17 U.S.C. § 702
Section 702 · Copyright Office regulations
This is § 101 of the Copyright Act of 1976
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 13 court decisions — leading case Murray Hill Publications, Inc. v. ABC Communications, Inc. (2001)
Most recently applied in Stephen Thaler v. Shira Perlmutter (March 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The Register of Copyrights is authorized to establish regulations not inconsistent with law for the administration of the functions and duties made the responsibility of the Register under this title. All regulations established by the Register under this title are subject to the approval of the Librarian of Congress.