few question about copyright & ISBN. Please respond!
- May 5, 2009 @ 1:35amotaku3230 says:1: if i get an ISBN # does it get automatically registered on the ISBN search engine without assigning to a book so the public can search for it. If so, does the public information also include when was the ISBN created like what year? If not, if i do assign to a book without publishing the book can the public still can find my book by searching my ISBN #?
2: when i register for a copyright work for a book, is the date included for the public to see when i applied for it to if the search it or when the process is completed after i recieve the copyright certification?
3: what date gets published for the public to see when the book gets copyrighted when i register my work: the day i applied or when the application is finished? I want to know because i want to know what date will show on the copyright page; the date i registered or the date after the completion of the whole copyright work?
Please answer when ever you can! thank you very much :) - May 5, 2009 @ 6:59pmotaku3230 says:can anyone please answer any question you are able to do so. It is very important to our community!!! thank you in advance!!
- May 6, 2009 @ 6:23amksmith says:I do not know the answers to your specific questions, but I can tell you that for the most part, these dates do not matter. Under US law, copyright protection begins as soon as a work is fixed in tangible form. No registration or notice (part of the information on a title page) is necessary, since protection begins in all cases prior to actual publication. Nor do these dates matter as to the length of protection, which is measured by the life of the author, plus 70 years. Where there is no identifiable author, the term of protection is 95 years from creation of the work. Again, neither the date of registration nor the conditions of publication makes any difference.
The one place where registration is necessary is before a lawsuit alleging infringement can be filed. Registration can happen at any point before filing a lawsuit. The date of registration only matters, however, in terms of what damages will be available. For a copyright holder to receive statutory (as opposed to actual) damages, registration must occur "within three months of the first publication of the work." Statutory damages are also available for infringement of an unpublished work if the copyright was registered before the infringement began. These rules are found in section 412 of the US copyright law (Title 17 of the US Code) and the phrase used is "the effective date of registration." Federal regulations establish that this date is when all the materials necessary to process an application for registration have been received by the Copyright Office; that is, when the filing is complete, not when the registration certificate is issued.
But please remember that the date of registration only matters in determining what damages are available for infringement, and registration is only required if you are going to sue someone for infringing your work. Neither publication nor registration is a prerequisite to protection, and neither action has any impact on the length of protection. - May 11, 2009 @ 1:05pmJanetCroft says:ISBN assignment is a separate process from copyright. Getting the Cataloging-in-Print (CIP) information from the Library of Congress is a separate process as well. You want to get the ISBN before you send the files off to LC for the CIP. Once LC has done the CIP, the item should be searchable in WorldCat by ISBN; how long before Amazon and other booksellers get it, I don't know. The date that goes on the copyright page is the date YOU put on it. So, from my experience working with a small publisher, I'd say if you are sending your files to LC in November and don't expect to actually print till January, you want to put in the next year.
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