17 U.S.C. § 104A — Copyright in restored works

(a) Automatic Protection and Term. (1) A restored work automatically gets copyright protection starting on its "date of restoration," lasting for whatever is left of the term it would have had in the U.S. if it had never fallen into the public domain here. (2) Exception: a work is not a "restored work" if its copyright was ever owned or managed by the Alien Property Custodian and the restored copyright would belong to a government or government body. (b) Ownership. The restored copyright first belongs to the work's original author or rightholder, as decided under the law of the work's "source country." (c) Filing Notice of Intent to Enforce. On or after the date of restoration, the copyright owner may file a "notice of intent to enforce" with the Copyright Office, or serve that notice directly on a "reliance party" (someone who had been freely using the work). A notice filed with the Copyright Office is effective against all reliance parties once accepted, though acceptance doesn't prove the notice's facts are true. A notice served directly on one reliance party is effective against that party and anyone else who actually knew about the service and its contents. (d) Remedies for Infringement. (1) Against someone who is not a reliance party, the normal copyright remedies (chapter 5) are available starting on the date of restoration, for infringement that begins on or after that date. (2) Against a reliance party, remedies are available only if the owner either: (A) files a notice with the Copyright Office within 24 months of the restoration date, after which remedies apply to infringement starting 12 months after the notice is published in the Federal Register (with special timing if infringement straddles that 12-month mark, or if copies are made after the notice is published); or (B) serves notice directly on the reliance party, after which remedies apply to infringement starting 12 months after the party received the notice (with the same kind of straddling and copy-making rules). If both kinds of notice are given, the 12-month clock runs from whichever notice came first. (3) Existing derivative works: if a reliance party made a derivative work based on a restored work before the source country became "eligible" (or, if already eligible, before the Uruguay Round Agreements Act was enacted), that party may keep using the derivative work for the rest of the copyright term — but must pay the restored copyright's owner reasonable compensation. If the parties can't agree on the amount, a federal district court decides it, considering harm to the restored work's market and each side's creative contribution. (4) For section 412 purposes, a reliance party's infringement is treated as starting before registration if the infringing acts began before the restoration date. (e) Notices of Intent, in detail. (1) A notice filed with the Copyright Office must be signed by the owner or the owner's agent, name the work's title (with an English translation and any other known titles), and give contact information. An agent's authority must be in a signed writing made before filing. The Copyright Office may require more information by regulation, but missing that extra information doesn't invalidate the notice. A work with no formal title must be described in enough detail to identify it. Minor errors can be fixed later by a follow-up notice, even after the normal filing period ends. The Register of Copyrights must publish lists of these notices in the Federal Register every 4 months, starting within 4 months of a country's restoration date and continuing for 2 years, and must also keep a public list available for inspection. The Register may charge reasonable fees for processing these notices. Within 90 days of the WTO Agreement taking effect for the U.S., the Copyright Office had to publish rules for filing these notices, and those rules must let owners file for copyright registration at the same time. (2) A notice served directly on a reliance party may be given any time after the restoration date. It must be signed by the owner or agent (with the same signed-writing requirement for agents), identify the restored work and, if relevant, the work it's used in, in enough detail to identify them, include an English translation of the title and other known titles, state what use the owner objects to, and give contact information. (3) Any material false statement knowingly made in a notice voids all claims made in that notice about the restored copyright. (f) Immunity From Warranty Liability. (1) Someone who promised or guaranteed, before January 1, 1995, that a work didn't infringe copyright isn't liable if that promise turns out to be broken only because of copyright restoration under this section. (2) No one has to perform an act that copyright restoration makes infringing, if the duty to perform was undertaken before January 1, 1995. (g) Proclamation of Copyright Restoration. If a foreign country gives U.S. authors restored-copyright protection on essentially the same terms as this section, the President may issue a proclamation extending this section's restored protection to that country's works. The President may revise, suspend, or cancel the proclamation, or attach conditions to it. (h) Definitions. (1) "Date of adherence or proclamation" means the earliest date a foreign country (that wasn't already a Berne or WTO country when the WTO Agreement took effect for the U.S.) becomes a Berne Convention country, a WTO member, a WIPO Copyright Treaty country, a WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty country, or gets a proclamation under (g). (2) "Date of restoration" is January 1, 1996, if the source country was already a Berne or WTO country by then, or otherwise the "date of adherence or proclamation." (3) "Eligible country" means any country besides the U.S. that becomes a WTO member after the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, or is or becomes a Berne country, or joins either WIPO treaty, or gets a proclamation under (g). (4) "Reliance party" means someone who did things that would have infringed the restored work before its source country became eligible and kept doing them afterward; someone who made or got copies before that; or a later buyer, successor, or licensee of such a person. (5) "Restored copyright" means the copyright created by this section. (6) "Restored work" means an original work that: is protected under (a); is not in the public domain in its source country; is in the U.S. public domain because it missed a formality (like renewal or notice), because sound recordings before February 15, 1972 got no protection, or because it lacked national eligibility; has at least one author or rightholder who was a national or resident of an eligible country when the work was made, and (if published) was first published in an eligible country and not in the U.S. within 30 days after; and, if the source country is eligible only through the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, is a sound recording. (7) "Rightholder" means whoever first fixed a sound recording with authorization, or later acquired rights from that person. (8) "Source country" of a restored work means: a country other than the U.S.; for an unpublished work, the eligible country where the author or rightholder (or the majority of them) is a national or resident, or otherwise the non-U.S. country with the most significant ties to the work; and for a published work, the eligible country of first publication, or, if published the same day in more than one eligible country, whichever has the most significant ties to the work.