Mason Hoffenberg, Appellant, v. Abraham L. Kaminstein, Register of Copyrights, Appellee, 396 F.2d 684 (D.C. Cir. 1968)

Appellant and Terry Southern, both American citizens, are co-authors of the novel "Candy" which was first printed and published in the English language in France in 1958 with the appropriate statutory copyright notice. See 17 U.S. C. §§ 19 and 20 (1964). On March 11, 1965, more than six years after first publication of the foreign edition in France, appellant submitted to appellee an application for registration of a claim to ad interim copyright in the foreign edition. On the same date he submitted an application for registration of a claimed copyright in an American edition of "Candy" which was substantially the same text as the French edition. On March 31, 1965, the Copyright Office refused to register either the claimed ad interim copyright for the French edition or the claim to copyright in the American edition, stating as its reason failure to comply with the provisions of Sections 16,¹  22²  and 23 of the Coypright Code, 17 U.S.C. §§ 16, 22, 23 (1964). On June 25, 1965, appellant filed the present action in the District Court to compel the Register of Copyrights to issue a certificate of registration covering only the 1964 American edition. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the District Court granted the Register's motion, denied appellant's motion, and dismissed the action.

Except when the ad interim provisions of Sections 22 and 23 are met, Section 16 of the Copyright Code allows copyright registration of English-language books by United States citizens only where the first publication is printed in the United States. Implementing these provisions of the Copyright Code pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 207 (1964), in 1956 the Register of Copyrights promulgated the following regulation:

"Ad interim registrations. (1) An American edition of an English-language book or periodical identical in substance to that first published abroad will not be registered unless an ad interim registration is first made." 37 C.F.R. § 202.4(b) (1967).

Since the novel "Candy" was first published and printed³  abroad in the English language and there is no ad interim registration of that edition, registration of the American edition was properly refused.

A regulation, of course, is presumptively valid and ordinarily should be upheld unless it is inconsistent with the statute. New York Foreign Freight Forwarders & Brokers Ass'n v. F.M.C., 2 Cir., 337 F.2d 289, 295 (1964), cert. denied, 380 U.S. 910, 914, 85 S. Ct. 893, 13 L. Ed. 2d 797 (1965). The above regulation is not only not inconsistent with the pertinent sections of the Copyright Code, but in our judgment it accurately reflects the intention of Congress. Compare United States v. Zazove, 334 U.S. 602, 611, 68 S. Ct. 1284, 92 L. Ed. 1601 (1948). Even if there were some doubt, we would be required to resolve that doubt in favor of the Register's interpretation. Udall v. Tallman, 380 U.S. 1, 16, 85 S. Ct. 792, 13 L. Ed. 2d 616 (1965).

Affirmed.

Circuit Judge BURGER concurs in the result.