CO Issues Final Rule on Removing Extraneous PII From Copyright Records
The Copyright Office issued a final rule Thursday allowing an author, claimant to a copyright or representative to ask the office to remove “extraneous and unnecessary” personally identifiable information from online versions of their copyright's application. PII that's eligible for…
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removal includes driver's license numbers, Social Security numbers, banking information and credit card information, the CO said in a notice in the Federal Register. The CO agreed to a recommendation from the National Center for Transgender Equality that the office modify the rule as proposed in a September NPRM (see 1609150010) to also allow authors and claimants to replace their names in the online record amid concerns that including a transgender person's birth name in the online record could jeopardize that person's well-being. The CO declined to adopt recommendations by the National Writers Union and others seeking to eliminate the requirement that an alternative physical address be used in place of a primary address in public online registration records. Copyright Act Section 409 clearly requires that “the claimant must provide a physical mailing address -- not an electronic mailing address,” the CO said: The office has always advised applicants to “think carefully before providing a claimant’s personal physical address, and are instead encouraged to provide a third-party agent’s address, a post office box, or a non-personal email address.” It declined requests to modify a proposed $130 fee for requests to remove extraneous PII or the $60 fee for requests for reconsideration of previously denied PII removal requests.