U.S. Copyright Office

The U.S. Copyright Office, and the position of Register of Copyrights, were created by Congress in 1897 as a separate department of the Library of Congress. Twenty-two years earlier, Congress removed copyright registration from the district courts and centralized it in the Library of Congress. Today, the Copyright Office has approximately 450 employees, the majority of whom examine and register hundreds of thousands of copyright claims in books, music, movies, software, photographs, and other works of authorship each year. In fiscal year 2011, the Office processed more than 700,000 registration claims. The Office’s registration system and the companion recordation system constitute the world’s largest database of copyrighted works and copyright ownership information. The Office administers several statutory licenses that manage and disperse private monies, including those pertaining to copyright owners’ rights in programming on broadcast television signals that are retransmitted by cable operators and satellite carriers.

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