17 U.S.C. § 202
Ownership of copyright as distinct from ownership of material object
United States · Title 17 — COPYRIGHTS · Status: effective
Cite this
- Citation
- 17 U.S.C. § 202, Ownership of copyright as distinct from ownership of material object, United States, version 1 as recorded 2026-07-09, yourstate.us, https://yourstate.us/provision/448486
- Permanent ID
ys:prov:448486@1- SHA-256
5e2fa32cab5f633f95b6f5456f8d7aa89b495384c1bd82badb3b8deda9aa3c2a
The hash is SHA-256 of this version's text, with every run of whitespace collapsed to a single space and the ends trimmed. The ID always leads back here, and checking it says whether the text you cited is still the current version.
Full text
Ownership of a copyright, or of any of the exclusive rights under a copyright, is distinct from ownership of any material object in which the work is embodied. Transfer of ownership of any material object, including the copy or phonorecord in which the work is first fixed, does not of itself convey any rights in the copyrighted work embodied in the object; nor, in the absence of an agreement, does transfer of ownership of a copyright or of any exclusive rights under a copyright convey property rights in any material object.
Legislative history
The public laws that enacted or amended this section. Tallies are for the whole bill as it passed each chamber — often an omnibus covering far more than this provision — not a vote on this section alone.
- An Act for the general revision of the Copyright Law, title 17 of the United States Code, and for other purposes.House: no recorded tallySenate: no recorded tally