What happens to the copy of my stuff that I sent to the Copyright Office?
If you’ve ever registered a copyright, you know that you’re required to submit a copy of the work to the Copyright Office as part of the registration process. The US Copyright Office is a government office, and is actually part of the Library of Congress. So does that mean that your work is now available to be seen by anyone?
The Library of Congress does include some of the materials deposited with the Copyright Office in its official collections. The selection can be made at any time after the registration. But the majority of material registered is not included in the official
Library collections. The rest of the material is merely catalogued and warehoused by the Copyright Office.
Any published material deposited with the Copyright Office can be placed in the collections of the Library of Congress. Actual selection is at the discretion of the Library.
Unpublished material is also subject to inclusion in Library collections, and is available for viewing by visitors to the Library. But federal regulations require the Library to treat these works carefully:
“All unpublished copyright deposits retained by the Library of
Congress in its collections shall be maintained under the control of the Library of Congress with appropriate safeguards against unauthorized copying or other unauthorized use of the deposits which would be contrary to the rights of the copyright owner in the work . . .”
Material not placed in the Library collections is kept by the Copyright Office. The Copyright Office materials are not open to the public. Generally, any person can obtain a copy of the registration form itself, but copies of the registered work can be obtained only in very limited circumstances:
1. Where the copyright owner or agent has given written permission;
2. Where litigation involving the copyrighted work is pending;
3. By court order, when the copyrighted work is to be submitted as evidence in a case pending before the court.
The Copyright Office generally keeps the originally deposited copy of the work, or some type of copy of it (such as microfiche), for at least the term of the copyright, but the length of retention is discretionary and some items may be disposed of earlier, particularly if the item has been included in the Library of Congress collections.
And if you go to Washington to look up material, check out this exhibit on Running for Political Office - http://www.about-washingtondc.com/new-exhibit-running-for-office/
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