The U.S. Copyright Office is proposing to increase the registration fee for filing an online application from $35 to $65, and the fee for using a paper application from $65 to $100. They are requesting a fee increase because in 2011 fee receipts only covered 59.5% of the cost of providing the service. The rest comes out of the taxpayers pockets.
The Copyright Office has requested comments by next month. All the major trade associations are gathering information for a response. No one that I have talked to thinks raising fees is a good idea. Most believe it will further discourage photographers from registering.
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is asking photographers to take a quick
3-minute survey to provide them with information about how the proposed changes would impact you. The survey will close at midnight EST on May 10.
Photographers can submit their own comments directly to the Copyright Office by using this link:
http://www.copyright.gov/docs/newfees/comments/ .
The public notice of the change is available at:
http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2012/77fr18742.pdf
After answering the basic survey questions the NPPA asks respondents to supply any additional information that, “you would like us to consider including in our official comments to the Copyright Office?” The following is what I added:
In today's business and legal environment the registration process is more of a hindrance than a help in protecting the ownership rights of creators. Photographers, in particular, are required to spend an inordinate amount of time and effort, not to mention money, to register their work. If a case ever gets to court it is often thrown out in legal maneuvers.
The more difficult and costly it becomes to protect ones ownership rights the fewer people will try. They will either only create things where they are insured of adequate compensation at the time the creation is first shown to the public, be willing to invest more in creation than they will ever receive in compensation, or give up creating all together. The U.S. Congress should modify the copyright law to bring it more in line with the Berne Convention and 21st Century reality. A 19th Century approach to how to protect creator rights no longer works.
It is interesting that a very small percentage of those who are creating images in the U.S. bother to register them with the Copyright Office. The Copyright Office wants to encourage more registration, but raising the fee will tend to drive more creators away. As fewer creators register, and in order to cover there costs they will have to charge even more.