CO Issues NPRM on Removing 'Extraneous' PII From Copyright Records

The Copyright Office issued a rulemaking notice Thursday that would allow an author, claimant to a copyright or representative to ask the CO to remove “extraneous and unnecessary” personally identifiable information from online versions of their copyright's application. PII that would be eligible for removal includes driver's license numbers, Social Security numbers, banking information and credit card information, the CO said in the Federal Register. The CO would retain the extraneous PII in offline and hard-copy versions. The new rule would codify an existing CO practice of deleting extraneous PII on request, the office said. The CO hasn't charged a fee for removing extraneous PII, but would begin to impose a $130 fee for such requests under the proposed rule. Requests for reconsideration of previously denied PII removal requests will cost $60, the CO said. The NPRM wouldn't permit removal of an author's or claimant's name because the CO is required to preserve non-extraneous information as a matter of public record, the office said. Anonymous and pseudonymous works are covered by copyright for 95 years after the work's original publication or 120 years after the work's year of creation. Works published under the author's real name are covered under copyright until 70 years after the author's death. Extraneous PII began appearing more frequently online by 2007 as third parties began “harvesting” information collected via the CO's online registration system and then posting that information on “alternative” websites, the CO said. Comments are due Oct. 17.