'They Don't Want to Pay Any Freelancers Anything'

A sampling of the feedback received here:

"I received one of those [claim-defect] letters yesterday, rejecting the nine books and one article I submitted, even though I followed all the instructions and wasted hours doing the submission. It seems that for all my books, some going back to the seventies, I have to submit the copyright registration certificates, which had of course been done by my publishers (several of whom are now out of business). I can apparently get copies of the certificates from the Library of Congress for a fee (I don't know what the fee is), but this all looks so iffy I doubt it's worth it. It looks to me as if they don't want to pay any freelancers anything."

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"It looks to me as if the tactic is to make it even more difficult for claimants to register a claim: if this is widespread, and IF there truly are multiple mistakes in these notices, then it would certainly appear that this is a strategy to get rid of as many claims as possible, since -- given the puny amount of money some of us will receive anyway -- there certainly will be those who just throw up their hands.Which would also mean they can't prohibit use of their material elsewhere, and all those articles will then be freed up to be used, without payment, over and over again."

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"It's like we're the defendants.... They want to give us nothing."