Register of Copyrights

Register of Copyrights
Incumbent Shira Perlmutter
United States Copyright Office
Appointer	Librarian of Congress
Constituting instrument	17 U.S.C. § 701
Inaugural holder	Thorvald Solberg
Formation	1897
Salary	governed by 5 U.S.C. § 5314
Website	copyright.gov

The Register of Copyrights is the director of the United States Copyright Office within the Library of Congress, as provided by 17 U.S.C. § 701. The Office has been headed by a Register since 1897. The Register is appointed by, and responsible to, the Librarian of Congress, with the Register's office located in the Library's James Madison Memorial Building.

Although the title suggests a clerical role, Registers of Copyrights have been responsible for creating the procedures and practices of the Copyright Office and establishing standards for registration of copyright. They have increasingly been responsible for setting or influencing United States copyright policy. Today the Register is responsible for administering rulemaking procedures and producing authoritative interpretations of some aspects of U.S. copyright law, as well as advising the Librarian of Congress on the triennial proceeding on exceptions to the anticircumvention rules of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Register also routinely testifies before Congress on copyright policy matters.

As of October 2020, the position is held by Shira Perlmutter, who took office October 25, 2020.

On April 26, 2017, the House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill that, if approved by the Senate, will make Register of Copyrights a position that is filled by presidential appointment with Senate confirmation, rather than appointed by the Librarian of Congress—a policy that has been in place since the establishment of the Copyright Office, and impose a maximum term of 10 years. The bill has been supported by the entertainment industry and other groups (including the MPAA and RIAA), as the new selection procedure would give them the opportunity to lobby for a Register of Copyrights that aligns with their interests in stronger copyright protection. These effects have been the basis of opposition towards the bill by politicians, and groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge, which feel that the bill would give corporate stakeholders a higher level of influence over U.S. copyright policies, rather than balancing the laws to meet the needs of the public.

List of registers of copyrights

No.	Image	Name	Start of term	End of term	Length of term	Notes
1		Thorvald Solberg	July 22, 1897	April 21, 1930	11,961 days	Longest serving Register (32 years, 9 months)
2		William Lincoln Brown	June 4, 1934	July 1, 1936	759 days
3		Clement Lincoln Bouvé	August 1, 1936	December 31, 1943	2,699 days
–		Richard Crosby De Wolf	January 1, 1944	February 1, 1945	398 days	First acting Register
4		Sam Bass Warner	February 1, 1945	May 28, 1951	2,308 days
–		Arthur Fisher	May 28, 1951	September 12, 1951	108 days	First acting Register to go on to assume the official role Shortest term as acting Register (3 months, 9 days)
5			September 12, 1951	November 12, 1960	3,350 days
6		Abraham L. Kaminstein	December 24, 1960	August 31, 1971	3,903 days
7		George D. Cary	September 1, 1971	March 9, 1973	556 days
–		Abe Goldman	March 10, 1973	November 19, 1973	255 days	Acting Register
8		Barbara Ringer	November 19, 1973	May 30, 1980	2,385 days	First female Register. Ringer brought a sex discrimination suit that resulted in her being named to the position.
9		David Ladd	June 2, 1980	January 2, 1985	1,676 days	The only person to head both the U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (then the U.S. Patent Office). Prior to becoming Register of Copyrights, Ladd served as the U.S. Commissioner of Patents from 1961 to 1963.
–		Donald Curran	January 3, 1985	September 10, 1985	251 days	Acting Register
10		Ralph Oman	September 23, 1985	January 8, 1994	3,031 days
–		Barbara Ringer	November 27, 1993	August 6, 1994	253 days	Only former Register to return to service as acting Register
11		Marybeth Peters	August 7, 1994	December 31, 2010	5,991 days
–		Maria Pallante	January 1, 2011	May 31, 2011	151 days	Acting Register
12			June 1, 2011	October 21, 2016	1,970 days
–		Karyn Temple	October 21, 2016	March 26, 2019	887 days	Longest serving acting Register (2 years, 5 months, 6 days)
13			March 27, 2019	January 4, 2020	284 days	Shortest-serving Register (9 months, 8 days)
–		Maria Strong	January 5, 2020	October 24, 2020	294 days	Acting Register
14		Shira Perlmutter	October 25, 2020	incumbent	1,473 days (to date)

Sources

• "Congressional Testimony by Register of Copyrights". United States Copyright Office. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
• "Registers of Copyrights". United States Copyright Office. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
• United States Code. 17 U.S.C. § 701.