Interestingly enough, the day the FAQ about registering copyrights in groups posted to my blog, I received a letter from the Library of Congress about my most recent group registration. (Funny how things happen like that sometimes.) It is a form letter explaining a few particulars and referencing some rules that pertain to registering in groups.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE LETTER FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
I believe the “work not covered by copyrights” that might have prompted me to receive this letter is the inclusion of word art with my images. Words and text aren’t covered by copyrights but need to be trademarked. I admit to not always taking the time to take them out of my registrations. 🙂
If you want to see the referenced regulations, I’m sure you can find them at www.copyright.gov
Hope this helps!
– Tara Reed
Thanks for this, Tara! (And the post previous.) Copyrighting (and dealing with anything government/legal oriented) is something that definitely needs to be de-mystified. 😉
Thanks for this!! So if your art has words with it you need to remove before registering? Never knew that!!
Claudine – you don’t have to remove the words but they won’t be legally protected by copyrights – just the image part of the art. Hope that helps!
OK! so if the word are in the artwork the images won’t be rejected just because words are in there. just asking because i have a whole bunch of art to register with words in it!
Correct. You just might get a vague letter about some of your submission being covered and other parts not… usually the “not” are the words. Sometimes they even call you – very nice people at the Library of Congress and I always feel very special receiving a call from them! 😉
That letter is a lot of mumbo jumbo, hard to decipher. I’m confused by your statement that words and text aren’t copyrightable…Books are copyrighted, why not words that occur as part of your artwork? My artwork includes text, stories that are part of the art. What’s a girl to do?
Most things from the government have their share of mumbo jumbo! In my understanding, words and phrases, alone, are trademarked and not copyrighted. But you make a good point about books – perhaps it’s the story that is copyrighted – since it is a larger collection of words it’s different.
However, back to your question… I use a lot of words in my art too and just put it through. When I have a page or so that just has words or phrases in my group of art I’m copyrighting, that is usually when I get the mumbo jumbo letter.
Hope that helps!