§704 Retention and Disposition of Articles Deposited in Copyright Office

Summary

When copies, sound recordings, or other identifying material are sent to the Copyright Office under sections 407 and 408, the United States becomes the owner of those items. For published works, the Library of Congress can add the deposited items to its collections or share them with other libraries. For unpublished works, the Library can choose which items to keep or send to the National Archives or a federal records center, following rules the Register of Copyrights sets. The Register can also make copies (whole or part) to keep in the Office records before moving or disposing of the originals. Items the Library does not take are kept by the Copyright Office as long as the Register and the Librarian of Congress think useful. Later, those two officials can decide to destroy or otherwise dispose of them. But no unpublished deposit may be knowingly destroyed during its copyright term unless a full copy has first been added to the Office records. The person who deposited the material, or the recorded copyright owner, may ask the Office to keep one or more items for the full copyright term. The Register will set the rules and the fee for such requests under section 708(a).