

schedules an appointment, however, 

does not necessarily mean that the test 

items are eligible for the GRSTQ option 

or that they will be registered. As 

discussed below, the in-person 

examination may reveal that individual 

test items or the group as a whole is 

ineligible for registration under these 

procedures or in general.5

C. The In-Person Examination 

On the day of the in-person 

examination appointment, the applicant 

must bring the following materials to 

the Office: 

(i) A copy of the completed 

application. 

(ii) The nonrefundable examination 

fee.6 This fee will be based on the 

amount of time that it takes to examine 

each item during the in-person 

appointment; it is in addition to the 

filing fee mentioned above. Both the 


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52228 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 217 / Monday, November 13, 2017 / Rules and Regulations 

filing fee and the examination fee are 

nonrefundable, regardless of whether 

the Office issues a certificate of 

registration for the test items. 

(iii) A copy of the redacted test items 

that were uploaded to the electronic 

registration system. 

(iv) A signed declaration confirming 

that this redacted copy is identical to 

the redacted copy that was uploaded to 

the electronic registration system. 

Applicants may obtain a copy of this 

declaration from the Office’s Web site at 

https://www.copyright.gov/forms/ 

securetest-declaration.pdf. 

(v) An unredacted copy of the test 

items submitted for registration. 

Applicants must bring a copy of the 

unredacted test items, with the entire 

content completely visible so that they 

may be examined. The test items in the 

unredacted copy should be numbered, 

should appear in the same order as the 

redacted copy, and should precisely 

match the test items as they appear in 

the redacted copy. 

The examiner will review the 

redacted and unredacted copies in a 

secure location in the presence of the 

applicant or the applicant’s 

representative. Because the Office will 

examine each test item for copyrightable 

authorship, and because the Office is 

not currently placing a limit on the 

number of items, the examination may 

require more time and may result in a 

higher total examination fee than an 

examination involving an individual 

secure test. If the examiner determines 

that one or more of the test items are not 

copyrightable, he or she will require the 

applicant to exclude that material from 

the claim in order to continue the 

examination, or will refuse the claim 

altogether. Face-to-face disputes with 

the examiner about the sufficient 

creativity of an item will not be allowed 

and will result in refusal of the claim. 

If an applicant does not agree that an 

individual test item should be excluded, 

the applicant may seek to register that 

test item or test items alone and appeal 

the subsequent refusal. 

When the examination is complete, 

the examiner(s) will stamp the date of 

the appointment on the redacted and 

unredacted copies and will return them 

to the applicant. The signed declaration 

and the redacted copy that was 

uploaded to the electronic system will 

be retained by the Office; this redacted 

copy will constitute the deposit. 

If the examiner determines that the 

legal and formal requirements have been 

met, he or she will register the claim(s) 

and will add an annotation to the 

certificate indicating that the test items 

were registered under this interim rule 

in accordance with the eligibility 

requirements for this group registration 

option. The registration will be effective 

as of the date that the Office originally 

received the application, filing fee, and 

the redacted copy that was uploaded to 

the electronic registration system. 

D. The Scope of Registration 

Under this interim rule, a group 

registration will cover each test item in 

the group, and each test item will be 

registered as a separate work. See 37 

CFR 202.4(m). The group is merely an 

administrative classification created 

solely for the purpose of registering 

multiple works with one application 

and one filing fee. See 17 U.S.C. 

408(c)(1) (‘‘Th[e] administrative 

classification of works has no 

significance with respect to the subject 

matter of copyright or the exclusive 

rights provided by this title.’’). 

Therefore, the Office will not consider 

the group as a whole to be a compilation 

or a collective work under sections 101, 

103(b), or 504(c)(1) of the Copyright Act. 

By contrast, when an applicant registers 

a secure test under the June 12, 2017 

interim rule, the applicant must assert a 

claim in the test as a whole, or in the 

individual test items and the selection, 

coordination, and/or arrangement of 

those items. See 86 FR at 26852. 

IV. Request for Comments 

This interim rule will go into effect 

immediately upon the publication of 

this document in the Federal Register. 

As was the case with the June 12, 2017 

interim rule, this is a non-substantive 

rule that is not subject to the restriction 

in 5 U.S.C. 553(d). See 82 FR 26853. In 

addition, there is ‘‘good cause’’ for this 

rule to go into immediate effect because 

it restores to secure test publishers a 

method of registering test items that 

existed prior to the issuance of the June 

12, 2017 interim rule but was not 

provided under that rule. See 5 U.S.C. 

