How do you pay for copyright registration?

I know you can do it online, for $35 for an upload session, but according to the website, registration for a collection of images has to be done before publication if they're from different collections, or something along that line.

I'm assuming if you're working as a 1099 contractor for a publication and retaining copyright, you'd want to register everything. Do you include a registration fee in your shooting? I know editorial work probably won't be paying a lot where I'm at, so if I sold a photo for an article for $70, half of my profit from the sale would be going to register one photo.

How would you be able to properly register your photos without killing your profit?

Trying to deal with this myself!!

I believe you can register collections..need to learn more!!
lets get this tread going!! I shot 100k images last year..
with a high keeper rate..can I do a collection by year(s)?

what about past years of unpublished images..can I do my life collections?

A question I have is do you send hires or low res images.?
say I have half million shots or so..scanning slides etc..

any program that can sweep up folders of images and prep them for copyright reg?

great topic!!
cheers
Darrin

Go here and find screenshot instructions on how to file online: photoattorney.com

For a whole lot more detail, including Photoshop action information to format images and special tips and tricks (not to mention very solid legal information on copyright), get this book:

http://www.amazon.com …oks&qid=1303778​654&sr=8-1

I really, really recommend that book.

Briefly:

A "collection" is any logical categorization you want to call it. "My images of 2010" is an allowable collection.

You have a 3-month "grace period" after an image is published that you're protected until you get the registration sent in. In other words, if you publish an image today and someone immediately infringes your copyright, you have 3 months (not 90 days...three calendar months) after publication to register it and act against that infringement. "Published" means you've delivered the final images to the client; just showing the proofs is not published. "Published" means you've put them on Facebook or an unsecured website; having them on a password-secured website is not published.

Many busy professionals make use of the 3-month grace period by simply sending in everything they've done in the previous three months in one registration, like "John Doe Photography 2011-1qtr." They just do it regularly, four registration applications a year, to cover everything.

Registering published work differs from registering unpublished work in that you must register published work in a separate registration application from unpublished, you're limited to registering only 700 images in on one published work registration application (no specified limit for unpublished work), and each image in a published-work application must have some kind of unique name, like "2011-04-21_Jane_Doe_1234.jpg"--not a headache for digital files.

There is no specified file size. The image merely has to be large enough to identify what it is. Remember that copyright covers "derivative" work, so minute details aren't important (I set my jpegs to 600 pixels on the long side, 72 ppi, saved at Photoshop quality 5), zipped. The only limitation is in how many you can upload within the hour the online system allows you, but there is a workaround: You can run multiple 60-minute upload sessions for one registration by creating several zips, each small enough to be uploaded in a 60-minute session, and putting them in separate queues.

In other words, you can conceivably upload thousands of unpublished images in one application: "My Life's Work 1972-2011."

Thanks RD great info!! I'm on the book!! third or forth time I've heard its name..
Cheers
Darrin

I've been to John Harrington's copyright seminar and one important thing I learned is that wording is important - instead of labeling a collection a single collection, saying that it is 700 (or however many) separate bodies of work will work in your favor if someone infringes on multiple images. They may argue that it is one infringement instead of multiple otherwise.

TheBrick wrote in post #12294209
I've been to John Harrington's copyright seminar and one important thing I learned is that wording is important - instead of labeling a collection a single collection, saying that it is 700 (or however many) separate bodies of work will work in your favor if someone infringes on multiple images. They may argue that it is one infringement instead of multiple otherwise.

I'd have to hear exactly what he's saying.

Is he saying that if I should register 500 images from a single wedding session as 500 separate $35 registrations? That's the only way you can identify them as separate collections.

Otherwise, each image is already considered a separate work. The copyright law does not compact them into a single work just because they're in a single collection. If someone infringes using several different images from one collection, each one of those will be considered individual infringements.

Where there might be such an argument is where the images are nearly identical.

RDKirk wrote in post #12292176
"Published" means you've delivered the final images to the client;

Is this true? I assumed it was on the publication date of the thing (magazine, newpaper, etc...) So, if I hand in a photo, it's considered published even if the magazine with the photo doesn't come out for another year?

Village_Idiot wrote in post #12294832
Is this true? I assumed it was on the publication date of the thing (magazine, newpaper, etc...) So, if I hand in a photo, it's considered published even if the magazine with the photo doesn't come out for another year?

"Published" means it's been presented to the public and its further distribution has been taken out of your control, which includes delivering final work to a private client. In the case of a submission to a magazine, it's not published until they do it--it's analogous to having just shown previews to a private client.

This "definition" is not yet a matter of legislation or regulation, however. In my own reading of the copyright law, "published" should not include either putting it on a website or presenting it to a private client--I'm told I'm wrong.

This is what lawyers who have a lot of IP experience watching settlements are advising: Consider it published if it's been put out on the street, because you probably won't successfully argue otherwise in court. I suspect they already know the counter-arguments they'd use.