
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 2002]
[CITE: 17USC401]

 
                          TITLE 17--COPYRIGHTS
 
         CHAPTER 4--COPYRIGHT NOTICE, DEPOSIT, AND REGISTRATION
 
Sec. 401. Notice of copyright: Visually perceptible copies

    (a) General Provisions.--Whenever a work protected under this title 
is published in the United States or elsewhere by authority of the 
copyright owner, a notice of copyright as provided by this section may 
be placed on publicly distributed copies from which the work can be 
visually perceived, either directly or with the aid of a machine or 
device.
    (b) Form of Notice.--If a notice appears on the copies, it shall 
consist of the following three elements:
        (1) the symbol <Copyright> (the letter C in a circle), or the 
    word ``Copyright'', or the abbreviation ``Copr.''; and
        (2) the year of first publication of the work; in the case of 
    compilations, or derivative works incorporating previously published 
    material, the year date of first publication of the compilation or 
    derivative work is sufficient. The year date may be omitted where a 
    pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, with accompanying text 
    matter, if any, is reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, 
    stationery, jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful articles; and
        (3) the name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an 
    abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally 
    known alternative designation of the owner.

    (c) Position of Notice.--The notice shall be affixed to the copies 
in such manner and location as to give reasonable notice of the claim of 
copyright. The Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation, as 
examples, specific methods of affixation and positions of the notice on 
various types of works that will satisfy this requirement, but these 
specifications shall not be considered exhaustive.
    (d) Evidentiary Weight of Notice.--If a notice of copyright in the 
form and position specified by this section appears on the published 
copy or copies to which a defendant in a copyright infringement suit had 
access, then no weight shall be given to such a defendant's 
interposition of a defense based on innocent infringement in mitigation 
of actual or statutory damages, except as provided in the last sentence 
of section 504(c)(2).

(Pub. L. 94-553, title I, Sec. 101, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2576; Pub. 
L. 100-568, Sec. 7(a), Oct. 31, 1988, 102 Stat. 2857.)


