I’ve been a professional pirate hunter for almost 20 years now. I built one of the largest libraries of images in the business. At one point, we were supplying about 50% of the photos you saw in magazines across the United States. And I watched people steal it, resell it, and build businesses off of work that wasn’t theirs.

Here’s the problem I ran into back then, and the problem most of you still run into today: for most U.S. works, you generally need a Copyright Office registration before you can file an infringement lawsuit in federal court. But having the right to sue and actually suing somebody are two very different things when a federal lawsuit costs more than your entire claim is worth. So what do you do when somebody steals $3,000 worth of your course, your photos, your podcast episodes, and hiring a lawyer to go after them would cost you $15,000 you don’t have?

For most of the time I’ve been doing this, the honest answer was: not much. You send a takedown notice. You hope. If they don’t comply, you’re stuck deciding whether a lawsuit is worth it, and for most content creators, it just wasn’t.

That changed in June 2022, and it’s the single biggest update to this course since we built it.

What Is the Copyright Claims Board?

The Copyright Claims Board, or CCB, is a small-claims tribunal specifically for copyright disputes. It runs inside the U.S. Copyright Office, not a federal courthouse, and it exists for exactly the situation I just described: infringement claims where the amount at stake doesn’t justify a federal lawsuit.

Think of it like small claims court, but for your intellectual property.

Here’s what makes it different from the process I’ve been walking you through in the rest of this course:

• You don’t need a lawyer. You can represent yourself the entire way through.
• It’s capped at $30,000 per proceeding. That’s the ceiling. This isn’t for your six-figure infringement case; it’s for the everyday theft that content creators deal with constantly.
• It’s entirely online. No courtroom, no travel, no filing in person.
• It’s built to be faster and cheaper than federal court. That’s the whole point of it existing.

Why This Matters for You

If you’ve watched the other videos in this course, you already know why registering your work early matters. Timely registration can preserve access to higher statutory damages, which can be far easier than trying to prove every dollar of actual loss.

The Copyright Claims Board is the missing piece. It’s the venue where a registration or pending application and a real infringement claim can actually turn into a result, without you needing $15,000 to find out if you’re right.

If you’re an e-course creator who found your $997 course being resold for $19.95. If you’re a podcaster whose episodes got ripped and reposted somewhere else with the ads stripped out. If you’re a photographer who found your images on someone else’s site with the watermark cropped off. This is who the CCB was built for.

Do You Still Need to Register Your Work First?

You need to at least start the registration process. Before filing a CCB claim, you need either a registration or a complete pending application with the U.S. Copyright Office. This is exactly why I’ve been telling you to register your work before you think you need to, not after.

If you’ve been putting it off because you figured you’d “deal with it if it ever became a problem,” don’t wait. You can still apply after you discover an infringement and then use the CCB, but waiting can reduce the statutory damages available to you.

One Thing to Know Before You File

The person or company you’re filing against has the right to opt out of the CCB process within 60 days of being served. If they opt out, your claim doesn’t disappear. It just means you’re back to deciding whether federal court is worth it for that particular case.

Don’t assume they won’t opt out. Some will. The point is to know that before you spend time building the claim, so you’re not caught off guard if they do.

The Bottom Line

For almost 20 years, I’ve been telling content creators the same thing: register your work now, before you need to, because you never know which piece of content is going to be the one that gets stolen. The Copyright Claims Board doesn’t change that advice. It makes doing the work early even more valuable. Registration isn’t just a legal formality sitting in a drawer anymore. It can be the key to an actual, affordable path to getting paid when someone steals from you.

If you want the full step-by-step process for how to register your work, how to group it to save money, and how to actually file a CCB claim when the time comes, that’s exactly what we built IPHQS to walk you through.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Copyright Claims Board?

The Copyright Claims Board (CCB) is a small-claims tribunal within the U.S. Copyright Office, created by the CASE Act and launched in June 2022, that lets copyright owners bring infringement claims of up to $30,000 without a lawyer or a federal lawsuit.

Do I need a lawyer to file a CCB claim?

No. The Copyright Claims Board is designed for self-represented parties, though you can hire an attorney if you choose.

Do I need to register my copyright before filing a CCB claim?

Not necessarily. You need either an issued copyright registration or a complete registration application submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office before you bring the claim. The CCB cannot issue a final determination on an infringement claim unless the registration is ultimately granted.

Can the other party refuse to participate in a CCB case?

Yes. Respondents can opt out within 60 days of being served, which would require you to pursue the claim in federal court instead if you want to continue.