17 USC 404
Notice of copyright: Contributions to collective works

Executive summary:

This document contains one section of the U.S. Copyright Act (found in Title 17 of the United States Code). This page was last updated in October 2005. All of the sections of the Copyright Act are listed on the Index page.

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§404. Notice of copyright: Contributions to collective works

(a)

A separate contribution to a collective work may bear its own notice of copyright, as provided by sections 401 through 403 [17 USC § §401-403]. However, a single notice applicable to the collective work as a whole is sufficient to invoke the provisions of section 401(d) or 402(d) [17 USC 401(d) or 402(d)], as applicable with respect to the separate contributions it contains (not including advertisements inserted on behalf of persons other than the owner of copyright in the collective work), regardless of the ownership of copyright in the contributions and whether or not they have been previously published.

(b)

With respect to copies and phonorecords publicly distributed by authority of the copyright owner before the effective date of the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, where the person named in a single notice applicable to a collective work as a whole is not the owner of copyright in a separate contribution that does not bear its own notice, the case is governed by the provisions of section 406(a) [17 USC 406(a)].