On May 4, the Authors Guild, joined by the Dramatists Guild; Garden Communicators International; Novelists, Inc.; Romance Writers of America; and Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, filed comments with the U.S. Copyright Office in response to the Office’s current study of the fees it charges for registration and other services. The Office has proposed to increase registration fees and eliminate its cheapest registration option for single authors of a single work, which many authors use. Our comments urge the Office not to implement these changes, explaining that they would impose disproportionate burdens on individual authors who would be discouraged from registering their works at a time when the need for registration has never been greater.

The Office’s proposed changes include:

• Eliminating the Single Application, a streamlined option that allows an author to register a single work in which they are the sole copyright owner, which applies to most books, and to date costs only $45 per book. Under the proposal, an author registering a single work would now need to use the Standard Application.
• Increasing the Standard Application fee from $65 to $85 per book for electronic applications and from $125 to $185 per book for hard copy paper applications.
• Doubling the Group Registration for Short Online Literary Works fee from $65 to $130. This option allows an author to register up to 50 short online literary works published in a 3-month period using a single application.

To prepare our comments, the Guild surveyed our members about how they use the registration system and how these changes would impact them. We received more than 500 responses, as well as numerous written comments from authors. Many explained that these changes would add another burden to their already precarious livelihoods and force them to either stop registering their works or, at a minimum, be selective about which works they do register.

Others pointed out that these increases couldn’t come at a worse time, given the mass-scale infringement by AI companies, which has impacted countless authors. The recent Anthropic settlement and other AI class action cases have illustrated the vital importance of registration. To ensure the availability of statutory damages and attorney fees, the classes are typically limited to copyright owners who registered their works either before the infringement commenced or within three months of first publication. As a practical matter, timely registration is essential to allowing authors to enforce their copyrights in other cases, too. Without statutory damages and attorney fees—which are only available with timely registration—the legal fees in an infringement case far exceed the potential provable actual damages, making it essentially impossible for authors to pursue that remedy.

Since the Anthropic settlement was announced, the Guild and other author organizations have undertaken campaigns to encourage authors to register to ensure that they are included in future class action settlements and can bring their own infringement lawsuits. The Office’s proposals run directly counter to those efforts. As we note in our comments, “The Office should not be imposing greater burdens on these individuals at a time when the stakes of timely registration could hardly be higher, and the benefits could hardly be clearer.”

We hope that the Copyright Office will revisit these proposals. We will keep you updated as we learn more information.