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I am lightly horrified by how many people have now looked up their books and found out their publishers (who often were required contractually!!!!) just... didn't register the copyrights on books. Not all of them! Just sporadically! This is not just one publisher, I've seen all the big ones now.

The implications (for those who do not understand why we're all suddenly freaking out) is that in the US, if you do not pay the fee to register your copyright, you do not have the same legal protections. @courtneymilan.com did a good thread about this but tl;dr: it impacts the AI lawsuit a lot.

So I guess... if you were published by one of the big guys in the US, don't assume they registered the copyright for all of your books. Go look your books up and find out: publicrecords.copyright.gov

Foreign books and foreign authors don't need to register in the United States to take action in the U.S. courts. “Congress removed foreign works from Section 411(a)’s dominion in order to comply with the Berne Convention bar on copyright formalities for such works.” Fourth Est., 586 U.S. at 306–07

One thing to look at is 'Nation of First Publication'. If a US Author publishes in the EU for instance then the EU book isn't a US work and won't need registering. (see Article 3 Berne Con) www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdoc...

Please do not look at the Berne convention to determine US law.

US is a signatory of Berne. “Congress removed foreign works from Section 411(a)’s dominion in order to comply with the Berne Convention bar on copyright formalities for such works.” Fourth Est., 586 U.S. at 306–07