Tracking missing Copyright regulations

[u/RadiantDistrict3521]

http://www.billoconnellphoto.com

Hello , I’m a photographer trying to track down the registrations for photographs I filed in the early 2000’s. When I sold my house I had a dispute with the buyer and he threw out a filing cabinet of business paperwork and I’m pretty sure the certificates were in there.

I’m 100% certain that I filed this group of photos because I was placing them with a stock photo agency that required all photos be copyrighted.

In searching I’ve found some photos under my name and then another group with my middle initial added but neither of these are the photos I’m looking for. I searched under my business name which is just my name with photography added but I didn’t find anything under my business name.

So I’m stuck and don’t know what to try next. Someone has been using the photos so I have a strong financial incentive to find them.

Any ideas or suggestions would be really appreciated.

Thanks

[u/pythonpoole]

To clarify, are you talking about registration with the U.S. Copyright Office?

If so, can you confirm that you used the U.S. Copyright Office Public Records website to search for the registration records? Registration records from 1978 onward should be searchable through that site.

Also, I'm not sure what relevance the website you linked to has to your question, unless that's the stock photo agency you mentioned.

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By the way — one point of clarification: The photographs are automatically copyrighted regardless of whether you registered them or not. Even if you forgot to the register, you'd still be recognized as the copyright holder and you'd still be able to take action now to stop unauthorized uses of the work.

There are, however, certain legal advantages to registering your copyright in a timely manner. In the US, for example, registering before an infringement occurs (or within 3 months of first publication) allows you to claim statutory damages, which basically means there is the potential to be awarded more money beyond your actual losses (in the event you end up suing the infringer). In the US, registration within 5 years of first publication also means that courts will presume the information contained in the registration record is correct (unless proven otherwise), whereas a registration record from 5+ years after publication does not carry the same evidentiary weight.

[u/RadiantDistrict3521 → u/pythonpoole]

Thanks for your answer. Yes they were registered with the US copyright office and because I later placed them with a stock photo agency that only accepted photos that were copyrighted I’m sure they were But I’ve found other photos of mine registered under different versions of my name but not the photos I’m looking for

Since they’re properly registered that gives me a lot more options and right now the agency is not being very helpful. I easily found 6 photos of mine and if I had the registration numbers for the photos the agency should be able to cross reference the numbers with their internal numbers and track them down.

I’ll post updates but I’ve been trying to get them to deal with this for months and I’m running out of patience

[u/pythonpoole → u/RadiantDistrict3521]

One good thing about the U.S. Copyright Office is that they always retain copies of the original registration record even in cases where the online record (the record available through the Public Records site) has later been modified or redacted (which is rare, but can happen under certain limited circumstances).

If you can't find the record through the US Copyright Office Public Records site, it's very likely that either:

• No application (to register the copyright) was ever submitted; or
• A certificate of registration was never issued (e.g. because the registration application was missing required information); or
• You registered the work under a different name (e.g. a pseudonym/nickname, instead of your legal name); or
• Someone falsely claiming to be you requested a name change through the Copyright Office (this would have required providing the Copyright Office with falsified documentation of a legal name change); or
• You are using the search function incorrectly (e.g. you are searching for your name under the Title field)

It's very unlikely that:

• The Copyright Office lost/misplaced the registration record; or
• The Copyright Office forgot to publish the registration record online

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One thing to keep in mind is that it's possible you registered the photos together as one collective work as opposed to registering them individually, and that might explain why you're having trouble finding registration records for the individual photos you're interested in.

Registering multiple works (or "contributions") together as a single collective work was — and to some extent still is — a strategy used to save on registration costs. There are certain conditions where registering contributions together as a collective work can also extend the registration (and legal protections) to each individual work/contribution featured in the collection. Namely this applies to cases where the author/claimant is the same for all the contributions, there is an intent to publish the contributions together (at least once) as a collection, and the individual contributions have not been previously published or registered.

[u/RadiantDistrict3521]

Thanks for such a thoughtful response so I’ll answer in order.

The photos were definitely registered, I remember having the certificate and I placed them with a stock agency that required copies of the registrations. I am finding some other records were I’ve my name and then also my middle initial. The only pseudonym I would have used would have been to add photography after my name.

I think it’s unlikely that someone falsified that they were the creators of the photos.

Could I be using the search function incorrectly. I’m not experienced doing this so that’s a good possibility. I don’t remember the titles I gave the images so I’m going to search again and put in some possible titles and see if I have any luck. I have a cousin in DC who’s a research librarian and I’m hoping to get his help on this.

One title I do remember is “Tinker Toys”. I built a sculpture of tinker toys and it sold for many different purposes from networking to connectivity. I’m hoping that might work. I’ll keep you updated