Are you obeying the "legal deposit" laws?

[HarryT]

A question to authors: are you obeying the "legal deposit" laws of your country? If you aren't, you are liable for prosecution!

In the United States, you are legally required to send two copies of your book to the United States Copyright Office at the Library of Congress, at your own expense.

In the United Kingdom, you are required to send one copy to the British Library; 5 other libraries are entitled to request a copy within a year of publication.

Are we all obeying the law?

[mr ploppy]

Is that just for books with an ISBN, or does it include fanzines that just happen to be book-shaped?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Is that just for books with an ISBN, or does it include fanzines that just happen to be book-shaped?

Certainly in the UK it includes pamphlets, magazines, and books, as well as non-printed media. The relevant law (the "Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003") is here.

[HarryT]

That's interesting - I've just phoned the British Library and had a chat with a very nice man in their customer service department. Apparently, at present, eBooks are NOT covered by the Act, and legal deposit is purely voluntary, but, if you want to, you can send them your eBook on a CD-ROM to:

Legal Deposit
The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7BQ
UK

[Steven Lake]

Um, you actually have that wrong, HarryT. You only have to send copies of your book to the US Copyright office *IF* and *WHEN* you file copyright on your book. (they must be physical print copies) If you don't file copyright, you're not required to send anything to their office. The same rule applies if filing for a Library of Congress number, and yes, that too also requires sending in a physical copy as well. But that's because they want to A) see proof that the book is real, B) that it's yours, and C) then have a physical copy to file on their massive bookshelves for storage and records.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Um, you actually have that wrong, HarryT. You only have to send copies of your book to the US Copyright office *IF* and *WHEN* you file copyright on your book. (they must be physical print copies) If you don't file copyright, you're not required to send anything to their office. The same rule applies if filing for a Library of Congress number, and yes, that too also requires sending in a physical copy as well. But that's because they want to A) see proof that the book is real, B) that it's yours, and C) then have a physical copy to file on their massive bookshelves for storage and records.

OK, thanks, Steven. I realise that it's unwise to rely on Wiki to be the source of legal wisdom, but in its article on Legal Deposit it says:

In the United States, any copyrighted work that is published must be submitted in two copies to the United States Copyright Office at the Library of Congress.[18] This mandatory deposit is not required to possess copyright of unpublished works, but a copyright registration can give an author enhanced remedies in case of a copyright violation.[19] The Library of Congress does not retain all works.

I would read that as saying that the requirement for mandatory deposit is separate from the (voluntary) process of copyright registration.

The official document on the subject from the US Copyright office says:

Section 407 of the Copyright Act (title 17, U.S. Code) subjects all works published
in the United States to a mandatory deposit requirement. The law states
that the “owner of copyright or of the exclusive right of publication” in a work
published in the United States must deposit the required number of copies in
the Copyright Office within three months of the date of publication....

The document, "Mandatory Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for the Library of Congress" is here (it's a PDF file).

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

In fact, the U.S. Copyright office now allows you to send one digital copy of the document as opposed to physical copies. They changed that physical copy requirement a year (or two) back.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

In fact, the U.S. Copyright office now allows you to send one digital copy of the document as opposed to physical copies. They changed that physical copy requirement a year (or two) back.

Thanks, Steven. Is it a mandatory requirement, or is it optional, as (for eBooks) it currently is in the UK?

[Elfwreck]

Thanks for bringing this up, Harry; I've been looking at these rules recently, and they're fascinating. (Must remember to tell Discordian friends to flood the copyright office with unregistered flyers, pamphlets and zines.)

Published Electronic Works Available Only Online
Effective February 24, 2010, the Copyright Office adopted an
interim regulation governing mandatory deposit of electronic
works published in the United States and available
only online. The regulation establishes that online-only
works are exempt from mandatory deposit until the Copyright
Office issues a demand for deposit of copies or phonorecords
of such works.

Hmm. It doesn't say ebooks are exempt--only that things only published online are exempt. Another spot in the document says things that are published only electronically are exempt; I'd need to see the actual ruling/Library-of-Congress law to know which is correct. Not everything published electronically is only published online; I've known electronic publications that were transferred to flash drives. (Not many, and the more-than-five-copies rule excludes most of them.)

