Input for increasing © registration costs

jeffW

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The Copyright Office is looking to increase their registration price up to $100. My feelings this is a tax to deter artists(USA) from protecting their hard work. As photographers wether professional or hobbyists copyright is what protects our photos. While the internet has spurred the free sharing culture, we artists/photographers, should be able to protect our work and this increase truly seems to make that impractical.

The link below is looking for opinions and I hope others will voice their support for artists/photographers being able to protect their work economically.

Copyright Office Proposes New Fee Schedule | U.S. Copyright Office
 
Your work is still protected irrespective of whether or not it's registered, but I agree, $100 seems like a cash grab, especially in this day and age when there's likely zero human intervention (and thus virtually zero real cost) to an individual's submission.
 
While the system is voluntary in that copyright protection exists independent of registration, registration provides crucial benefits for copyright owners.

For example. Before bringing a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work a copyright owner is required to receive either a registration or refusal from the US Copyright Office. And copyright owners must obtain a timely registration to qualify for certain legal presumptions and to seek statutory damage award(s), court costs, and attorney’s fees.

See page 24057 for the actual proposed fees:
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-05-24/pdf/2018-11095.pdf
Standard online registration is proposed to increase from $55 to $75
Single online registration is proposed to increase from $35 to $55.
Paper registration is proposed to increase from $85 to $125.
 

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