History of the Copyright Office

        The Constitution gives Congress the power to enact laws establishing a system of copyright in the United States. Congress enacted the first Federal copyright law in May 1790, and the first work was registered within two weeks. Originally, claims were recorded by Clerks of U.S. District Courts. Not until 1870 were copyright functions centralized in the Library of Congress under the direction of the then Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford. The Copyright Office became a separate department of the Library of Congress in 1897. Thorvald Solberg was appointed the first Register of Copyrights. 

        Today the Copyright Office is one of the major service units of the Library of Congress. With public offices located at 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C., the Office occupies portions of the James Madison Memorial Building and employs more than 400 people. In fiscal year 1994, the Office registered more than 530,332 claims to copyright and mask works, and collected for later distribution to copyright holders nearly $200,000,000 in cable television, satellite carrier, and Audio Home Recording Act compulsory license funds. As of fiscal year 1994, the Copyright Office has recorded 25,733,511 registrations. 

Short History of the Library of Congress

       In 1870, Congress passed a law that centralized the copyright system in the Library of Congress. No legislation was more important to the development of the Library than that law, which required all authors to deposit in the Library two copies of every book, pamphlet, map, print, and piece of music registered in the United States. 

        That partnership, created more than 125 years ago, has served the nation well. Supplying the information needs of the Congress, the Library of Congress has become the world's largest library and America's national library. This great repository of more than  110 million books, photographs, maps, films, documents, sound recordings, computer programs, and other items has been created largely through the operations of the copyright system, which brings deposits of every copyrighted work into the Library. In one recent year alone, the value of these deposits was over $17.5 million.

        The Copyright Office also serves as an advisor to the Library on all copyright issues, including those related to the National Digital Library Program. It supports the collection development needs of the Library through Office deposit regulations. Its partnership extends to many joint projects, such as the current program to register and deposit copies electronically.