804.8 (A) (1) Intent to Merge into a Unified Whole
Different components of a dramatic work may be registered together as a joint work if the authors intended to merge their contributions into a single, unitary whole. By contrast, the elements should be registered separately if there was no intent to merge the elements when the authors created them. If there is some indication in the registration materials that the authors of the separate elements did not intend to merge the elements into a unitary whole (e.g., separate copyright notices), the registration specialist may communicate with the applicant to clarify the authors’ intent.