Letter to the U.S. Copyright Office

We are publishing the introduction to the letter. For a complete copy of the 64 page document, reach out to admin@digitalmedialicensing.org

NPRM — Group Registration of Two-Dimensional Artwork 

Submitted on behalf of the Coalition of Visual Artists 

I. INTRODUCTION 

The Coalition of Visual Artists — who represent visual artists including photographers, videographers, illustrators, graphic artists and designers as well as their licensing representatives (collectively “Coalition of Visual Artists”) — thanks the US Copyright office for this opportunity to submit comments, opinions and suggestions to the US Copyright Office as a contribution to the NPRM for Group Registration of Two-Dimensional Artwork. 

We will share our views on some of the proposed terms and conditions described in the NPRM in “The Proposed Rule” section of this Comment Letter. An effective group registration option could be used by artists not just for contemporary works but to register backlogs of archives. As further discussed below, we believe that a group registration option for two-dimensional works needs to have a limit of closer to 100 works and should allow works that are published within the same calendar year. 

The legal concept of copyright began as an artist’s right. The first recorded history of the establishment of law regarding copyright was in 1504. A woodcut by artist Albrecht Dürer titled Life of the Virgin was plagiarized by printer Marcantonio Raimondi in Nuremberg (Germany). Dürer obtained a legal decree to stop printmaker Marcantonio Raimondi from selling unauthorized prints of Dürer’s works. 

When the Copyright Act of 1790 was codified, it allowed registration of only books, maps, and charts; artistic works were added only in 1802. To this day, and despite the repeated protestations of visual artists and their advocates over the past several decades, the Copyright Office continues to propose inadequate registration options, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how visual artists work. 

The Office persists to underestimate how many works illustrators, graphic artists, designers (“commercial artists”) create. Copyright registration categories for published visual art (other than photography) have been based on notions and output of works published in print; e.g. the “Collection of Published Works” that required the works to be “[bundled or] included in a single unit of publication” § 202.3(b)(4)(i)(A). The previous registration categories have not accommodated the quantity of works created for a variety of visual media and clients that illustrators, graphic artists, and fine artists want to register to protect their legal and economic rights in the event of infringing use. 

In this NPRM, the USCO cites statements and recommendations from many comment letters previously submitted by the Coalition of Visual Artists [CoVA], the Graphic Artists Guild, Shaftel & Schmelzer, American Photographic Artists, the American Society for Collective Rights Licensing, the Association of Medical Illustrators, and the Copyright Alliance. However, the Proposed Rules for the GR2D category ignore the requests made within those very same comment letters for group registration options that meet the basic, practical needs of graphic artists. 

This NPRM also cites and references results from two surveys of visual creators conducted to provide the USCO with empirical information: the Graphic Artists Guild Survey in 2012, and the Coalition of Visual Artists Survey in 2018. The USCO has mis-applied the results of those surveys to support terms and conditions incompatible with the survey results. The CoVA conducted a new survey of visual creators in 2023 to gather updated opinions from illustrators, graphic artists, and fine artists in order to provide that information to the USCO. (That survey and a summary of results are included with this Comment Letter as Appendix B.) The 2023 CoVA Survey responses from illustrators, graphic artists, and fine artists are much the same as they were 11 years prior and express the same dissatisfaction with the copyright registration system. This indicates that the USCO, the government agency created to serve the economic and legal needs of visual creators to create a public and legal record of ownership of their art, as well as serving the public with a robust record of original creative works, still has not met the needs of those visual artists. 

American visual artists — illustrators, graphic artists, and fine artists — want better, easier, and more affordable copyright registration. For decades, we have asked clearly and repeatedly for what we need, we have provided the USCO with empirical information from American visual artists, we have recommended changes, and we have proposed new registration methods. We have engaged with the USCO to inform the Office every year as a group, as independent professional organizations, and as individuals. 

We appreciate the USCO’s modernization efforts while continuing the ongoing daily business of running the Agency, hiring and training new staff, and conducting so many studies of issues and changes to improve registration services as the economy and technology changes, as well. We are grateful to the USCO for addressing the ongoing concerns of visual creators that are “old business” to us, while allocating staff and resources to “new business” which jumps the queue, particularly the Artificial Intelligence Study. The Copyright Claims Board is the realization of many years of our advocacy efforts; we will continue to work with the USCO to fine-tune and improve the CCB process. 

We look forward to the new Electronic Copyright System [ECS], and we’re excited to see new ideas realized in new and improved functionality for online registration. 

Although this proposed GR2D category may be what the current eCO system is capable of accommodating, it is not what we’ve asked for. We are concerned that if this proposed GR2D category is implemented before the ECS is in operation, the USCO will transfer this GR2D category as is into the ECS as a completed endeavor, and will defer creating new group registration options for visual art indefinitely. 

Artists are unlikely to use this GR2D application extensively as the USCO has designed it for reasons we discuss below. When the USCO evaluates the use of the GR2D option by artists, it’s not going to discern what artists don’t like and why they’re not using it. The lack of participation will not inform the USCO. 

We will comment on how the Proposed Rules and this category are unacceptable to us. 

For a complete copy of the letter, please reach out to admin@digitalmedialicensing.org