From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:03:18 -0600

I daresay that every major trade publishing house registers all of its
books. It would be silly for them not to do so.

Deposit is mandatory, in any case, while registration is voluntary.
This is what the Copyright Office says:

> What is the difference between mandatory deposit and copyright registration?
> Mandatory deposit (17 U.S.C. section 407) requires the owner of copyright or the exclusive right of distribution to deposit in the Copyright Office for the use of the Library of Congress two complete copies of the best edition within 3 months after a work is published. Section 408 of the copyright law, for a fee, provides the option to formally register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. This registration process provides a legal record of copyright ownership as well as additional legal benefits in cases of infringement. Optional registration fulfills mandatory deposit requirements.
>

What is happening now, though, with the tremendous growth of
self-publishing, which often includes no print copy at all, is that
indeed no registration is taking place, no deposit copies are sent to
the LC, and no preservation process for such books is being carried
out by anyone, not even the LC.

Sandy Thatcher


At 8:21 PM -0500 12/18/12, LIBLICENSE wrote:

> From: Winston Tabb <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:39:03 +0000
>
> Copyright registration (and deposit) is not required in order to
> secure copyright. Therefore many works are never deposited.
>
> Furthermore, LC has never treated copyright deposit copies as
> "preservation" copies to be kept as a "dark archive."So some copyright
> deposit copies have, over time, been lost or damaged.
>
> Winston Tabb
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:31:13 -0600
>
> But, as required by the copyright registration process, all those
> trade publishers send at least two copies to the Library of Congress.
> Doesn't the LC have a preservation policy?
>
> Sandy Thatcher
>
> P.S. University presses, in addition, usually have deposit at least
> one copy of every book they publish with their own university's
> library.