CIVIL REMEDIES FOR INFRINGEMENT OF A WORK BEING PREPARED FOR COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION.

SEC. 104. CIVIL REMEDIES FOR INFRINGEMENT OF A WORK BEING PREPARED FOR COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION. (a) Preregistration.—Section 408 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: “(f) Preregistration of Works Being Prepared for Commercial Distribution.—“(1) Rulemaking.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Register of Copyrights shall issue regulations to establish procedures for preregistration of a work that is being prepared for commercial distribution and has not been published. “(2) Class of works.—The regulations established under paragraph (1) shall permit preregistration for any work that is in a class of works that the Register determines has had a history of infringement prior to authorized commercial distribution. “(3) Application for registration.—Not later than 3 months after the first publication of a work preregistered under this subsection, the applicant shall submit to the Copyright Office—119 STAT. 222“(A) an application for registration of the work; “(B) a deposit; and “(C) the applicable fee. “(4) Effect of untimely application.—An action under this chapter for infringement of a work preregistered under this subsection, in a case in which the infringement commenced no later than 2 months after the first publication of the work, shall be dismissed if the items described in paragraph (3) are not submitted to the Copyright Office in proper form within the earlier of—“(A) 3 months after the first publication of the work; or “(B) 1 month after the copyright owner has learned of the infringement.”. (b) Infringement Actions.—Section 411(a) of title 17, United States Code, is amended by inserting “preregistration or” after “shall be instituted until”. (c) Exclusion.—Section 412 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by inserting after “section 106A(a)” the following: “, an action for infringement of the copyright of a work that has been preregistered under section 408(f) before the commencement of the infringement and that has an effective date of registration not later than the earlier of 3 months after the first publication of the work or 1 month after the copyright owner has learned of the infringement,”.