1606.1 Confidentiality and Privacy Concerns
Section 705 of the Copyright Act requires the Register of Copyrights to prepare and maintain “records of deposits, registrations, recordations, and other actions” taken by the U.S. Copyright Office, and states that these records “shall be open to public inspection.” 17 U.S.C. § 705 (A), (B).
Any information that the applicant provides in an application for preregistration will appear in the preregistration record for that work. The preregistration record will be available to the public upon request, and the U.S. Copyright Office will post the information that appears in the notification of preregistration in the online record for the work, which will be available to the public through the Office’s website. Because these records are open to the public, an applicant should not provide information on the application if the author, claimant, and/or applicant do not wish to make that information public, including confidential information or personally identifiable information. See Preregistration of Certain Unpublished Copyright Claims, 70 Fed. Reg. 61,905, 61,906 (Oct. 27, 2005).