§ 401
· Notice of copyright: Visually perceptible copies ¹
(a) General Provisions.—Whenever a work protected under this title
is
published in the United States or elsewhere by authority of the
copyright owner,
a notice of copyright as provided by this section may be placed on
publicly distributed
copies from which the work can be visually perceived, either directly
or with the aid of a machine or device.
(b) Form of Notice.—If a notice appears on the copies, it shall
consist of the
following three elements:
(1) the symbol © (the letter C in a circle), or the word
“Copyright”, or the
abbreviation “Copr.”; and
(2) the year of first publication of the work; in the case of
compilations or
derivative works incorporating previously published material, the year
date of
first publication of the compilation or derivative work is sufficient.
The year
date may be omitted where a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work,
with accompanying
text matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards,
stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful articles; and
(3) the name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an abbreviation
by
which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative
designation
of the owner.
(c) Position of Notice.—The notice shall be affixed to the copies in
such
manner and location as to give reasonable notice of the claim of
copyright.
The Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation, as examples,
specific
methods of affixation and positions of the notice on various types of
works
that will satisfy this requirement, but these specifications shall not
be considered
exhaustive.
(d) Evidentiary Weight of Notice.—If a notice of copyright in the
form
and position specified by this section appears on the published copy
or copies to
which a defendant in a copyright infringement suit had access, then no
weight
shall be given to such a defendant’s interposition of a defense
based on innocent
infringement in mitigation of actual or statutory damages, except as
provided in
the last sentence of section 504(c)(2).
§ 408 · Copyright registration in general⁸
(a) Registration Permissive.—At any time during the subsistence of
the
first term of copyright in any published or unpublished work in which
the copyright
was secured before January 1, 1978, and during the subsistence of any
copyright secured on or after that date, the owner of copyright or of
any exclusive
right in the work may obtain registration of the copyright claim by
delivering
to the Copyright Office the deposit specified by this section,
together
with the application and fee specified by sections 409 and 708..
Such
registration is
not a condition of copyright protection.