Sculptor's Copyright Claims Improperly Dismissed

An author's claims were dismissed by a federal magistrate judge becuase he ruled her copyright submission was not in an orderly form -  as required for copyrighting a collection of unpublished works -  and therefore the copyright was invalid.

The author submitted her application with some photos bound in a booklet and some loose photos.  The scupture at issue was depicted in one of the loose photos.

On appeal, Judge Easterbrook logically pointed out that the Copyright Office found the deposit sufficient to issue a registration.  Judge Easterbrook noted that "The Register found the submission adequate; a district court should not set aside an agency's application of its own regulations without strong reason."

Judge Easterbrook wondered how the magistrate could have determined that the copyright submission was not orderly when it was not in the record.  Oops......

Here's a link to an article from Bloomberg and the case:

http://bit.ly/1d9dnV3

Have a great day!