What is Publication and Why is it Important?
Answer
- Under copyright law, publication is the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease, or lending.
- Offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of people for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display also constitutes publication.
- Whether a work is published has important implications, including:
- The year of publication may determine the length of the copyright term for a work made for hire or an anonymous or pseudonymous work.
- The year of publication may determine the length of the copyright term if the work was created before January 1, 1978, and was published or registered before that date.
- The year of publication may determine the length of the copyright term if the work was created before January 1, 1978, and was first published between January 1, 1978, and December 31, 2002.
- The date and nation of first publication may determine if a non-U.S. work is eligible for copyright protection in the United States.
- A certificate of registration creates certain legal presumptions if the work is registered before or within five years after the work was first published.
- A copyright owner may be entitled to claim statutory damages and attorneys’ fees in an infringement lawsuit if the work was registered before the infringement began or within three months after the first publication of that work.
- Many of the exceptions and limitations on the copyright owner’s exclusive rights vary depending on whether the work is published or unpublished.
- As a general rule, works published before March 1, 1989, must be published with a valid copyright notice.
- The deposit requirements for registering a published work differ from the requirements for registering an unpublished work.
- Works published in the United States may be subject to mandatory deposit with the Library of Congress. For more information, see “What Is Mandatory Deposit?” below.
When you register your work with the Office, you must determine whether the work is published or unpublished. For further information regarding publication, see chapter 1900 of Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices.
All copyrighted works that are published in the United States are subject to the “mandatory deposit” provision of the copyright law. As a general rule, this provision requires that two complete copies of the “best edition” of a copyrightable work published in the United States be sent to the Copyright Office for the collections of the Library of Congress within three months of publication. The “best edition” of a work is “the edition, published in the United States at any time before the date of deposit, that the Library of Congress determines to be most suitable for its purposes.” The owner of copyright or of the exclusive right of publication may comply with this requirement either by submitting the best edition of the work when registering the work with the Office or by submitting the work without seeking a registration and solely for the purpose of fulfilling the mandatory deposit requirement. The mandatory deposit provision helps ensure that the Library of Congress obtains copies of every copyrightable work published in the United States for its collections or for exchange with or transfer to any other library. For more information, see Mandatory Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for the Library of Congress (Circular 7D) and Best Edition of Published Copyrighted Works for the Collections of the Library of Congress (Circular 7B).
Links & Files
- United States Copyright Office. Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Chapter 1900
- United States Copyright Office. Mandatory Deposit of Copies or Phonorecords for the Library of Congress (Circular 7D)
- United States Copyright Office. Best Edition of Published Copyrighted Works for the Collections of the Library of Congress (Circular 7B)