User:Dbmiller/URAA

Contrary to incorrect information that has been put out here and elsewhere on the internet before, the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) restored or retroactively granted copyright to an entire set of works automatically. Whether or not a Notice of Intent to Enforce (NIE) was filed with the US Copyright Office does NOT affect whether or not the copyright is valid and enforceable (except against reliance parties). This page is a guide to determining whether or not a work is copyright-protected in the US due to the URAA.

What is URAA-eligible?

Any work that meets all of the following requirements:

1. At the time the work was created, at least one of its authors was a national or domiciliary of an eligible country [virtually any country which is not the United States].
2. The work was not in the public domain in its source country on the URAA restoration date due to expiration of the term of protection. [The URAA restoration date is, for most countries, January 1, 1996. See Wikipedia's list. (Note: The relevant detail is whether or not it was in the public domain on the restoration date; if the source country retroactively removed the material from the public domain later (which occurred for some works from, e.g., Hungary and the Czech Republic), this does not have any effect.)
3. The work was, if published, first published in an eligible country [not the United States] and not published in the United States simultaneously or during the 30-day period following the publication in an eligible country.

How do I know a work is NOT URAA-eligible?

Any of the following would demonstrate that a work is not URAA-eligible:

• The authors were US citizens/domiciliaries at the time of the work's creation.
• The work was first published in the United States (including simultaneous publication/publication within 30 days).
• The work was in the public domain in its home country on the restoration date (usually January 1, 1996).

Note: there is also a special exception for copyrights which were administered by the Alien Property Custodian (by citizens of enemy states of the US in World War II) and, if restored, would belong to a government or instrumentality thereof. This exception applies, for instance, to the World War II and earlier copyrights belonging to e.g., German citizens, but only if the copyright escheated to or was otherwise acquired by a government entity. This exception was written specifically to prevent Hitler from being granted a posthumous copyright in the United States and can be presumed to very rarely, if ever, apply to any work relevant to IMSLP.

What counts as first publication in the United States? How can this be shown?

• A work was (generally) published in the United States if any copies are offered for sale (including as gifts) or rental in the United States.
• A work would be considered published if it were made available to order from the publisher or listed in a publisher or agent's catalog.
• If the work was published with a US location on the colophon (e.g., FRANKFURT - LONDON - NEW YORK), this should be taken as generally indicative that the work was simultaneously published in the United States.

Even if created by a foreign author, a work that was first published in the United States is subject to the same copyright notice and renewal requirements as other US works.

What if the work has been reprinted in the US (e.g., by Kalmus)?

This does not affect the copyright status of the work. A reprint in the US does NOT indicate that the work is in the public domain. This applies even if the work is still being reprinted and sold in 1996 or later. See also the next section.

What is the purpose of a Notice of Intent to Enforce (NIE)?

The URAA allows copyright holders for URAA-eligible works to file a Notice of Intent to Enforce (NIE) with the US Copyright Office for a period of two years following the restoration date. Lists of filed NIEs were published by the Copyright Office. Many popular and successful works which were URAA-eligible were included on these published lists.

There is a common misconception that the purpose of an NIE is to restore the copyright, or to make it enforceable in general, and that, if not filed, the work remains either in the public domain or with an unenforceable copyright. This is not correct.

The filing of an NIE is only relevant for a reliance party — that is, a person or organization that was actually using the copyrighted work before the restoration date. (Since this date is, in most cases, January 1, 1996, IMSLP and other online libraries can almost never be a reliance party.) A reliance party can continue to use the URAA-eligible work (under certain conditions), until/unless they receive an NIE. The purpose of a limited public filing period for NIEs was to create a public registry which reliance parties would have to check during the two-year period. Even after the public filing period ends, copyright holders can still send NIEs --- the only difference is that they now have to send them directly to reliance parties.

Is a URAA copyright fully enforceable even without an NIE?

Yes, except against reliance parties (of which IMSLP cannot be one in virtually any case). These copyrights are fully enforceable, just as any other copyrights are.

What if a copyright was registered in the US, but not renewed?

A URAA-eligible work (a foreign work) could still be registered in the US. If the work was published originally or simultaneously in the United States, then it is not URAA-eligible, but a URAA-eligible work may well be registered. (If the publisher's address is a US address, this would be indicative that the original publication was in the US; if the address is foreign, then other evidence would be needed.)

What if the work was published without a proper copyright notice?

A work published without a notice is still URAA-eligible (if the requirements are met).

What is the term of copyright?

• If a work has a URAA copyright, then its term is the term it would have had if it were published with a proper copyright notice (and renewal, if necessary). For works published before 1978, this would be 95 years from publication.
• Accordingly, even if the work was URAA-eligible, if it was published before 1931, whatever copyright it may have had has now expired.

What is the source country?

Generally, this will be the country in which the work is first published.

For a published work:

• the eligible country in which the work is first published, or
• if the restored work is published on the same day in 2 or more eligible countries, the eligible country which has the most significant contacts with the work.

For an unpublished work (as of the restoration date):

• the eligible country in which the author or rightholder is a national or domiciliary, or, if a restored work has more than 1 author or rightholder, of which the majority of foreign authors or rightholders are nationals or domiciliaries; or
• if the majority of authors or rightholders are not foreign, the nation other than the United States which has the most significant contacts with the work

Is this constitutional?

The Supreme Court specifically ruled this was constitutional in Golan v. Holder.