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If publishing a book in December 2011, can you give it a 2012 copyright date?

1K views 17 replies 9 participants last post by  Terrence OBrien 
#1 ·
Hi,

This concerns me because the question has come up for me before, in print. If a book is to be published in December, print publishers think it wise to give it the copyright date of the next year, because someone opening the book on January 5 of the next year looks at the published date (usually, it's just a year) and thinks of it as a year old--which, in publishing terms, where the shelf life of a book is supposed to be slightly above that of yogurt, is really old.

so, have any of you thought of this, and would it be okay to do this?

thanks.
Richard
 
#3 ·
Marilyn Peake said:
I don't know if this is OK to do or not, but I've never heard of it being done. Amazon lists the publication date on its web pages, so I would think the copyright date should match the publication date. :-\
As I reflect on this, and on your comment, I begin to think it can indeed be changed. Especially if you're changing something in the book--I've changed one book around 35 times in 5 months since publication! It's a field that you can enter a date (the field is described as optional). I know that in print, it is regularly done, and an October book is "pre-launched" or released will before its "official publication date".

I was wondering whether it would be odd, and have legal consequences, to say "Copyright 2012" on a book that is available december 10. But I guess it would not, because copyright is proved by your actually having written something first, not by something you write on a copyright page. Maybe it is a non-problem.
 
#5 ·
dkazemi said:
I am not following the logic of this. Why not wait a month if you want the 2012 copyright? I highly doubt a book is stale after a month or even a year.
I am just pondering this question for a new paranormal thriller novelette.There is the Christmas sales period to consider. You only get about 30 days of a kick from Amazon as a new title, so I reckon it is more important to get your book out there for Christmas day when people unwrap their presents that it is to worry about a book going stale.

From a legal standpoint, copyright starts from the day of publication.
 
#6 ·
According to The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Marilyn Ross & Sue Collier, it is standard practice that, "When a book will roll off the press anytime after September 1, it is automatically assigned the next year's copyright date." Later on the book says they checked with the copyright office and found it was an acceptable practice.

It stuck with me when I read that, because I'd never known that before.
 
#7 ·
lotus rose said:
According to The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Marilyn Ross & Sue Collier, it is standard practice that, "When a book will roll off the press anytime after September 1, it is automatically assigned the next year's copyright date." Later on the book says they checked with the copyright office and found it was an acceptable practice.

It stuck with me when I read that, because I'd never known that before.
Thanks for that, Lotus Rose. Now that i have some authority to back me up, I will stick with my plan. I didn't realize it went as far back as September--really good to know.

Yes, I need a book to come out now, for more reasons than I could possibly list.
 
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#8 ·
Decon said:
From a legal standpoint, copyright starts from the day of publication.
Copyright starts at the moment a work is set in fixed form, even if it is not published. Copyright and publication date are two different things.

From Copyright.gov

When is my work protected?
Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.
While there is technically nothing to stop you from formally registering your copyright at a future date, there could be legal ramifications down the road if someone decides to plagiarise or outright steal your work. For example, registration of a copyright allows you to sue for damages in the event a work is plagiarised (you can always sue to stop the plagiarized work, but cannot sue for statutory damages or attorney's fees without a registered copyright). But if you released the book in December, but do not formally register the copyright until 2012, any infringements that occur before 2012 would not be covered in terms of statutory losses.
 
#9 ·
Thank you, Julie.

That's an important distinction.

I attended three Publishers Marketing Association Seminars (in Chicago, at the ABA Convention) in the late 90s, but have forgotten most of what I learned!

Though a question still lingers, one that may be purely theoretical: If someone does MISTAKENLY gives a future copyright date to a work, can someone else get away with lifting it whole and publishing it as their own? Would that not be considered theft and plagiarism? Some years back, they used to advise you to mail the manuscript of your book to yourself in a sealed envelope and with a Post Office Certificate of Mailing, and that this would be adequate proof of copyright.

 
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#10 ·
Richardcrasta said:
Though a question still lingers, one that may be purely theoretical: If someone does MISTAKENLY gives a future copyright date to a work, can someone else get away with lifting it whole and publishing it as their own? Would that not be considered theft and plagiarism? Some years back, they used to advise you to mail the manuscript of your book to yourself in a sealed envelope and with a Post Office Certificate of Mailing, and that this would be adequate proof of copyright.
What you are describing is referred to as "the poor man's copyright" and it is a myth insofar as U.S. law is concerned (though I believe it IS recongized in the U.K. but don't hold me to that). The copyright.gov site even states point blank that doing so does NOT provide one bit of copyright protection.

Registration is NOT required for copyright. But it grants you additional protections. If you publish the book in December but don't register the copyright until January, if someone plagiarizes your work in December it is still a violation of copyright law and you can still sue them to cease and desist. The problem is that you would not also be able to sue for additional damages and legal fees.
 
