Copyright ownership transfers is not something that most people immediately think about where copyright is concerned. They want to know how they get copyright on something they have created. What kinds of protections they have. How to fight back if someone violates that copyright.

However, transferring copyright from the individual author or artist to a business entity is actually hugely important, because it is one of the major ways that the owner of copyrighted material can make money from it while protecting the individual’s assets. This is why the recent announcement about a faster online method of copyright transfer is so important for owners.

What is it, and how does it work?

What You Should Know about the Copyright Recordation System

Up until now, all copyright ownership transfers have had to go through a manual, paper-based system, which was not easy to figure out and took a surprisingly long time. This can be a huge frustration for people who rely on the sale or licensing of copyrighted material for their income.

The Copyright Recordation System, from the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office, has been designed to ease that problem. It is a fully online, self-service system that individuals will be able to access at record.copyright.gov. 

Those who use it will be able to pay online, track the status of the transfer, and receive notifications. The best part, however, is that experts believe the processing time for some transfers will be slashed from months to mere weeks.

All Part of Modernizing the Copyright Office

Though the Copyright Recordation System went through an extensive two-year development process and involved a pilot program involving more than 150 organizations, it is actually only one part of a broad effort to modernize the Copyright Office known as the Enterprise Copyright System. 

The overall goal is to improve user experience with a strategy that embraces digital technology and offers applications not only for copyright ownership transfers, but also:

• Copyright registration
• Public records
• Licensing

For those of us who deal with these organizations on a regular basis, this is an incredibly welcome change.