The documentary materials in this booklet are reprints or excerpts from
six sources:

1. The Copyright Act of October 19, 1976. This is the copyright law of
the United States, effective January 1, 1978 (title 17 of the United
States Code, Public Law 94-553, 90 Stat. 2541).

2. The Senate Report. This is the 1975 report of the Senate Judiciary
Committee on S. 22, the Senate version of the bill that became the
Copyright Act of 1976 (S. Rep. No. 94-473, 94th Cong., 1st Sess.,
November 20 (legislative day November 18,1975)).

3. The House Report. This is the 1976 report of the House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee on the House amendments to the bill
that became the Copyright Act of 1976 (H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, 94th
Cong., 2d Sess., Sep-tember 3,1976).

4. The Conference Report. This is the 1976 report of the "committee of
conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendments
of the House to the bill (S. 22) for the general revision of the
Copyright Law" (H.R. Rep. No. 94-1733, 94th Cong., 2d Sess., September
29,1976).

5. The Congressional Debates. This booklet contains excerpts from the
Congressional Record of September 22, 1976, reflecting statements on the
floor of Congress at the time the bill was passed by the House of
Representatives (122 CONG. REC. H 10874-76, daily edition, September
22,1976).

6. Copyright Office Regulations. These are regulations issued by the
Copyright Office under section 108 dealing with warnings of copyright
for use by libraries and archives (37 Code of Federal Regulations
Sec. 201.14).

Items 2 and 3 on this list--the 1975 Senate Report and the 1976 House
Report--present special problems. On many points the language of these
two reports is identical or closely similiar. However, the two reports
were written at different times, by committees of different Houses of
Congress, on somewhat different bills. As a result, the discussions on
some provisions of the bills vary widely, and on certain points they
disagree.

The disagreements between the Senate and House versions of the bill
itself were, of course, resolved when the Act of 1976 was finally
passed. However, many of the disagreements as to matters of
interpretation between statements in the 1975 Senate Report and in the
1976 House Report were left partly or wholly unresolved. It is therefore
difficult in compiling a booklet such as this to decide in some cases
what to include and what to leave out.

Th