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Home / Frequently Asked Questions
Is the $34.95 subscription fee required for each of the five years or is it just $34.95 for the entire 5-year period? The $34.95 subscription fee covers the entire 5-year period. The subscription fee is a one-time payment that covers receiving the NRS services for 5-years. At the end of the five-year subscription period, a subscriber may choose to renew at the then current rate. The only payment necessary to receive NRS-Online.com services for the next 5 years is the $34.95 subscription payment. Is there a refund if I wish to terminate my subscription? Subscriptions purchased directly from NRS-Online.com are eligible for a partial refund of $24 if a subscription is canceled within 30-days of subscribing. Refunds for subscriptions made through a reseller of NRS-Online.com services are not available through NRS but they may be through the company that sold the subscription or activation code. Contact the reseller for details. Can I subscribe by postal mail? Yes, if you prefer not to use your credit card online then you may subscribe by check. All such payments should be made payable to Drake Analytics, Inc., made out for $34.95 and drawn on a US bank. Payments should be sent to: Drake Analytics, Inc. Attn: NRS-Online.com PO Box 19762 Seattle, WA 98109 USA You will be contacted either by electronic mail or postal mail when your account has been set-up. What are the limits on what can be registered? NRS-Online.com is able to handle several media types such as documents, audio tapes, video tapes, compact disks, floppy disks, electronic files, etc. We do not register industrial products like boats, cars, machines, etc. The key issue in whether NRS can register an item is whether it can securely store the item.There is no limit to the number of acceptable items that may be registered under a subscription. If you have questions concerning whether a particular item may be registered, please contact support. How are items submitted for registration? Submissions may be made by postal mail, facsimile, electronic mail, through the online Registry, or hand-delivered. Each item must be accompanied by a registration form if not submitted via the online facility. The following address is available for mailing items to be registered: Drake Analytics, Inc. Attn: NRS Registration Services PO Box 19762 Seattle, WA 98109 USA Facsimile: Contact NRS for a FAX number. Note, this number may change so contact NRS each time you are about to conduct a fax-based registration. How big can electronic files be when uploading for registration? The NRS servers will currently always accept uploaded files that are 2-megabytes or less. If there is a heavy load on the system then files greater than 2-megabytes may experience problems during an upload - usually taking a longer than normal time to upload. If the system is operating under a normal load, files up to 7-megabytes in size will be accepted. Extremely large digital files should be compressed prior to registration. In some cases, registration may be best done by electronic mail or by having an NRS Representative download a file. Contact support for details on registering extremely large files. Of course, there is no limit to the number of large files that may be registered and, unlike other registration agencies, large files do not require additional fees. Are my registered items kept confidential? All items received by NRS-Online for registration are kept strictly confidential and are not viewed by staff. Registered items are not accessed after they are stored except under order of a subscriber or court. Where are registered items stored? Items are stored in secure facilities in the Seattle area. Digital media that was uploaded via an Online Registry are stored on compact disks and tapes prior to storage and then, naturally, removed from the online NRS servers. The location of the facilities used depends on the type of item. Print-outs and electronic copies of encryption keys are placed in safe deposit boxes or vaults in facilities distant from those items that have been encrypted by NRS. Can I request that my Online Registry not be made available and thus no record of my registered items be maintained online? Yes, a subscriber may request that their Online Registry be disabled and then no record of their registered items will be available online. This may be done at any time during a subscription period. Likewise, subscribers may also request to enable their Registry at any time. (Reactivation normally takes 24-48 hours.) Do I need to register with NRS or the government or any other agency to obtain a Copyright? (This pertains to US law - other countries may differ.) A copyright is automatically placed on all created works and registration is not needed to obtain a copyright. Visit the US Copyright Office for specific details. Registration is only to assist in the protection of a copyright. Registration helps to define ownership and is the best method for developing a case that can prove legitimate ownership of a copyright. What is the difference between registering with the US Government and registering with a private service like NRS-Online, ProtectRite or the Writer's Guild? The US Copyright Office should normally be used to register final works as it delivers the best protection against copyright infringement and may allow one to seek punitive damages in certain infringement cases. Each work that is registered with the US Copyright Office however requires a fee and preliminary work is normally not to be registered with the office. NRS is a comprehensive service which seeks to provide a low-cost mechanism for assisting with copyright protection by allowing an individual or company to build a time-stamped, third-party authenticated, database of evidence to support claims of ownership. This is necessary because although registration of final works