553(d)(3). And, finally, the Copyright 

Office prepared this interim rule based 

upon its experience in administering 

other group registrations, and its review 

of comments received in response to the 

June 12, 2017 interim rule. 

Comments will be due on December 

11, 2017 (the same deadline for 

submitting comments on the June 12, 

2017 interim rule). The Office decided 

to issue this rule without publishing an 

initial notice of proposed rulemaking for 

several reasons: 

First, the interim rule addresses 

concerns expressed by interested parties 

in comments filed in response to the 

earlier interim rule on secure tests. 

Second, the procedures for scheduling 

an in-person appointment, submitting 

an unredacted copy of the works, and 

providing a redacted copy for the 

Office’s records are consistent with the 

Office’s longstanding practices for 

examining secure tests. 

Finally, issuing the rule on an interim 

basis affords both the Office and 

interested parties an opportunity to 

evaluate how these procedures work in 

conjunction with the procedures 

announced in the June 12, 2017 interim 

rule, to determine whether these 

procedures should be modified in any 

respect, and whether the number of test 

items that may be included in each 

claim should be adjusted before the 

Office issues a final rule. See 5 U.S.C. 

553(b)(3)(B). 

List of Subjects in 37 CFR Part 202 

Copyright, Preregistration and 

registration of claims to copyright. 

Interim Regulation 

In consideration of the foregoing, the 

U.S. Copyright Office amends 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. Amend § 202.4 as follows: 

■ a. Revise paragraph (b). 

■ b. Redesignate paragraphs (k) through 

(m) as paragraphs (l) through (n), 

respectively. 

■ c. Add new paragraph (k). 

■ d. In newly redesignated paragraph 

(n), remove ‘‘paragraph (g)’’ and add in 

its place ‘‘paragraph (g) or (k)’’. 

The revision and addition read as 

follows: 

§ 202.4 Group registration. 

* * * * * 

(b) Definitions. For purposes of this 

section, unless otherwise specified, the 

terms used have the meanings set forth 

in §§ 202.3, 202.13, and 202.20. 

* * * * * 

(k) Secure test items. Pursuant to the 

authority granted by 17 U.S.C. 408(c)(1), 

the Register of Copyrights has 

determined that a group of test items 

may be registered in Class TX with one 

application, one filing fee, and 

identifying material, if the conditions 

set forth in § 202.13(c) and (d) have been 

met. 

* * * * * 

■ 3. Amend § 202.13 as follows: 

■ a. Revise paragraph (a). 

■ b. Add paragraph (b)(5). 

■ c. Revise paragraphs (c) introductory 

text and (c)(2). 


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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 217 / Monday, November 13, 2017 / Rules and Regulations 52229 

■ d. Remove paragraph (c)(3). 

■ e. Redesignate paragraphs (c)(4) and 

(5) as paragraphs (c)(3) and (4), 

respectively. 

■ f. Revise newly redesignated 

paragraphs (c)(3)(iii), (iv), and (v) and 

the first sentence in newly redesignated 

paragraph (c)(4). 

■ g. Add paragraph (d). 

The additions and revisions read as 

follows: 

§ 202.13 Secure tests. 

(a) General. This section prescribes 

rules pertaining to the registration of 

secure tests or a group of test items 

prepared for use in a secure test. 

(b) * * * 

(5) A test item is comprised of a 

question (or ‘‘stem’’), the correct answer 

to that question, any incorrect answer 

choices (or ‘‘distractors’’), and any 

associated material, such as a narrative 

passage or diagram, and each item shall 

be considered one work. A single 

narrative, diagram, or other prefatory 

material, followed by multiple sets of 

related questions and correct or 

incorrect answers shall together be 

considered one item. 

(c) Deposit requirements. Pursuant to 

the authority granted by 17 U.S.C. 

