Copyright platform Binded (formely Blockai) has launched a simplified copyright registration tool that allows photographers to register their images with the U. S. Copyright Office for free.

That doesn't mean, of course, that the U. S. Copyright Office's registration fee is waived, but rather that Binded doesn't tack its own fee on top of the government's registration cost, making it far and away the cheapest and easiest option for registering photo copyrights.

According to Binded's website, this tool will be 'free forever. ' The registration process itself is simple, requiring photographers to first upload the image[s] they want copyrighted with the USCO. A payment of either $35 for a single image or $55 for multiple images is paid to cover the USCO's application fee. The user gets an email receipt once the payment is made, and later on a status notification about the application.

The big benefit here is that the registration process on Binded is far simpler than the U. S. Copyright Office's own online system, which can take a newbie hours to figure out. Plus, it doesn't cost anything unlike alternatives such as LegalZoom, which offers a similar service starting at $114 USD.

As Binded explained to PetaPixel, the company's online registration system can complete the entire application process in as little as one click and as quickly at 9 seconds. This, compared to the USCO's own online system which, based on Binded's testing, can take more than 100 clicks and 20 minutes. . . if you know what you're doing.

The US Copyright Office still takes between 6 and 8 months to process an application, but at least you'll save yourself a headache at the beginning of the process.

2017-8-9 17:39