How to Do a Copyright Search Yourself, a Tutorial

Do It Yourself Copyright Search (DIY)

Search Tools

For some items, you can do part or all of a Copyright search yourself. This quick "How to" will give you an overview of the tools and knowledge you'll need. This tutorial links to web files and points to books at large libraries you can use for your search, but ultimately, a visit the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, D.C will probably have to be made by you or a professional you hire.

Information You Need Before You begin

To look up a registration or renewal of an item, you need to know:

The approximate year of publication or registration
The name of the Copyright claimant (sometimes different from the author, publisher or producer).

Images (including photographs, graphic arts, motion pictures, engravings, maps, etc.) are indexed according to year and claimant. For instance, if you were looking at an image that had the notice "Copyright 1940 XZY Co." your task is simplified, knowing the date (1940) and the registrant (XZY Co.). In the absence of a Copyright notice, you'll have to make educated guesses at the date and claimant, or hope that your guess at a title or author may hit on a cross reference in the card catalog. Unfortunately, there is no subject index to the Copyright Card Catalog. In hopes of coming up with a claimant and date, you can do a little pre-research by looking for similar images in books and other collections. Sometimes you will find the exact image, or one obviously shot at the same time, and photo credits or other accompanying text can lead you to the claimant and date for your image. In order to complete your search, other information may be needed:

The title of the work, with any possible variants
The names of the authors, including possible pseudonyms
The type of work involved (photograph, film, map, book, play, musical composition, sound recording, etc.)
In the case of a periodical or collection, you'll need the title, volume or issue number of the periodical or collection
The registration number or any other Copyright data

Search Using the Web, Books, and The Copyright Office Records

You may search the U.S. Copyright Office 1978 and later records online. Since items created since 1978 are automatically Copyrighted (as noted in "The Date Test "), this is not very helpful for most searches. But renewal information for items Copyrighted from 1951 - 1963 (and some from 1950) are searchable here. (As noted in "The Date Test"), items from 1964 and later were automatically renewed, so no renewal needed to be filed.)

CCE Books available at Major Libraries

The Copyright Office has published a series of books that summarize Copyright Records for certain classes of items through 1978, and on microfiche for 1979-1982. You may be able to find volumes of The Catalog of Copyright Entries at a local library. In addition, The University of Pennsylvania and others are scanning these volumes. You can see links to various parts and versions completed so far. However, the limits of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) mean, that even if they have a 99.9% accuracy rate, there may be tens of thousands of records that won't be able to be found by text search, which could lead to disastrous assumptions about a given work. These may be useful for a quick check, have a Professional Copyright Search done to be certain.

It is also a best practice to double check for renewals by examining the original Copyright registration, where there will be a handwritten notation. These originals are only available in the Records Maintenance Unit at the U.S. Copyright Office.

One of 45 million Copyright cards

The best and most conclusive way to find out if items from the 1923-1977 era filed a Copyright or renewal is to visit The U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. and physically view the card catalog and other files. There is quite a bit to know about this, and it is best to get the procedures from the official source, The U.S. Copyright Office. To learn the details, see Circular 22 and Circular 23 from the U.S. Copyright Office.

There are things those circulars do not tell you, and In fact, Copyright Office employees are prohibited from giving specific legal advice on many aspects of Copyright. (Code of Federal Regulations, title 37, chapter II)

When you complete your search you will have a result to interpret on your own. What do various search results mean? We will share that next.

Next: What a Copyright Search Result Means or Professional Copyright Search

A Professional Copyright Search

Many find the travel time, expense, and expertise needing to be developed outweighs the modest cost and the quick turnaround of a Professional Copyright Search. The experience and depth of knowledge of a professional can remove the guesswork and give clarity and surety to many Copyright questions.