\7\ The application of this principle shall be subject to any provisions contained in special conventions to that effect existing or to be concluded between countries of the Union.  In the absence of such provisions, the respective countries shall determine, each in so far as it is concerned, the conditions of application of this principle.  Berne Convention art. 18(3) (Paris text).

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The Office has tried, however, to make the procedures for filing NIEs practical, realizing that too detailed requirements would burden the owner and that too general ones would serve neither the owner nor the user of the restored work.

The Office also notes that the URAA makes such filings less onerous by permitting the owner to notify all reliance parties of a restored work by filing in one central place, the Copyright Office.  Only if the owner does not file with the Copyright Office within the appropriate time period, as detailed above, must the owner provide actual notice to each user of a restored work in order to enforce rights.

The Office is permitting an owner of multiple works to file one NIE if each work is identified by title, has the same author, is owned by the same identified copyright owner or owner of an exclusive right, and the rights owned are the same.

2.  Effective Date

Mr. Patry stated that January 1, 1995, is the initial date of copyright restoration.  Comment 2, at 1.  Mr. Karp asserted that the effective date of 104(A) is December 8, 1994, but that first restoration of copyrights will occur on January 1, 1996.  Comment 8, at 2.  The Office reaffirms its recognition of January 1, 1996, as the effective date of initial copyright restoration. 3.  Minor Errors or Omissions

Ms. Lorente noted that it is often impossible for foreign authors to know the English language title under which a work is being exploited, especially as it is often not a literal translation.  She, therefore, asked that a NIE not be invalidated if it gives the literal translation of the foreign title, and later it is determined that the English language title under which the work is exploited is different from the one given in the NIE.  Comment 5, at 2.

All information on the NIE other than the original title of the foreign work must be completed in English.  The law requires that an English translation of a foreign title be given on the NIE; it does not specify that it be the English title under which the work was exploited.

The Copyright Office will record the NIE under the titles that are provided; ultimately only a court can determine the validity of a NIE.  However, the Office believes that a reasonable construction of the statute’s

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requirements would permit good faith discrepancies in the English translation.

Furthermore, the URAA allows a party who has filed a NIE with the Copyright Office to correct minor errors or omissions by further notice at any time after the NIE is filed.  The procedures and fees are the same for filing a NIE which corrects a previously filed NIE, except that the party making the correction should refer to previous NIE’s volume and page number in the Copyright Office Documents Records, if known, on the corrected NIE.