17 U.S.C. § 411 — Registration and civil infringement actions

(a) Before you can bring a civil lawsuit for copying a U.S. work, you must register the copyright — or at least "preregister" it — with the Copyright Office. This rule doesn't apply to a claim about an author's rights under section 106A(a) (the "moral rights" for visual artists), and it is subject to subsection (b) below. If you properly submitted your deposit copy, application, and fee, but the Copyright Office refused to register your work, you can still sue. You must serve notice of the lawsuit, with a copy of the complaint, on the Register of Copyrights. The Register may choose to join the lawsuit as a party, but only on the question of whether the work should have been registered. The Register has 60 days after being served to enter an appearance. If the Register doesn't join, the court can still decide the registrability question anyway. (b) A registration certificate counts as valid for purposes of this section and section 412, even if it contains inaccurate information — unless two things are both true: (A) you knew the information was inaccurate when you put it on the application, and (B) the Register would have refused registration had it known the truth. If a court is faced with a claim of inaccurate information like this, it must ask the Register of Copyrights whether the truth would have caused a refusal. Answering that question doesn't change anyone's other rights or duties tied to the certificate — it only matters for infringement suits filed under this section and section 412. (c) Some works are fixed at the very moment they are transmitted — for example, a live broadcast. For these, the copyright owner can sue for infringement under section 501, with the full range of remedies in sections 502 through 505 and section 510, even before the work is registered. Two things are required first, following rules the Register of Copyrights writes: (1) the owner must warn the infringer at least 48 hours before the fixation happens, naming the work and the specific time and source of its first broadcast, and stating an intent to copyright it; and (2) if registration is otherwise required under subsection (a), the owner must register the work within three months after it is first broadcast.