Copyright Registration certificate for book

[gle75]

Hello.

I published a quiz book on a self publishing website called Publishdrive. They flagged the book as public domain. I wrote to them and said it it as original book which took ages to write. I wrote it for fun - it is not a get rich quick self published book!

They now want a copyright registration certificate. I explained that I live in the UK, using a UK bought ISBN and that the UK does not have a copyright registration system, it is applied automatically; and this is valid in other countries due to various copyright treaties.

But, they still want a copyright registration certificate and have sent me links to two websites: copyright.eu and the US copyright office.

Is there anyway to avoid paying a load of money for a certificate from these two websites? Can I even buy one from them?

[AndyJ]

Hi gle.

These publishers seem a bit knuckleheaded if they are insisting on some kind of copyright registration - which is not even needed in the USA unless you wanted to sue someone and claim statutory damages*. The Berne Convention, to which both the USA and the UK are signatories, stipulates that copyright protection is not to be subject to any formalities (see Article 5 (2)).

But if you feel it is essential to comply then I would go with the US Copyright Office option. This will cost you $45 for an electronic filing. The US Copyright Office is a government agency and its registrations are automatically recognised by the US courts as prima facie evidence of copyright ownership (see section 410(c)). The second advantage of a USCO registration is that once registered anyone can consult the register and see that you are the copyright owner. This together with a copyright notice printed in the book (again not legally essential, but advisible) means that an infringer could not run a defence of not knowing the work was subject to copyright.

The other URL, copyright.eu, relates to just one of many commercial companies which offer a 'registration' service which has very little legal validity beyond being evidence that the work in question existed as at a certain date (ie it is timestamped). But because no statutory declarations are required concerning any authorship claims, these commercial registrations are weak protection at best. They are better suited to things like designs of physical objects where the priority of one design over another is based on the date of creation of the design documents in each case.



*As a non US citizen you have this protection in the USA automatically without registration, you just wouldn't be able to claim statutory damages..

[gle75]

Thank you Andy for the in depth reply as always!

[gle75]

Hello

The first book I had a problem in the first post of this thread I simply published elsewhere. I published another book with Publishdrive with no problems. But, I have just published another non-fiction print book with the company and they asked for a Copyright Certificate.

They stated

"While we understand that your book is an original non-fiction work and does not contain copyrighted images, logos, or protected material, our partner stores still require official documentation confirming your rights to publish the content. This is part of their risk-management and legal compliance process.."

which seems new for self publishing a non fiction book.

They sent this link:

https://help.publishdrive.com/understan ... rification

The link includes links to national copyright authorities.

I decided to go ahead and register the book with the US Copyright Office. I sent the receipt for the fee, the a screenshot of the transaction in my US Copyright account and details of my emails from the US Copyright office to Publishdrive.

But I received an email from Publishdrive stating:

"At the same time, I kindly ask you to understand the position we are in. While the documentation you shared clearly shows that you have submitted your registration claim, PublishDrive cannot proceed with publishing the book without the proper, finalized documentation. This is not a rule that we are enforcing arbitrarily; it is a requirement set by our partner stores themselves.

If we were to send the book to the stores now, without the official copyright document:

Their internal review teams would reject the book, because it would not meet their copyright verification requirements.

Once a book is rejected by the stores, it is reviewed much more thoroughly the next time it is submitted, which leads to significantly longer processing times.

This could result in unnecessary delays and complications that could have been avoided by waiting to submit the proper documentation.

So, even though it may feel like everything is ready, we must wait until the official copyright certificate is finalized and available. Once you receive the proper documentation, you will be able to upload it along with your book, and we will immediately accept it and deliver it to all the enabled partner stores."

What Publishdrive want is the US Copyright Certificate - which I believe takes several months to arrive. Do I really have to wait months for the Copyright Certificate even though I have paid $65 to register the book and received a receipt?

[AndyJ]

Hi gle,

I completely understand your frustration. As I said in my first reply none of this is legally necessary, it is just some nonsense dreamed up by risk-averse publishers or their retailers. Sadly I think you do have to play by their rules if you wish them to publish your book. You could try contacting the US Copyright Office for an expedited certificate but I suspect they won't provide that service unless it was for litigation purposes.
You could pm CopyrightAid, this forum's administrator, for his view as he has some experience with copyright registration issues.