Obtaining Copyright Registrations for Blogs and Social Media Posts Just Got EasierOctober 8, 2020

Online content creators including bloggers and social media influencers are now able to take advantage of a new group copyright registration option for short online works such as blog entries, social media posts, and other short online works. The Copyright Office recently adopted the rule implementing this new group registration to help ease the burden of copyright registration for high volume and/or daily content creators.

Applicants may register up to fifty short online literary works per application. To qualify, each work must contain at least 50 but no more than 17,500 words. The works must be created by the same individual, or jointly by the same individuals, and each creator must be named as the copyright claimant or claimants for each work. The works must all be published online within a three-calendar-month period and if the Copyright Office registers the claim, the registration will cover each work as a separate work of authorship.

Notably, the rule does not apply to works made for hire or to copyright that have been assigned. Nor does it apply to emails, podcasts, audio-books, or video blogs. While the rule is narrow, it does show that the Copyright Office is expanding and evolving their practices to address the growing concerns of content creation in an ever expanding digital environment.

More information on the new group registration for short online literary works can be found here.

Brandon W. Clark is the Chair of the Copyright, Entertainment & Media Law Practice Group at McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC. For additional information, please visit www.ipmvs.com or contact Brandon directly via email at brandon.clark@ipmvs.com