The Copyright Office was established in 1897, and is currently one of seven service units within the Library of Congress. To carry out its mission, the Copyright Office has several functions set out in law, including (1) administering the nation’s copyright registration and recordation processes, (2) developing regulations related to copyright policies and procedures, (3) advising Congress on copyright issues, and (4) administering statutory licenses for cable and satellite retransmissions and digital audio recording technology. Importantly, the Copyright Office is also a driver in adding materials to the Library’s collections, as about 20 percent of these works are received in accordance with the legal requirement that copies of certain copyrighted works be deposited with the office for the Library. The Copyright Office is charged with administering the nation’s copyright law. As part of that responsibility, it performs a number of key functions, including copyright registration, recordation, and statutory licensing. Registration. The Copyright Office examines applications for registering copyrights, along with any accompanying copies of the work (called the deposit), to determine whether they satisfy statutory requirements. Copyright registration is a legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright, but is not required by law or as a condition of copyright protection. According to the Copyright Office, in fiscal year 2014, the Copyright Office registered about 476,000 creative works for copyright, including about 219,000 literary works and 65,000 sound recordings. Recordation. Authors, heirs, and other parties submit a variety of documents to the Copyright Office for public recordation, including copyright assignments, licenses, security interests, and termination of transfers. Like registration, a copyright owner is not required to record such changes to ownership, but there are certain incentives in the law for those who do. The Copyright Office recorded about 7,600 copyright records in fiscal year 2014. Statutory Licenses. The Copyright Office administers several statutory licenses set forth in the Copyright Act that manage and disperse royalty payments, including those pertaining to copyright owners’ rights related to television programming that is retransmitted by cable operators and satellite carriers. The disposition of these private funds is determined by a board of copyright royalty judges, called the Copyright Royalty Board. The work of the board is reviewable by the Register, but the board reports to the Librarian as head of the agency. According to the Copyright Office, in fiscal year 2014, it collected approximately $315 million in royalties and made disbursements in accordance with the decisions of the Copyright Royalty Board. In addition to registration, recordation, and statutory licensing, the office also performs other functions. For example, the Register is charged with advising Congress on national and international issues relating to copyright and provides assistance to federal departments, the judiciary, and the public on such topics. The office also requests published works on behalf of the Library of Congress to meet the mandatory deposit provisions of the Copyright Act. The Copyright Office, by law, is part of the Library of Congress. The Register of Copyrights, who heads the office, and all other employees of the office are appointed by the Librarian of Congress and act under the Librarian’s general direction and supervision. While the Register is responsible for all administrative functions and duties under the Copyright Act (except as otherwise specified), all regulations established by the Register are subject to the approval of the Librarian, who is also directed by law to make rules and regulations for the government of the Library. The Register relies on about 380 staff across seven program areas to carry out the office’s mission. A simplified view of the office’s organization is provided in figure 1. The seven program areas have various responsibilities related to meeting the Copyright Office’s statutory mission. A description of the key responsibilities of each program area is found in table 1. The Copyright Office also receives support from the Library’s administrative offices. For example: The Library’s Office of Human Resources Services develops policies and procedures for and supports hiring, pay, and benefits. The Library’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer is responsible for providing policy direction, review, and coordination of all budgetary and financial activities of the Library, including the development of the budget and tracking of expenditures. The Library’s Office of Integrated Support Services provides assistance with procurement, physical space utilization, and management of mail. The Library’s Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) has primary responsibility for the planning, analysis, design, development, and maintenance of software systems, hardware, telecommunications, and networks. The Copyright Office is funded both by direct appropriations and fees paid by external customers. Congress generally limits the amount of fees that the office may obligate in a given year. The office’s budget for fiscal year 2014 was about $45 million, with about 62 percent ($27.9 million) coming from fees. The Copyright Office uses its IT systems to meet important mission requirements that have been established in law. For example, the Copyright Act requires the office to receive and examine copyright registration applications. To meet these mission requirements, the office relies on several mission-related systems, as well as servers, networks, and the data center managed by the Library’s central IT office—ITS. However, we and others have identified challenges with this environment. For example, external users have described limitations in the performance and usability of the office’s registration system, and the Copyright Office has expressed concerns about the integrity of the files stored in the Library’s servers. Organizationally, responsibility for managing the office’s IT environment is shared between the Copyright Office’s Office of the CIO and ITS. However, as we recently reported, the Library has serious weaknesses in its IT management, which have also hindered the ability of the Library and the Copyright Office to meet mission requirements. For example, the Library has not had a permanent CIO in over 2 years and instead has had a series of temporary CIOs; according to the Register of Copyrights, this has caused a breakdown in communication between Library management and the Copyright Office related to IT. The Copyright Office’s use of IT is driven by legal requirements that establish its responsibilities and corresponding business needs. The office’s IT environment reflects more than a decade of efforts to increase the use of automated IT to fulfill this legally established mission. For example, by law, the office must be able to receive and examine copyright registration applications, collect and maintain deposited copies of copyrighted works as necessary to support the production of “facsimile reproductions” and retention of works up to 120 years, produce certificates of registration and certified copies of applications, maintain records of the transfer of copyright ownership. In addition, the Copyright Office also administers the mandatory deposit provisions of the Copyright Act, which require copyright owners to deposit certain published works with the Library of Congress for its collections. In this role, the office may facilitate, demand, negotiate, or exempt the provision of these copies. Absent an exemption, the law requires that one or two copies of the best edition of every copyrightable work published in the United States be sent to the office within 3 months of publication, regardless of whether the creator registers the work. This mandatory deposit requirement is designed, in part, to serve the Library. Specifically, according to the Copyright Office, copyright deposit (whether through registration or mandatory deposit) is a means by which the Library obtains about 20 percent of its collections. While the Copyright Office resides within the Library of Congress, it also has responsibilities that distinguish it from the Library. For example, all actions taken by the Register to implement the Copyright Act are subject to the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. Among other things, this means that all actions of the office that would constitute a rule generally must be published for public notice and comment and are subject to review. It also means that copyright-related records are governed by the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act, which are included in the Administrative Procedure Act. These legal requirements necessitate actions by the Copyright Office that differ from otherwise-standard Library processes. The Copyright Office relies extensively on IT to carry out its legal responsibilities. Specifically, the office uses multiple systems to, among other things, allow the public to electronically register works with the office, assist it in examining copyright registrations for such submissions, and allow the office to record documentation related to copyright transfers and provide that information to the public. The office manages mission- related systems and, in some cases, procures its own equipment, which is hosted within the Library’s infrastructure (i.e., networks, telecommunications, and data center). Table 2 describes selected systems used by the office to support its registration, recordation, and licensing functions. The office uses these systems to meet its major statutory responsibilities, as described below: Registration. The primary system used in the registration process is eCO. To register a copyright, a creator generally submits a completed application, the relevant fee, and the deposit copies to the Copyright Office. This can be done in one of three ways: (1) by submitting all three of these items in physical form (e.g., paper); (2) by submitting all three items online (through eCO); or (3) by submitting the application and fee online and providing the deposit in physical form. Copyright Office staff process these materials based on the method of submission. For example, for applications received in physical form, Copyright Office staff must scan the application, enter the application information and fee payment (check, cash, or deposit account) into eCO, manually process the related fees, and affix a barcode to the deposit copy. Regardless of how the materials are submitted, a registration specialist uses the eCO system to validate the accuracy of the information entered into eCO and review the application and materials to ensure that they meet the criteria for copyright protection. Printed registration certificates are generated and mailed to the recipient designated on the application, and an image of the certificate is stored in the Copyright Imaging System.