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Good news on group registration

Today, ASMP received an email from Marybeth Peters, the Register of Copyrights and head of the Copyright Office. Part of that message stated:

"Re: the regulations. They will be signed on Monday. Hopefully, The Librarian (of Congress) will sign it on Tuesday and it will go the Federal Register on Tuesday or Wednesday."

The regulation referred to is one that allows the group registration of published works for a single fee. It requires deposit of copies of the images, but without a requirement for those copies to be in their published forms. This is a major breakthrough in ASMP's effort to reform the registration process for photographers. ASMP will be meeting with the Register on July 11 to discuss other registration matters and to open discussions on additional suggestions aimed at making registration easier and affordable.

Once the regulation is published in the Federal Register it will be official, and registrations that follow its guidelines will be acceptable to the Copyright Office. We will notify all members when the regulation is published, and we will upload a copy of it at the ASMP web site. ASMP will also develop and publish a REGISTRATION AIDE complete with forms, an explanation of the process, checklists for completing the process, etc. We expect to have this kit available in HTML and PDF formats within the next few weeks.

This effort to make registration of photographs easier and affordable complements ASMP's efforts to establish the parameters for infringement through its support of legal cases like Tasini v. New York Times and Greenberg v. National Geographic. These recent strategic, legal victories lay the groundwork to make your registration more valuable, while timely, affordable registration makes resolving or winning infringement cases easier for photographers. All of this is a part of ASMP's long-term strategy to protect and promote photographers' interests. These combined efforts demonstrate that there is no substitute for a well-planned strategy backed up by excellent tactical efforts.

ASMP began its efforts to reform the registration process for photography in 1991 when then ASMP President Vince Streano ordered staff to work on making registration easier. In the ten years since then ASMP has proposed regulatory changes and legislative changes. Joined by PPA and APA in those efforts, but under attack by publishers and photofinishers, by 1997 all attempts had failed to provide meaningful results. In 1998 ASMP testified at the Copyright Office hearings on raising registration fees. In its public statement ASMP asserted that the fees for registration were not relevant to most photographers since there was no affordable means to protect one's work under existing regulations governing registration. Promising that ASMP would seek redress in the courts, if necessary, it insisted on regulatory relief in addition to reasonable registration fees. ASMP was asked to meet with the Copyright Office after that hearing. It was at that meeting that the groundwork for this new regulation was laid. Attacked by photofinishers, publishers, academics, manufacturers, and others, the regulation has taken years to be born. But, it is now about to be delivered, proving once again that no matter how many battles you lose, you can win the war by winning the last battle.