Legal corpus: the complete U.S. Code (59,740 sections, all 53 titles)

Ingested titles 12–51 and 54 from OLRC USLM XML @119-100 (the whole Code
now, uniform edition; Title 53 is reserved/empty). LegalText 11,221 ->
59,740; repo total 105,704 records. Deterministic (byte-identical rerun,
verified on Title 42's 8,356 sections); make check green. make
legal-us-code default now covers every title.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legal/us/code/title-17/chapter-3/section-303.md

@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+---
+type: "LegalText"
+title: "17 U.S.C. § 303"
+description: "Duration of copyright: Works created but not published or copyrighted before January 1, 1978"
+jurisdiction: "us"
+corpus: "united_states_code"
+kind: "code_section"
+title_number: 17
+title_name: "COPYRIGHTS"
+chapter_number: "3"
+chapter_name: "DURATION OF COPYRIGHT"
+section: "303"
+citation: "17 U.S.C. § 303"
+status: "current"
+release_point: "119-100"
+release_date: "2026-06-26"
+source: "official"
+source_url: "https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc17@119-100.zip"
+source_identifier: "/us/usc/t17/s303"
+source_file: "data/legal/raw/us/code/title-17/usc17.xml"
+source_hash: "87cd7bbf12218be5f978bbc9c2d0bae4d8f33579371c695e15d317c13e3b1b2e"
+raw_snapshot_hash: "53c244d73050c7c92329dce6d1ccd78b9e2fece359d919b044b600b95258446c"
+text_hash: "55c0a37b8816b6718eb5937b2167575681a50cf23410289d9239766848e16d04"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-04"
+confidence: "official"
+tags: ["legal", "us-code"]
+---
+
+# 17 U.S.C. § 303 - Duration of copyright: Works created but not published or copyrighted before January 1, 1978
+
+## Text
+
+(a) Copyright in a work created before January 1, 1978, but not theretofore in the public domain or copyrighted, subsists from January 1, 1978, and endures for the term provided by section 302. In no case, however, shall the term of copyright in such a work expire before December 31, 2002; and, if the work is published on or before December 31, 2002, the term of copyright shall not expire before December 31, 2047.
+
+(b) The distribution before January 1, 1978, of a phonorecord shall not for any purpose constitute a publication of any musical work, dramatic work, or literary work embodied therein.
+
+(Pub. L. 94–553, title I, § 101, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2573; Pub. L. 105–80, § 11, Nov. 13, 1997, 111 Stat. 1534; Pub. L. 105–298, title I, § 102(c), Oct. 27, 1998, 112 Stat. 2827; Pub. L. 111–295, § 5(a), Dec. 9, 2010, 124 Stat. 3181.)
+
+## Notes
+
+Historical and Revision Notes
+
+house report no. 94–1476Theoretically, at least, the legal impact of section 303 would be far reaching. Under it, every “original work of authorship” fixed in tangible form that is in existence would be given statutory copyright protection as long as the work is not in the public domain in this country. The vast majority of these works consist of private material that no one is interested in protecting or infringing, but section 303 would still have practical effects for a prodigious body of material already in existence. Looked at another way, however, section 303 would have a genuinely restrictive effect. Its basic purpose is to substitute statutory for common law copyright for everything now protected at common law, and to substitute reasonable time limits for the perpetual protection now available. In general, the substituted time limits are those applicable to works created after the effective date of the law [Jan. 1, 1978]; for example, an unpublished work written in 1945 whose author dies in 1980 would be protected under the statute from the effective date [Jan. 1, 1978] through 2030 (50 years after the author’s death). A special problem under this provision is what to do with works whose ordinary statutory terms will have expired or will be nearing expiration on the effective date [Jan. 1, 1978]. The committee believes that a provision taking away subsisting common law rights and substituting statutory rights for a reasonable period is fully in harmony with the constitutional requirements of due process, but it is necessary to fix a “reasonable period” for this purpose. Section 303 provides that under no circumstances would copyright protection expire before December 31, 2002, and also attempts to encourage publication by providing 25 years more protection (through 2027) if the work were published before the end of 2002.
+
+Editorial Notes
+
+Amendments2010—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 111–295 substituted “any musical work, dramatic work, or literary work” for “the musical work”. 1998—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 105–298 substituted “December 31, 2047” for “December 31, 2027” in second sentence. 1997—Pub. L. 105–80 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and added subsec. (b).

legal/us/code/title-17/chapter-3/section-305.md

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+---
+type: "LegalText"
+title: "17 U.S.C. § 305"
+description: "Duration of copyright: Terminal date"
+jurisdiction: "us"
+corpus: "united_states_code"
+kind: "code_section"
+title_number: 17
+title_name: "COPYRIGHTS"
+chapter_number: "3"
+chapter_name: "DURATION OF COPYRIGHT"
+section: "305"
+citation: "17 U.S.C. § 305"
+status: "current"
+release_point: "119-100"
+release_date: "2026-06-26"
+source: "official"
+source_url: "https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc17@119-100.zip"
+source_identifier: "/us/usc/t17/s305"
+source_file: "data/legal/raw/us/code/title-17/usc17.xml"
+source_hash: "5330164cda8f9590fdc6c3d9639f781a52087990612ee5811b6b79cc97ac577f"
+raw_snapshot_hash: "53c244d73050c7c92329dce6d1ccd78b9e2fece359d919b044b600b95258446c"
+text_hash: "28d51f6170f6ff51614fed70ed7616051454439fa4eee4fedf2bc7315f6bffbb"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-04"
+confidence: "official"
+tags: ["legal", "us-code"]
+---
+
+# 17 U.S.C. § 305 - Duration of copyright: Terminal date
+
+## Text
+
+All terms of copyright provided by sections 302 through 304 run to the end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire.
+
+(Pub. L. 94–553, title I, § 101, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2576.)
+
+## Notes
+
+Historical and Revision Notes
+
+house report no. 94–1476Under section 305, which has its counterpart in the laws of most foreign countries, the term of copyright protection for a work extends through December 31 of the year in which the term would otherwise have expired. This will make the duration of copyright much easier to compute, since it will be enough to determine the year, rather than the exact date, of the event from which the term is based. Section 305 applies only to “terms of copyright provided by sections 302 through 304,” which are the sections dealing with duration of copyright. It therefore has no effect on the other time periods specified in the bill; and, since they do not involve “terms of copyright,” the periods provided in section 304(c) with respect to termination of grants are not affected by section 305. The terminal date section would change the duration of subsisting copyrights under section 304 by extending the total terms of protection under subsections (a) and (b) to the end of the 75th year from the date copyright was secured. A copyright subsisting in its first term on the effective date of the act [Jan. 1, 1978] would run through December 31 of the 28th year and would then expire unless renewed. Since all copyright terms under the bill expire on December 31, and since section 304(a) requires that renewal be made “within one year prior to the expiration of the original term of copyright,” the period for renewal registration in all cases will run from December 31 through December 31. A special situation arises with respect to subsisting copyrights whose first 28-year term expires during the first year after the act comes into effect. As already explained in connection with section 304(b), if a renewal registration for a copyright of this sort is made before the effective date [Jan. 1, 1978], the total term is extended to 75 years without the need for a further renewal registration. But, if renewal has not yet been made when the act becomes effective [Jan. 1, 1978], the period for renewal registration may in some cases be extended. If, as the bill provides, the act becomes effective on January 1, 1978, a copyright that was originally secured on September 1, 1950, could have been renewed by virtue of the present statute between September 1, 1977, and December 31, 1977; if not, it can still be renewed under section 304(a) of the new act between January 1, 1978, and December 31, 1978.