Freelance writers can now apply to register up to 50 short online works with the U.S. Copyright Office in one filing for $65. The new application opened on October 29, 2020, for eligible text such as blog posts and online articles. It is not a way to bundle every piece produced by a small content business: works made for hire are excluded. [S1][S3]
Each work must contain between 50 and 17,500 words, and all works in a group must have the same individual author or the same set of joint authors. Those authors must be named as the copyright claimants. A writer alternating between solo pieces and collaborations should therefore sort the portfolio by author set before assembling a batch. A small agency cannot assume that its size makes employee-created work eligible; the Office expressly retained the exclusion of works made for hire despite requests to accommodate smaller businesses. [S1][S3]
Publication history is a separate filter. The works must have been first published online, or simultaneously online and in physical form, within a three-calendar-month period. An article first published in print and later put on a website does not qualify for this option. The application asks for the earliest and latest publication dates in the group. That makes the original publication record more useful than the date a writer added a piece to a portfolio. [S1]
The filing uses the dedicated Group Registration for Short Online Literary Works application, known as GRTX, in the Office’s electronic registration system. Each work needs its own digital file, with a filename matching its application title; the files are uploaded together in a ZIP file. A separate numbered list must give each work’s title or filename, publication date and word count. The group also needs a title. The filing is shared; the inventory of works is still item by item. [S1][S3]
The October opening is distinct from the rule’s August 17 effective date. When the Office announced the final rule in June, it said the application’s availability depended on completing system development and promised a further notice. The October 29 notice supplies that confirmation. [S1][S2][S3]
If the Office registers the claim, it covers the text of each work separately. It does not register accompanying photographs through this option, or the selection and arrangement of the batch as a whole. Applicants should not rely on an examiner to fix a mixed or ineligible submission: the final rule reserves the Office’s right to refuse a noncompliant application or modify the claim without contacting the applicant. [S1][S3]
Source documents
- Group Registration of Short Online Literary Works — final rule, 85 FR 37341https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-06-22/html/2020-12041.htm
- NewsNet 834 — Copyright Office issues final rulehttps://www.copyright.gov/newsnet/2020/834.html
- NewsNet 859 — GRTX application becomes availablehttps://www.copyright.gov/newsnet/2020/859.html