is powerful protection, it is not full protection. There are several instances of companies submitting the same material for registration resulting in expensive and time consuming legal proceedings being required to resolve the matter. Having a history of evidence beyond registration of a final work can be an extremely valuable resource. Moreover, there are many works that may be stolen. or otherwise copied, midway through creation or development. With NRS services, one has an additional resource to assist deliver solid evidence in support of one's claim to copyright ownership. Due to the low-cost nature of NRS, many subscribers, in addition to registering preliminary work and notes, also register minor finished works that are not important enough to warrant paying the US registration fees but which the author would like some third-party protection.There is no time limit that one must meet when registering with the US Copyright Office. It can happen at the time of a work's completion or years later...or even during a court case regarding the work. In short, NRS should be considered a cost-effective service that works as a supplement to registration of important final works with the US Copyright Office. Why should I use Daily Page Registration instead of registering the web pages myself? Naturally, you may register a web page on a daily basis yourself. However, the purpose of automatic daily page registration is to have a neutral third-party register your page to ensure, to others, that the registered page was in fact what was online at a particular time. By registering a page of HTML script yourself, there can be no independent confirmation that the HTML document you registered was actually online - Daily Page Registrations can be used to demonstrate to others what was online. This form of automated registration is primarily used in three situations: 1). When a web page contains copyrighted content that changes on a daily basis; 2). In situations where it may be useful to demonstrate someone had access to a particular work by having evidence of the fact that a work was displayed when a user visited a site; and 3). To assist with liability management (i.e. registering evidence that Disclaimers and Warnings were posted online). Can I register a name or slogan for protection? Names and slogans, alone - not as part of a created work, are normally protected via a Trademark or Servicemark rather than a Copyright. As such, the registration of particular words would not be sufficient for obtaining an exclusive right to their use. Registration with NRS of items (web pages, letterhead, etc.) using Trademarked terms and slogans can help to protect these marks by allowing firms and professionals to build a base of evidence demonstrating the use of such marks. This is important because, unlike patents or copyright, usage (and protection) of a trademark or servicemark is required for maintaining an exclusive right to use the mark. Otherwise, the mark may lapse into the public domain. The NRS Registry does provide a module for keeping track of one's trademarks but actual registration, to ensure protection beyond common law protection, must be done with a State and/or Federal agency. Visit the US Trademark and Patent Office for additional information. How are renewals handled? Starting three months prior to the expiration date of a subscription, renewal notices are sent by electronic mail and postal mail. Renewal is not automatic as NRS does not maintain credit card records. If I do not renew, what happens to my registered items? You may request to receive the items by postal mail, at your expense. You may arrange to collect them yourself. You may request that the items be destroyed. You may also elect to have NRS-Online.com archive the items at no cost. However, you will not be permitted to register additional items or request services without re-subscribing. If a subscriber does not inform NRS-Online.com how they want to handle their registered items, the items will be archived. Note, if destruction is requested it means the complete removal of all the items and associated records. No record of these items will exist after they have been destroyed. Can I request retrieval of, or a copy of, or destruction of one or more registered items? Yes, all items may be retrieved or destroyed. For those items for which we have the technology to copy, a copy may also be requested. There is no fee for destruction of a registered item but retrieval and copy requests are charged a fee equivalent to a service charge plus media costs (for copying option only) plus shipping. When items are withdrawn, they are removed from all NRS-Online.com databases including the subscriber's Registry. Withdrawn items cease to be considered registered. There is no way to "undo" the destruction of an item. Once destroyed, all records of the registered item cease to exist. Note, NRS will not act on any request unless it has verified that the request has, in fact, come from the subscriber. NRS reserves the right to not provide copies, destruction or withdrawal services if it does not believe it has truly verified the originator of the request. What information is stored online? NRS does NOT store registered items online nor does it store credit card information online. The only data that is online is the data that is displayed in your Registry. In fact, NRS never stores credit card information on any of its servers - even during the ordering process. NRS connects directly, via a secure link, to the transaction clearinghouse gateway to process orders - thus your credit card information is never stored online at NRS. The only time of note that a registered item is available online is the short time lag between a subscriber uploading a file during eRegistration and the NRS staff removing the file offline to be stored. If you have further questions or require additional information, please contact NRS-Online. |