Source: https://www.copyright.gov/recordation/etl/
Timestamp: 2019-02-19 12:58:12
Document Index: 439526270

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 201', '§ 201', '§ 205', '§ 201', '§ 201', '§ 201']

Electronic Title List Instructions | U.S. Copyright Office
Electronic Title List Template (XLSX) Requirements and Instructions (PDF) Corrections (PDF)
When submitting a transfer of copyright ownership or other document pertaining to a copyright for recordation to the Copyright Office, the submitted document must identify the works to which the document pertains in the paper submission. In addition, however, an electronic title list may be submitted. An electronic title list is an Excel file containing certain indexing information about the relevant works, such as their titles, type, registration numbers, and authorship information.
Submitting an electronic title list is optional, but provides certain benefits. Currently, documents must be submitted for recordation in paper form. When Office staff indexes a document, certain information from the document concerning the works listed in it must be manually transcribed into the Office’s electronic system. Once this information has been converted into an electronic format, staff prepares an online public record for the document. Transcribing this information is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, since many documents contain hundreds or even thousands of works. By submitting an electronic title list that already contains this information, it reduces the amount of time and labor needed to index the document, the potential for inaccuracies in the public record, and the amount of time needed to record the document and issue a certificate of recordation. In addition, to incentivize use of electronic title lists, the Office offers a reduced filing fee for submissions that include them.
The current filing fee for a recordation submission that includes an electronic title list can be found in 37 C.F.R. § 201.3(c). Please use the calculator below to determine the fee for your document.
While there is no minimum number of titles that must be submitted to use an electronic title list, fee savings are realized where documents have more than eleven titles.
An electronic title list is not considered part of the recorded document, but is used by the Office for indexing purposes. The Office will rely on the information in the electronic title list and will not necessarily confirm its accuracy against the submitted document, though staff my “spot check” some of the entries in the list and may communicate with the remitter or reject the submission if any discrepancies are found. Therefore, remitters are strongly encouraged to confirm that their electronic title lists fully and accurately reflect the information contained in the document before it is submitted to the Office.
An electronic title list may also be used to voluntarily provide supplemental indexing information not contained in the actual document, for purposes of making the document and the works to which it pertains easier to find in the Office’s public catalog. For example, if the submitted document only refers to a work by its title, a remitter could include authorship information or a registration number in an electronic title list to aid the public in more easily identifying the work.
If you wish to submit an electronic title list with your document you may do so by complying with the requirements and following the instructions provided below. Note that the Office may reject any document submitted for recordation that includes an improperly prepared electronic title list.
To contact the Office with any questions or if you need assistance, please visit https://www.copyright.gov/help.
See generally 37 C.F.R. § 201.4(e)(3); 82 Fed. Reg. 52,213 (Nov. 13, 2017).
The document must be a transfer of copyright ownership or other document pertaining to a copyright that is recordable with the Copyright Office under 17 U.S.C. § 205. Notices of termination under sections 203, 304(c), or 304(d) are ineligible.
The Office’s electronic title list template must be used and the instructions below for completing it must be followed. Any list that does not use the template or does not adhere to the below instructions will be rejected. This includes any list that only mirrors the appearance of the template.
The electronic title list must be saved in the Excel (.xlsx) file format and stored on a compact disc, flash drive, or other digital storage medium approved by the Office that is clearly labeled with the title of the first work provided in the paper document, as identified in Item 1 of Form DCS, and the name of the first party identified in Item 11 of Form DCS.
Where an electronic title list contains more than 10,000 titles, the titles must be grouped into separate Excel files, each consisting of a single sheet of not more than 10,000 titles, and all stored on the same compact disc, flash drive, or other digital storage medium approved by the Office that is submitted with the paper document. If your document requires more than ten such Excel files (i.e., there are more than 100,000 titles), you must contact the Office before sending your submission.
The Excel file’s name must include “ETL,” and where multiple Excel files are submitted as part of the same electronic title list, each file’s name must include “—Part [#] of [#].”
The electronic title list must only include letters, numbers, and printable characters that appear in the ASCII 128-character set. Appropriate translations or transliterations of non-English language material may be provided in conformity with 37 C.F.R. § 201.4(d)(5).
The electronic title list template is organized so that information for each title for a work is provided on its own separate row of the spreadsheet; do not list more than one title in the same row. Titles should be listed in the same order in which they appear in the document. There are thirteen columns for providing the information necessary to index each title. Some columns are optional and others may not always be applicable. In general, providing information beyond what is actually contained in the document, such as authorship information or registration numbers, is optional but strongly encouraged. Specific instructions for each column are below.
