Group Registration of Updates to a News Website

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS <SUBAGY>Copyright Office</SUBAGY> <CFR>37 CFR Parts 201 and 202</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. 2023-8]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Group Registration of Updates to a News Website</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Copyright Office is proposing to create a new group registration option for frequently updated news websites. The rapid pace at which many web-based materials are created and updated presents a challenge for copyright registrants. This challenge is especially pronounced for frequently updated news websites. This option will enable online news publishers to register a group of updates to a news website as a collective work with a deposit composed of identifying material representing sufficient portions of the works, rather than the complete contents of the website. The Office invites comment on this proposal and the questions below. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments on the proposed rule must be made in writing and must be received by the U.S. Copyright Office no later than February 20, 2024. </DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> For reasons of government efficiency, the Copyright Office is using the <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> system for the submission and posting of public comments in this proceeding. All comments are therefore to be submitted electronically through <E T="03">regulations.gov.</E> Specific instructions for submitting comments are available on the Copyright Office website at <E T="03">https://copyright.gov/rulemaking/newswebsite.</E> If electronic submission of comments is not feasible due to lack of access to a computer and/or the internet, please contact the Office using the contact information below for special instructions. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Rhea Efthimiadis, Assistant to the General Counsel, by email at <E T="03">meft@copyright.gov</E> or by telephone at 202-707-8350. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> The U.S. Copyright Office (“Office”) is proposing to create a new group registration option for frequently updated news websites. When Congress enacted the Copyright Act of 1976 (“Copyright Act” or “Act”), it authorized the Register of Copyrights (“Register”) to specify by regulation the administrative classes of works for the purpose of seeking registration and the nature of the deposit required for each such class. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> Congress afforded the Register discretion to permit registration of groups of related works with one application and one filing fee, known as “group registration.”  <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> 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.”  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 17 U.S.C. 408(c)(1). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, at 154 (1976), <E T="03">reprinted in</E> 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5659, 5770; S. Rep. No. 94-473, at 136 (1975). </FTNT> In providing the Register the discretion to provide for group registrations, 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. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Group registration options must be designed, however, in a manner that balances claimants' need for an efficient method to submit applications with the Office's need to examine applications and provide an adequate public record. Exercising this statutory discretion, Registers have over the years issued regulations providing for group registrations for certain categories of works and establishing eligibility requirements. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Copyright registration is not a prerequisite to copyright protection, although registration generally must be made before instituting a civil infringement action in Federal court. <E T="03">See</E> 17 U.S.C. 411(a); <E T="03">Fourth Estate Pub. Benefit Corp.</E> v. <E T="03">Wall-Street.com, LLC,</E> 139 S. Ct. 881, 886 (2019). </FTNT> The Copyright Act also gives the Register broad authority to issue regulations concerning the nature of the copies that must be deposited in support of registration. Section 408 provides that the Register may issue regulations establishing “the nature of the copies . . . to be deposited” in specific classes of works and to “permit, for particular classes, the deposit of identifying material instead of copies or phonorecords.”  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> The legislative history indicates that Congress believed that a deposit of identifying material should be permitted in cases where the copies or phonorecords would be too “bulky, unwieldy, easily broken, or otherwise impractical [to serve] as records identifying the work registered.”  <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> The Office has used this authority to require only identifying material in certain circumstances. For example, for computer programs, automated databases, or other literary works fixed or published solely in machine-readable copies, the Office permits the deposit of “identifying portions” of the specific version of the work the applicant intends to register. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  17 U.S.C. 408(c)(1). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, at 154. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 37 CFR 202.20(c)(2)(vii). For example, with regards to deposit requirements for computer programs, the Office has defined “identifying portions” as the first and last twenty-five pages of the work. </FTNT> After receiving input from stakeholders and carefully considering the issue, the Office has concluded that there is a need for a new group registration accommodation for frequently updated news websites. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> The Office welcomes public comment on its proposal and subjects of inquiry set forth here. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>  The proposed regulations define a “website” as a web page or set of interconnected web pages that are accessed using a uniform resource locator (“URL”) organized under a particular domain name. <E T="03">See also</E> U.S. Copyright Office, <E T="03">Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices</E> sec. 1002.1 (3d ed. 2021) (“Compendium (Third)”). For example, the Office's website is located at <E T="03">copyright.gov</E> , and the Library of Congress's website is located at <E T="03">loc.gov</E> . </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. The Need for a New Group Registration Option</HD> This proposed rulemaking stems from the rapid development and predominance of news websites over print newspapers, and requests submitted by online publishers to the Office. Over the past two decades, the internet has become an increasingly common method for distributing, displaying, and performing copyrightable content. More than eight in ten Americans get news from digital devices, and, as of 2021, more than half prefer digital platforms to access news. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Thus, a significant amount of news content must be offered in an online environment to meet demand. The current state of the news media industry requires dynamism, “with content constantly changing, updating, and refreshing in real time.”  <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> Because of this, news publishers assert they face unique obstacles when it comes to registering their works and have encouraged the Office to develop practices for registering “newspaper websites” that are “updated frequently.”  <E T="03">More Than Eight-In-Ten Americans Get News from Digital Devices,</E> Pew Research Center (Jan. 12, 2021), <E T="03">https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/12/more-than-eight-in-ten-americans-get-news-from-digital-devices/.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>  MPA—The Association of Magazine Media Comments at 5, Submitted in Response to Nov. 9, 2021 Notice of Inquiry, Publishers' Protections Study, U.S. Copyright Office Dkt. No. 2021-5 (Jan. 5, 2022), <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/comment/COLC-2021-0006-0044</E> (“MPA—The Association of Magazine Media Comments”). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>  Newspaper Association of America Comments at 12-18, Submitted in Response to July 15, 2009 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Mandatory Deposit of Published Electronic Works Available Only Online, U.S. Copyright Office Dkt. No. 2009-3 (Aug. 31, 2009) (emphasis omitted) (seeking a group registration option for newspaper websites), <E T="03">https://www.copyright.gov/rulemaking/online-only/comments/naa.pdf</E> (“Newspaper Association of America Comments”). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. The Office's Prior Studies</HD> The Office acknowledged the news publishers' concerns in previous statements and reports. In 2011, the Office released a paper titled <E T="03">Priorities and Special Projects of the United States Copyright Office (October 2011-October 2013),</E> which acknowledged the challenges in registering websites and content published on websites. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> The paper noted that websites may contain “a great number of contributions from many authors” and changes may be made “daily or even several times a day.”  <SU>13</SU> <FTREF/> It identified several issues to be addressed, such as the appropriate means for creating an accurate and informative record of copyright ownership and the appropriate form of the deposit. It also invited public input regarding whether “a group registration scheme [should] be implemented that would permit a single registration to cover content dissemi ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 60k characters. 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