U.S.C. : Title 17 - COPYRIGHTS | U.S. Code | LII / Legal Information Institute

USCPrelim is a preliminary release and may be subject to further revision before it is released again as a final version.

Current through Pub. L. 112-238. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

prev | next

This title was enacted by act July 30, 1947, ch. 391, 61 Stat. 652, and was revised in its entirety by Pub. L. 94–553, title I, § 101,Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2541 Chap. Sec. 1. Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright 101 2. Copyright Ownership and Transfer 201 3. Duration of Copyright 301 4. Copyright Notice, Deposit, and Registration 401 5. Copyright Infringement and Remedies 501 6. Importation and Exportation 601 7. Copyright Office 701 8. Proceedings by Copyright Royalty Judges 801 9. Protection of Semiconductor Chip Products 901 10. Digital Audio Recording Devices and Media 1001 11. Sound Recordings and Music Videos 1101 12. Copyright Protection and Management Systems 1201 13. Protection of Original Designs 1301

Amendments

2010—Pub. L. 111–295, § 4(b)(1)(B),Dec. 9, 2010, 124 Stat. 3180, substituted “Importation and Exportation” for “Manufacturing Requirements, Importation, and Exportation” in item relating to chapter 6.

2008—Pub. L. 110–403, title I, § 105(c)(3),Oct. 13, 2008, 122 Stat. 4260, substituted “Manufacturing Requirements, Importation, and Exportation” for “Manufacturing Requirements and Importation” in item relating to chapter 6.

2004—Pub. L. 108–419, § 3(b),Nov. 30, 2004, 118 Stat. 2361, substituted “Proceedings by Copyright Royalty Judges” for “Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panels” in item relating to chapter 8.

1998—Pub. L. 105–304, title I, § 103(b), title V, § 503(a),Oct. 28, 1998, 112 Stat. 2876, 2916, added items relating to chapters 12 and 13.

1997—Pub. L. 105–80, § 12(a)(1),Nov. 13, 1997, 111 Stat. 1534, substituted “Requirements” for “Requirement” in item relating to chapter 6, “Arbitration Royalty Panels” for “Royalty Tribunal” in item relating to chapter 8, and “Semiconductor Chip Products” for “semiconductor chip products” in item relating to chapter 9, and added item relating to chapter 10.

1994—Pub. L. 103–465, title V, § 512(b),Dec. 8, 1994, 108 Stat. 4974, added item relating to chapter 11.

1984—Pub. L. 98–620, title III, § 303,Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3356, added item relating to chapter 9.

Table I
Title 17 Former Sections	Title 17 1947 Revision Sections
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5
6	7
7	8
8	9
9	10
10	11
11	12
12	13
13	14
14	15
15	16
16	17
17	18
18	19
19	20
20	21
21	22
22	23
23	24
24	Rep.
25	101
26	102
27	103
28	104
29	105
30	106
31	107
32	108
33	109
34	110
35	111
36	112
37	113
38	114
39	115
40	116
41	27
42	28
43	29
44	30
45	31
46	32
47	201
48	202
49	203
50	204
51	205
52	206
53	207
54	208
55	209
56	210
57	211
58	212
59	213
60	214
61	215
62	26
63	6
64	6
65	25

Table II
Title 17 1947 Revision Sections	Title 17 New Sections
1	106, 116
2	301
3	102, 103
4	102
5	102
6	102
7	103
8	104, 105, 303
9	104
10	401
11	410
12	408
13	407, 411
14	407
15	407
16	601
17	407
18	407, 506
19	401
20	401, 402
21	405
22	601
23	601
24	203, 301 et seq.
25	301 et seq.
26	101
27	109, 202
28	201, 204
29	204
30	205
31	205
32	201
101	412, 501–504
102	Rep. See T. 28 § 1338
103	Rep. See F.R. Civ. Proc.
104	110, 506
105	506
106	602
107	602
108	603
109	603
110	Rep. See T. 28 § 1338
111	Rep. See T. 28 § 1400
112	502
113	502
114	502
115	507
116	505
201	701(a)
202	701(a)
203	708(c)
204	Rep.
205	701(c)
206	701(b)
207	702
208	705
209	407, 410
210	707
211	707
212	705
213	704
214	704
215	708(a), (b)
216	703

Prior Provisions

Title 17, as enacted by act July 30, 1947, ch. 391, 61 Stat. 652, consisting of sections 1 to 32, 101 to 116, and 201 to 216, as amended through 1976, and section 203, as amended by Pub. L. 95–94, title IV, § 406(a),Aug. 5, 1977, 91 Stat. 682, terminated Jan. 1, 1978.

Effective Date

Section 102 ofPub. L. 94–553, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2598, provided that: “This Act [enacting this title and section 170 of Title 2, The Congress, amending section 131 ofTitle 2, section 290e of Title 15, Commerce and Trade, section 2318 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, section 543 of Title 26, Internal Revenue Code, section 1498 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure, sections 3203 and 3206 of Title 39, Postal Service, and sections 505 and 2117 of Title 44, Public Printing and Documents, and enacting provisions set out as notes below and under sections 104, 115, 304, 401, 407, 410, and 501 of this title] becomes effective on January 1, 1978, except as otherwise expressly provided by this Act, including provisions of the first section of this Act. The provisions of sections 118, 304 (b), andchapter 8 of title 17, as amended by the first section of this Act, take effect upon enactment of this Act [Oct. 19, 1976].”

Separability

Section 115 ofPub. L. 94–553, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2602, provided that: “If any provision of title 17 [this title], as amended by the first section of this Act, is declared unconstitutional, the validity of the remainder of this title is not affected.”

Authorization of Appropriations

Section 114 ofPub. L. 94–553, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2602, provided that: “There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such funds as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act [this title].”

Lost and Expired Copyrights; Recording Rights

Section 103 ofPub. L. 94–553, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2599, provided that: “This Act [enacting this title] does not provide copyright protection for any work that goes into the public domain before January 1, 1978. The exclusive rights, as provided by section 106 of title 17 as amended by the first section of this Act, to reproduce a work in phonorecords and to distribute phonorecords of the work, do not extend to any nondramatic musical work copyrighted before July 1, 1909.”

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for the contained sections. If there are multiple sections, they are presented in section number order (original document order).

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Tuesday, April 16, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

top

General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

New Sections for this Title

17 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

U.S.C. : Title 17 - COPYRIGHTS

U.S. Code Toolbox

Law about... Articles from Wex

Find a Lawyer

Get Involved