Photographers, if you register your work with the US Copyright Office, hurry up because the fees are about to increase. According to the official announcement, as of 20 March, you will pay more when you apply for copyright protection. And for some applications, the price is going to be up to six times higher than the current one.
The copyright office proposed these changes way back in 2018. The website copyright.gov lists current fees and notes that the changes will go into effect in two days. There’s also a page showing the changes between current and new fees so you can compare, and an average increase is 41%.
Some types of applications will not see a significant price increase, and some will remain the same. However, others will become as much as six times more expensive. For example, registration of “updates or revisions to a database that predominantly consists of non-photographic works” will go from $85 to 500. Here’s a part of the list so you can compare the prices, and the full list of new fees can be found here.
Even though your work is automatically protected by copyright, there are some benefits if you apply for registration with the US Copyright Office. However, with such a dramatic price increase, I wonder how many photographers will keep applying for copyright registration. What will you do?
[via The Phoblographer]
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