ABSTRACT
Many people are unaware of a federal copyright statute that requires owners of material published in the United States to furnish the federal government with two copies of each item published. Section 407(a) of the Copyright Act of 1976 (17 USC § 407) states that ‘the owner of copyright or of the exclusive right of publication in a work published in the United States shall deposit, within three months after the date of such publication – (1) two complete copies of the best edition; or (2) if the work is a sound recording, two complete phonorecords of the best edition, together with any printed or other visually perceptible material published with such phonorecords’. A recent lawsuit highlights constitutional problems with this statutory provision and the undue burdens it can place on publishers …
Drew Thornley, The Copyright Act’s Mandatory-Deposit Requirement: Unnecessary and Unconstitutional, 53 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 645 (2020).
First posted 2020-08-17 03:53:23
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