Artists in the U.S. have finally caught onto the fact that while you may have a copyright from the moment you fix your work in a “tangible medium of expression” (such as a CD, DVD, book, or painting), that copyright is fairly meaningless without a registration from the Library of Congress. 

However, Washington Post staff writer Lyndsey Layton reports that the Copyright Office is so far behind on processing applications, many authors won’t see a registration certificate for nearly 2 years. 

“Of the 10,000 applications that pour into the Copyright Office each week, the staff can process about 7,000, adding 3,000 untouched applications to a growing pile that currently totals about 523,000. Workers are now handling paper applications received in late 2007.”

Apparently, a lot of the problem stems from the Copyright Office’s move to the eCO (the Electronic Copyright Office) system, which was meant to speed up the registration of Copyright Applications.  Instead the eCO system has been plagued with problems, while an increase in paper applications has simply overwhelmed the Copyright Office staff. 

So, is it time for the United States to join the rest o the world and eliminate the requirment to register copyright to enjoy full protection?

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