It occurs to me that most club newsletters, fanzines, conference program books, and company memos would fall afoul of this rule. (Do they really want an archive of two copies of every greeting card printed in the US? Seems like it's really a waste of taxes to ask for such things if they're just going to be thrown out.)

They're closed now; I'm going to try calling the copyright office in the morning to find out if that rule really means what it seems to--and if not, where we can find the *actual* rule.

[HarryT]

It does mean precisely that in the UK. EVERYTHING that's published has to go to the British Library. And, unlike the Library of Congress, they keep it all .

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A question to authors: are you obeying the "legal deposit" laws of your country? If you aren't, you are liable for prosecution!

<snipped>

Are we all obeying the law?

This raises some complex questions, Harry, especially for ebooks.

Is it only authors who have this obligation put on them? If it is only authors to whom this rule applies then the situation is a little less complex, but it's still a puzzle to me.

I am currently designing an ebook for an American citizen who has lived in Spain for several years. I am designing the ebook for publication by Circaidy Gregory Press, which is based in Hastings in the UK. I live in Launceston, Australia.

Is the author obligated to send a copy to the US authorities, given that she is an American citizen? Or to the Spanish authorities, given that she lives permanently in Spain? Is the publisher obligated to send a copy to the British Library? Given that there wouldn't be an ebook if I didn't design it am I under any obligation to send a copy to the British Library? Or to their Australian counterpart given that I live in Australia? I have dual UK and Australian citizenship, if that matters.

I recognise that the rules are less strict for ebooks than for print books, but it is not hard to imagine that a similar situation might apply if it was a print book. In fact Circaidy Gregory Press does both print and ebook versions, and in this particular case the print version will be developed from the ebook version.

Do you know where I can get answers to these questions?

[HarryT]

This is a clear-cut case, Alex; it's the publisher who has to make the legal deposit. It's a British publisher, so the book goes to the British Library.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

This raises some complex questions, Harry, especially for ebooks.

Is it only authors who have this obligation put on them? If it is only authors to whom this rule applies then the situation is a little less complex, but it's still a puzzle to me.

All copyrighted works. The publisher is supposed to send in the content, whether that content is books, records, sculptures, movies, artwork, whatever.

Publications with less than 5 copies (like original paintings) are exempt; publications of great expense (like special-edition jeweled sculptures that sell for $2,000 each) are exempt. Neither the info-pamphlet nor copyright law in the US makes it at all clear if unregistered, ephemeral publications are exempt--catalogs, conference schedule books, trifold advertisements, corporate press releases--and a read-over doesn't seem to allow them to be exempt.

(I forgot to call today. Will try Tuesday.)

However, the penalties for non-compliance only kick in if copies aren't handed over within 3 months on request of the copyright office, so there's no actual incentive to comply.

I am currently designing an ebook for an American citizen who has lived in Spain for several years. I am designing the ebook for publication by Circaidy Gregory Press, which is based in Hastings in the UK. I live in Launceston, Australia.

Is the author obligated to send a copy to the US authorities, given that she is an American citizen?

It seems that digital-only content is likely exempt.

I recognise that the rules are less strict for ebooks than for print books, but it is not hard to imagine that a similar situation might apply if it was a print book. In fact Circaidy Gregory Press does both print and ebook versions, and in this particular case the print version will be developed from the ebook version.

It'll be their problem to sort out what to do with physical copies. Doing back-end production work doesn't make you the publisher; the person or entity who releases the IP to the public is responsible for getting archive copies to the appropriate authorities.

Do you know where I can get answers to these questions?

In the US, the US Copyright Office: 1-877-476-0778 during east coast business hours.

[Namekuseijin]

Obsolete laws from a time when self-publishing was virtually non-extant. Today anyone can readily publish intellectual work in a whim. Who's gonna apply for copyright every single time they publish a new poem in their blogs?

You've published at a certain date, you're the author, you have the rights over copies, case closed.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This is a clear-cut case, Alex; it's the publisher who has to make the legal deposit. It's a British publisher, so the book goes to the British Library.

Thanks, Harry. I seem to have misunderstood your original post; I thought it was the author to whom the rule applied.