#11 ·
Short answer, no, don't do it.

Longer -- you have to treat it as actual release or publication date for copyright registration purposes. If you want to wait to get a 2012 date, then wait. The only exception is ARC or advance reading copies that go out months before the actual release date, but then they are not supposed to be an actual print run.

I realize that with POD the lines of release are more blurry, but even so you cannot game the system too much, and basically whenever the book enters the global distribution system, is your date. That makes it published and hence publication copyright applies.
 
#12 ·
lotus rose said:
According to The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Marilyn Ross & Sue Collier, it is standard practice that, "When a book will roll off the press anytime after September 1, it is automatically assigned the next year's copyright date." Later on the book says they checked with the copyright office and found it was an acceptable practice.

It stuck with me when I read that, because I'd never known that before.
Oh dear.

That's a mistake. It is not standard practice at all.

Check with the Library of Congress Copyright office.

http://www.copyright.gov/

U.S. Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20559-6000
(202) 707-3000
 
#13 ·
Julie is correct, again. In court the "poor man's" won't get you very far if you are in a USA court. If you are concerned about theft the $35 registration is puny compared to your legal costs in not having one. It's very cheap comparatively! Especially if you check out the costs of federal court etc. Without copyright registration you legal options are fewer.

The "Guide" you read is not...Check with a lawyer or the Copyright office for better guidance.

 
#14 ·
Okay, I did some googling, and came across a thread discussing the issue
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-580661.html
It's titled "What's the deal with post-dated copyrights?"

Some of the posters there state that under current copyright law, a "mistake in the copyright notice" would not make the copyright invalid.

At another online thread

http://answerpot.com/showthread.php?571644-Advice+on+setting+Publishing+Date
someone wrote,

"A more recent copyright date makes the merchandise look fresher to the
buyer (the wholesale buyer, thinking about what it will look like to the
retail buyer). It is standard practice (acknowledged and accepted by the
Library of Congress copyright office) for books released to the street
in the last quarter of the year to have a printed copyright date of the
following year. Registrations cannot be postdated, however, so
publishers register the books in January."
 
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#15 ·
lotus rose said:
"A more recent copyright date makes the merchandise look fresher to the
buyer (the wholesale buyer, thinking about what it will look like to the
retail buyer). It is standard practice (acknowledged and accepted by the
Library of Congress copyright office) for books released to the street
in the last quarter of the year to have a printed copyright date of the
following year. Registrations cannot be postdated, however, so
publishers register the books in January."
As Vera already pointed out, this is wrong. NOWHERE on the Copyright.gov site does it remotely say anything like this. And copyright.gov is one of the more straightforward government sites. Someone simply claiming "I called the Copyright office and they said it was OK" does not amount to anything. Period. If you are publishing in the U.S. the only site that matters is copyright.gov. Anybody can claim anything they want on the internet. Most people are only repeating what they heard someone else say someone else said.
 
#16 ·
Interesting copyright debate aside.  I am more curious to see the data that leads you to believe that four numbers, 2011 or 2012, on the copyright page that no one reads has a tangible effect on your sales.  I don't know where you live, but I have never seen someone walk into a book store, pick up a book and then put it back on the shelf with a sigh because of the copyright date.

Also the people working in the books stores, who buy books wholesale, don't spend time flipping through each book to look at the copyright date to see what books to pulp to make room for new ones.  They have a scanner that tells them if the book has been on the shelf too long or not modified by a database of sales and trend numbers.

Personally I can't imagine a scenario that would cause an indie author to miss out on the December holiday sales rush for an incrementally higher copyright date.
 
#17 ·
Yes, can't believe everything on the internet. I tried pecking around on the copyright.gov site in the FAQ section and could not find an answer, but I didn't look long. In any case, I have some ebooks of my own I want to release soon before Christmas, and I will probably put the 2012 year in the copyright notice just based on my limited knowledge. I'm no lawyer or copyright expert, I admit.

SBJones, you weren't referring to me, but I'll answer. I will soon release ebooks, before Dec 25 or soon after. If I release an ebook December 30, is it unethical to put "copyright 2012"... I put my copyright notice right in front of my ebooks, so they can be seen in the sample. Come June 2012, someone might look at that page and think ~"copyright 2011"? That book's old!~ Some people only want new books. *shrug*~ So I think it does matter. Now, how much it matters? I dunno for sure.
 
#18 ·
" I don't know where you live, but I have never seen someone walk into a book store, pick up a book and then put it back on the shelf with a sigh because of the copyright date."

Well, now you know one. I may have read five books by an author, but none in the last two years, and I see one on the shelf. Is it a new book? Since I am lazy, I flip it open and look at the date. If the copyright is in the last two years, I grab it. If not, I may or may not investigate further. But I definitely have a history of putting it back and not looking further because the book next to it on the shelf might also look interesting. (But I never sigh, and can't say if anyone else has adopted my technique.)
 
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