IMPORTANT: Leave all unused cells in the template blank. Do NOT type “Not Applicable” or “N/A.” Additionally, do not use the copy/paste function anywhere in the template. The template has a number of built-in validations that are necessary for importing it into the Office’s current public catalog. Copying and pasting material, whether from an external source or within the spreadsheet, may override some of these validations, in which case, the Office will have to reject the submission.
This column is to be a running number list that starts at “1” with your first title and continues numerically row-by-row with each title you add to your list. For example, for the first title entered, which is in row 4 of the template, type “1” in this column. For the second title, in row 5, enter a “2” in this column. For the one thousandth title, in row 1003, enter “1000” in this column. Do not include a comma, decimal point, or any other non-numerical character.
If the title begins with one of the following articles, select it from the drop-down list in this column. For example, if the title of the work is “A New Hope,” select “A” from the drop-down list; if the title is “The Empire Strikes Back,” select “The.” If the title does not begin with an article, or if the title begins with an article that is not listed below, or if the title is written in a language other than English, Spanish, French, or German, leave this column blank. For example, if the title is “Il Postino,” do not type “Il” in this column; if the title is Italian and is “La Follia,” to do not select “La” from the drop-down list.
If the work is part of a larger work (see instructions for Column L “Title of Larger Work” below) and is untitled, but is known by a numerical identifier (e.g., a television episode of a series identified as Episode 201 or a specific issue of a magazine identified as Issue 50) follow these instructions. Rather than providing the title of the larger work in Column L, provide it here along with the numerical identifier of the specific work at issue in the following format, to the extent applicable: [title of larger work], [numerical identifier of specific work], [date of specific work]. For example, “Popular Science, Vol. 286, No. 4, April 2015” or “New York Times, Vol. CXVIII, No. 40,721, July 21, 1969” or “CBS Evening News, November 1, 2017” or “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, No. 1003.” However, where a work has an actual title, these special instructions should be disregarded. For example, for the television episode “Mirror, Mirror” from the series “Star Trek,” “Mirror, Mirror,” as the title of the work, should be entered in this column and “Star Trek,” as the title of the larger work, should be entered in Column L. Do not provide in this column “Star Trek, Episode 33,” “Star Trek, Season 2, Episode 4,” or “Star Trek, Mirror, Mirror.” Numerical information may, at the remitter’s option, still be provided in addition to the full title of the work, by including it in parentheses after the title of the work (e.g., “Mirror, Mirror (Season 2, Episode 4)”). Note that if the actual title of the work happens to be a numerical identifier (e.g., “Episode Three” or “Chapter 6”), disregard these special instructions; it should be treated as any other title, rather than as a numerical identifier for an untitled work.
(Note: For Declarations of Ownership in Musical Works, this field must contain “Musical Work.” Other details describing the type of work may be provided, but the phrase “Musical Work” must be present among them.)
This field is only required if Column L “Title of Larger Work” has been completed and the information is contained in the document, though the Office strongly encourages remitters to still include this information even if the document does not specify it. Describe the type of larger work, following the same guidance provided above for Column F “Type of Work.”
Submit the appropriate fee for the corrective filing as indicated by 37 C.F.R. § 201.3(c), currently under the heading “Correction of online Public Catalog data due to erroneous electronic title submission (per title).”
The filing fee owed for the correction (see 37 C.F.R. § 201.3(c)) and method of payment: check, money order, or deposit account. If paying through a deposit account, indicate the account name and number.
All corrections being sought. For an error, you must state (1) the Title Number from Column A of the originally submitted electronic title list, (2) the relevant category heading from the originally submitted electronic title list, (3) the relevant text as was originally submitted, and (4) the replacement corrective text. For an omission from a title that was in the originally submitted electronic title list, describe the new information. If the title was entirely omitted, provide all relevant information in the same order it would have been in if it were included in the original electronic title list, along with the page number of the document where the title information can be located. For example:
For title no. 7, correct the leading article for title from “The” to “A”
For title no. 7, correct the title from “News hop” to “New Hope”
For title no. 7, correct the primary title number from “6” to “5”
For title no. 232, correct the type of work from “screenplay” to “motion picture”
For title no. 1346, correct the additional registration number from “SR0000320917” to “SR0000320918”
For title no. 2003, add “film” as a type of larger work