408(c)(1), the Register of Copyrights has 

determined that a secure test or a group 

of test items prepared for use in a secure 

test may be registered with identifying 

material, and the filing and examination 

fees required by § 201.3(c) and (d), if the 

following conditions are met: 

* * * * * 

(2) In the case of a secure test, the 

applicant must submit a redacted copy 

of the entire test. In the case of a group 

of test items prepared for use in a secure 

test, the applicant must submit a 

redacted copy of each test item. In all 

cases the redacted copy must contain a 

sufficient amount of visible content to 

reasonably identify the work(s). In 

addition, the applicant must complete 

and submit the secure test questionnaire 

that is posted on the Copyright Office’s 

Web site. The questionnaire and the 

redacted copy must be contained in 

separate electronic files, and each file 

must be uploaded to the electronic 

registration system in Portable 

Document Format (PDF). The Copyright 

Office will review these materials to 

determine if the work(s) qualify for an 

in-person examination. If they appear to 

be eligible, the Copyright Office will 

contact the applicant to schedule an 

appointment to examine an unredacted 

copy of the work(s) under secure 

conditions. 

(3) * * * 

(iii) A copy of the redacted version of 

the work(s) that was uploaded to the 

electronic registration system. 

(iv) A signed declaration confirming 

that the redacted copy specified in 

paragraph (c)(3)(iii) of this section is 

identical to the redacted copy that was 

uploaded to the electronic registration 

system. 

(v) In the case of a secure test, the 

applicant must bring an unredacted 

copy of the entire test. In the case of a 

group of test items prepared for use in 

a secure test, the applicant must bring 

an unredacted copy of all the test items. 

(4) The Copyright Office will examine 

the copies specified in paragraphs 

(c)(3)(iii) and (v) of this section in the 

applicant’s presence. * * * 

(d) Group registration requirements. 

The Copyright Office may register a 

group of test items if the following 

conditions have been met: 

(1) All the test items must be prepared 

for use in a secure test, and the name 

of the secure test must be identified in 

the title of the group. 

(2) The group may contain an 

unlimited amount of works, but the 

applicant must identify the individual 

works included within the group by 

numbering each test item in the deposit. 

(3) The applicant must provide a title 

for the group as a whole, and must 

append the term ‘‘GRSTQ’’ to the 

beginning of the title. 

(4) The group must contain only 

unpublished works, or works published 

within the same three-calendar-month 

period and the application must identify 

the earliest date that the works were 

published. 

(5) All the works in the group must 

have the same author or authors, and 

the copyright claimant for each work 

must be the same. Claims in the 

selection, coordination, or arrangement 

of the group as a whole will not be 

permitted on the application. Each item 

in the group must be separately 

copyrightable or must be excluded from 

the group. 

Dated: November 6, 2017. 

Karyn Temple Claggett, 

Acting Register of Copyrights and Director 

of the U.S. Copyright Office. 

Approved by: 

Carla D. Hayden, 

Librarian of Congress. 

[FR Doc. 2017–24532 Filed 11–9–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 1410–30–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Office of the Secretary 

49 CFR Part 40 

[Docket DOT–OST–2016–0189] 

RIN 2105–AE58 

Procedures for Transportation 

Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing 

Programs: Addition of Certain 

Schedule II Drugs to the Department of 

Transportation’s Drug-Testing Panel 

and Certain Minor Amendments 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary of 

Transportation (OST), U.S. Department 

of Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: The Department of 

Transportation is amending its drugtesting program regulation to add 

hydrocodone, hydromorphone, 

oxymorphone, and oxycodone to its 

drug-testing panel; add 

methylenedioxyamphetamine as an 

initial test analyte; and remove 

methylenedioxyethylamphetamine as a 

confirmatory test analyte. The revision 

of the drug-testing panel harmonizes 

DOT regulations with the revised HHS 

Mandatory Guidelines established by 

the U.S. Department of Health and 

Human Services for Federal drug-testing 

programs for urine testing. This final 

rule clarifies certain existing drugtesting program provisions and 

definitions, makes technical 

amendments, and removes the 

requirement for employers and 

Consortium/Third Party Administrators 

to submit blind specimens. 

DATES: This rule is effective on January 

1, 2018. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Patrice M. Kelly, Acting Director, Office 

of Drug and Alcohol Policy and 

Compliance, 1200 New Jersey Avenue 

SE., Washington, DC 20590; telephone 

number 202–366–3784; 

ODAPCWebMail@dot.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Purpose 

The Department of Transportation 

(DOT or the Department) issued a notice 

of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on 

January 23, 2017. 82 FR 7771 (Jan. 23, 

2017). The NPRM proposed to revise 

Part 40 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR) to harmonize with 

certain parts of the revised the 

Department of Health and Human 

Services (HHS) Mandatory Guidelines 

for Federal Workplace Drug Testing 

Programs using Urine (HHS Mandatory 

Guidelines), which was published on 


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