US Copyright Office registration done

[Scramble]

Because the US Copyright Office's copyright registration service gets mentioned here sometimes I thought I would try it out, as it's only $35.

It is possible to register an album with them even if you're not a US citizen or resident in the US (as is the case with me).

You can do it online here
http://www.copyright.gov/

It's often said that it's the Library of Congress that you do it through, but while there seems to be a connection between the two (and perhaps the Library used to handle it), but officially it's now the Copyright Office.

There's a lot of fine print and tedious, complex detail in their many explanatory notes, much of which is not very clearly explained, but the filling out the forms is not that hard, just a bit time-consuming.

Copyright, of course, exists even if you don't register. But for a lawsuit for copyright infringement of a US work registration is required (presumably this means a lawsuit done through the US court system, although the FAQ doesn't specify this).
Relevant FAQ

But it looks like you have to register within 5 years for registration to be any help in a lawsuit: "Finally, if registration occurs within 5 years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law".

I didn't see anything about having to have registered within three months of release in order to get full costs in a lawsuit as Red Bladder thought might be the case.

So I filled the form out on behalf of my band. Then I had to send a CD over as well.

About 6-7 weeks later I got an e-mail saying that I couldn't in fact register all the songs on a single registration as there were different writers for some of them, and I would have to separately register songs for each writers, paying $35 for each writer. Alternatively, we could just register the copyright in the sound recordings and not have to pay anything more. I hadn't noticed anything regarding which of these you were registering for in the application process, but anyway, I decided to just register the sound recordings. Another 6 weeks later a registration certificate arrived in the post, so it was all complete.

To be honest, it all smacks of a make-work scheme for bureaucrats. I imagine that there are some circumstances where registrating would come in useful, and obviously big labels would have to do it. It's less obvious that it's worth the time and money for small fry like me, espeically as it's not like my band-mates and I could afford a US lawsuit anyway. But I thought that the heck.

But copyright infringement is of course rampant throughout the world with download sites offering everything, even our album, and being registered with the US Copyright Office makes b*gger-all difference with that.

[The Red Bladder]

I didn't see anything about having to have registered within three months of release in order to get full costs in a lawsuit as Red Bladder thought might be the case.

If my memory serves me rightly (oh yer? and when did that ever happen?) that was a case of precedent and is now the established practice and findings for all US courts.

Copyright, of course, exists even if you don't register. But for a lawsuit for copyright infringement of a US work registration is required (presumably this means a lawsuit done through the US court system, although the FAQ doesn't specify this).

Exactly, but copyright is only copyright if you can establish proof of copyright. The US courts will only accept a filing for litigation, if registration has taken place and prima facie evidence is presented showing injury of that copyright by the defendant.

Usually, the very act of successful filing is enough to bring the defendant to the bargaining table, assuming that they have been caught with their pants down. As you state, it does bugger-all good for cracks and pirate sites, but that is a criminal issue and not a civil lawsuit.