Book ‘em: Feds threaten small publisher with six-figure fines over obsolete law

What should the government give a small publishing company that is dedicated to bringing long-forgotten books to a broader modern audience? A pat on the back? An award? How about a six-figure fine?

https://iam.ij.org/2Mtfihc

In the case of Valancourt Books, the government is going with the fine. Valancourt is a small publishing company operated out of the Richmond, Virginia, home of James Jenkins, a former lawyer who found his life’s calling reviving and popularizing rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction, including 18th century Gothic novels, Victorian horror novels, forgotten literary fiction, and works by early LGBT authors. Founded in 2005, Valancourt has published more than 300 books, all of which they have permission to reprint, winning praise from literature professors and the press alike.

It has also, apparently, been breaking the law. On June 11, 2018, James received an email from the U.S. Copyright Office demanding that he provide it with a copy of every single book in Valancourt’s catalog and threatening him with fines that could reach hundreds of thousands of dollars if he failed to comply.

What is going on? It turns out a little-known provision of federal law makes it illegal to publish a new book in the United States without providing the federal government with two free copies. The law itself dates back to the former federal copyright system, under which the only way to secure the protections of copyright was to formally register your work with the federal government and publishers were required to deposit copies of their books in exchange for registration. But under modern copyright law, copyright protection applies automatically to anything someone writes. But the deposit requirements is still there, which means the law now requires two free copies of anything copyrightable that is published in the United States. Valancourt’s books (all of which contain at least some new material, like scholarly introductions or footnotes, that is copyrightable) technically qualify. And the federal government—even though the justification for this requirement has long since vanished—intends to collect.
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