Senators Introduce Bill to Make Copyright Registration Easier for Visual Artists

Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Peter Welch (D-VT) have introduced a bill to streamline the copyright registration process for visual artists, such as photographers, illustrators and graphic artists.

According to a press release issued by Blackburn yesterday, “the [copyright] registration process is so bureaucratic and complicated that the time and expense of compliance is too high for high-volume creators like photographers, illustrators, and graphic artists.”

The bill, titled the “Visual Artists Copyright Reform Act of 2025’’ (VACRA) would therefore allow visual artists to submit a single application for registration of a group of up to 3,000 photographs (the current cap is 750); create a “deferred examination” option; establish annual “all-you-can-eat” registration subscriptions for certain works; and establish private sector third party registries approved by the Copyright Office where visual artists could submit electronic deposits of their works until the Office modernizes its deposit system.

The deferred examination option would allow an artist to delay full registration of their works until examination is requested by the rights owner for half the price of a typical registration, while still enjoying the enforcement right created by registration from the day the deferred registration is made.

Alluding to the fact that U.S. copyright holders presently must register their works in order to enforce their rights, which is costly when registering hundreds or thousands of works at once, the Professional Photographers of America CEO David Trust said: “The United States is the only country that requires creators to register their works before receiving full protection. It has been inexcusable that this problem has gone on for so long. We cannot praise Senators Blackburn and Welch enough for stepping in to correct the injustice.”

And American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) Chief Executive Officer Thomas Maddrey said: “These sorely needed and common-sense reforms are long overdue and are a first step in bringing so many artists back into the very copyright system that is designed to support their efforts in the creative economy.”

Blackburn and Welch also reintroduced a bipartisan bill this year aimed at protecting artists against the use of their works to train generative AI models. The “Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act” is also co-sponsored by Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) and would allow copyright owners to obtain information about whether their works are being used to train GenAI models via an administrative subpoena. “Modeled on the process used for matters of internet piracy, the bill will provide access to the courts for copyright holders with a good faith belief that their copyrighted material was used,” said a press release about the bill earlier this year.

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