§704 Retention and Disposition of Articles Deposited in Copyright Office

Summary

Materials people send to the Copyright Office when they register a work — like copies, phonorecords, and identifying material — become property of the United States. For published works, the Library of Congress can keep those items for its collections or give them to other libraries. For unpublished works, the Library may pick some to keep or send to the National Archives or a federal records center under rules the Register of Copyrights sets. The Register of Copyrights can make exact reproductions of deposits for the Copyright Office records before moving or disposing of them. Items not picked by the Library stay under Copyright Office control as long the Register and the Librarian of Congress think is useful, and then may be destroyed or otherwise handled. Unpublished deposits cannot be knowingly destroyed during the copyright term unless a full reproduction is first kept in the Office records. A depositor or the recorded copyright owner may ask the Copyright Office to keep one or more items for the full copyright term; the Register will set the rules and the fee.