                      Historical and Revision Notes

                        house report no. 94-1476

    A requirement that the public be given formal notice of every work 
in which copyright is claimed was a part of the first U.S. copyright 
statute enacted in 1790, and since 1802 our copyright laws have always 
provided that the published copies of copyrighted works must bear a 
specified notice as a condition of protection. Under the present law the 
copyright notice serves four principal functions:
        (1) It has the effect of placing in the public domain a 
    substantial body of published material that no one is interested in 
    copyrighting;
        (2) It informs the public as to whether a particular work is 
    copyrighted;
        (3) It identifies the copyright owner; and
        (4) It shows the date of publication.
    Ranged against these values of a notice requirement are its burdens 
and unfairness to copyright owners. One of the strongest arguments for 
revision of the present statute has been the need to avoid the arbitrary 
and unjust forfeitures now resulting from unintentional or relatively 
unimportant omissions or errors in the copyright notice. It has been 
contended that the disadvantages of the notice requirement outweigh its 
values and that it should therefore be eliminated or substantially 
liberalized.
    The fundamental principle underlying the notice provisions of the 
bill is that the copyright notice has real values which should be 
preserved, and that this should be done by inducing use of notice 
without causing outright forfeiture for errors or omissions. Subject to 
certain safeguards for innocent infringers, protection would not be lost 
by the complete omission of copyright notice from large numbers of 
copies or from a whole edition, if registration for the work is made 
before or within 5 years after publication. Errors in the name or date 
in the notice could be corrected without forfeiture of copyright.
    Sections 401 and 402 set out the basic notice requirements of the 
bill, the former dealing with ``copies from which the work can be 
visually perceived,'' and the latter covering ``phonorecords'' of a 
``sound recording.'' The notice requirements established by these 
parallel provisions apply only when copies or phonorecords of the work 
are ``publicly distributed.'' No copyright notice would be required in 
connection with the public display of a copy by any means, including 
projectors, television, or cathode ray tubes connected with information 
storage and retrieval systems, or in connection with the public 
performance of a work by means of copies or phonorecords, whether in the 
presence of an audience or through television, radio, computer 
transmission, or any other process.
    It should be noted that, under the definition of ``publication'' in 
section 101, there would no longer be any basis for holding, as a few 
court decisions have done in the past, that the public display of a work 
of art under some conditions (e.g., without restriction against its 
reproduction) would constitute publication of the work. And, as 
indicated above, the public display of a work of art would not require 
that a copyright notice be placed on the copy displayed.
    Subsections (a) of both section 401 and section 402 require that a 
notice be used whenever the work ``is published in the United States or 
elsewhere by authority of the copyright owner.'' The phrase ``or 
elsewhere,'' which does not appear in the present law, makes the notice 
requirements applicable to copies or phonorecords distributed to the 
public anywhere in the world, regardless of where and when the work was 
first published. The values of notice are fully applicable to foreign 
editions of works copyrighted in the United States, especially with the 
increased flow of intellectual materials across national boundaries, and 
the gains in the use of notice on editions published abroad under the 
Universal Copyright Convention should not be wiped out. The consequences 
of omissions or mistakes with respect to the notice are far less serious 
under the bill than under the present law, and section 405(a) makes 
doubly clear that a copyright owner may guard himself against errors or 
omissions by others if he makes use of the prescribed notice an express 
condition of his publishing licenses.
    Subsection (b) of section 401, which sets out the form of notice to 
appear on visually-perceptible copies, retains the basic elements of the 
notice under the present law: the word ``Copyright'', the abbreviation 
``Copr.'', or the symbol ``<Copyright>''; the year of first publication; 
and the name of the copyright owner. The year of publication, which is 
still significant in computing the term and determining the status of a 
work, is required for all categories of copyrightable works. Clause (2) 
of subsection (b) makes clear that, in the case of a derivative work or 
compilation, it is not necessary to list the dates of publication of all 
preexisting material incorporated in the work; however, as noted below 
in connection with section 409, the application for registration 
covering a compilation or derivative work must identify ``any 
preexisting work or works that it is based on or incorporates.'' Clause 
(3) establishes that a recognizable abbreviation or a generally known 
alternative designation may be used instead of the full name of the 
copyright owner.
    By providing simply that the notice ``shall be affixed to the copies 
in such manner and location as to give reasonable notice of the claim of 
copyright,'' subsection (c) follows the flexible approach of the 
Universal Copyright Convention. The further provision empowering the 
Register of Copyrights to set forth in regulations a list of examples of 
``specific methods of affixation and positions of the notice on various 
types of works that will satisfy this requirement'' will offer 
substantial guidance and avoid a good deal of uncertainty. A notice 
placed or affixed in accordance with the regulations would clearly meet 
the requirements but, since the Register's specifications are not to 
``be considered exhaustive,'' a notice placed or affixed in some other 
way might also comply with the law if it were found to ``give reasonable 
notice'' of the copyright claim.


                               Amendments

    1988--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100-568, Sec. 7(a)(1), (2), substituted 
``General provisions'' for ``General requirement'' in heading, and ``may 
be placed on'' for ``shall be placed on all'' in text.
    Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 100-568, Sec. 7(a)(3), substituted ``If a 
notice appears on the copies, it'' for ``The notice appearing on the 
copies''.
    Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 100-568, Sec. 7(a)(4), added subsec. (d).


                    Effective Date of 1988 Amendment

    Amendment by Pub. L. 100-568 effective Mar. 1, 1989, with any cause 
of action arising under this title before such date being governed by 
provisions in effect when cause of action arose, see section 13 of Pub. 
L. 100-568, set out as a note under section 101 of this title.


Compliance With Predecessor Notice Provisions; Copies Distributed After 
                              Dec. 31, 1977

    Section 108 of Pub. L. 94-553 provided that: ``The notice provisions 
of sections 401 through 403 of title 17 as amended by the first section 
of this Act [sections 401 through 403 of this title] apply to all copies 
or phonorecords publicly distributed on or after January 1, 1978. 
However, in the case of a work published before January 1, 1978, 
compliance with the notice provisions of title 17 either as it existed 
on December 31, 1977, or as amended by the first section of this Act, is 
adequate with respect to copies publicly distributed after December 31, 
1977.''

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 403, 404, 405 of this title.
