17 U.S.C. § 405 — Notice of copyright: Omission of notice on certain copies and phonorecords

(a) Effect of Omission on Copyright. This applies to copies and phonorecords (sound recordings) that the copyright owner allowed to be distributed before the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 took effect. Normally, sections 401 through 403 require a copyright notice. But leaving that notice off does not cancel the copyright if any one of three things is true. First, the notice was missing from only a small number of copies compared to the total distributed. Second, the work was registered before publication, or within five years after publication without notice, and the owner made a reasonable effort to add the notice to copies distributed afterward, once the missing notice was discovered. Third, the notice was left off only because someone broke a written agreement that required them to include it as a condition of distributing the work. (b) Effect of Omission on Innocent Infringers. Someone who innocently infringes a copyright — because they relied on an authorized copy that was missing its notice, distributed before the 1988 Act took effect — owes no damages under section 504 for infringing acts committed before they got actual notice that the work was registered under section 408. This protection applies only if the person proves the missing notice misled them. In a lawsuit over this kind of infringement, the court can allow or refuse to award the infringer's profits from the infringement. The court can also stop the infringing activity, or instead let it continue on the condition that the infringer pays the copyright owner a reasonable license fee, set by the court. (c) Removal of Notice. Copyright protection is not affected if someone removes, destroys, or blots out the notice from copies or phonorecords that were publicly distributed, as long as the copyright owner did not authorize that removal.