Publication

This article is about the definition of the termspublishandpublicationin copyright law. For more general discussion, seePublishing.

Topublishis to makecontentavailable to thegeneral public.While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied totext,images, or otheraudio-visualcontent, including paper (newspapers,magazines,catalogs,etc.).Publicationmeans the act ofpublishing,and also any copies issued for public distribution.

Aprinting presscan be used for theprintingofcreative worksfor publication.

Legal definition and copyright

Publicationis atechnical termin legal contexts and especially important incopyright legislation.An author of a work generally is the initial owner of thecopyrighton the work. One of the copyrights granted to the author of a work is the exclusive right to publish the work.

Indonesia

InIndonesia,publication is defined as:

any reading, broadcasting, exhibition of works using any means, either electronically or nonelectronically, or performing in any way so that works can be read, heard, or seen by others.

—Article 1, Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 28 of 2014

United States

In theUnited States,publication is defined as:

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. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of people for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.

To perform or display a work "publicly" means –

(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of people outside a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or

(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times.

—17 USC 101

TheUS Copyright Officeprovides further guidance in Circular 40, which states:

When the work is reproduced in multiple copies, such as in reproductions of a painting or castings of a statue, the work is published when the reproductions are publicly distributed or offered to a group for further distribution or public display.

Generally, the right to publish a work is an exclusive right of copyright owner (17 USC 106), and violating this right (e.g. by disseminating copies of the work without the copyright owner's consent) is acopyright infringement(17 USC 501(a)), and the copyright owner can demand (by suing in court) that e.g. copies distributed against their will be confiscated and destroyed (17 USC 502, 17 USC 503). Exceptions and limitations are written into copyright law, however; for example, the exclusive rights of the copyright owner eventually expire, and even when in force, they do not extend to publications covered byfair useor certain types of uses by libraries and educational institutions.

The definition of "publication" as "distribution of copies to the general public with the consent of the author" is also supported by theBerne Convention,which makes mention of "copies" in article 3(3), where "published works" are defined.In the Universal Copyright Convention, "publication" is defined in article VI as "the reproduction in tangible form and the general distribution to the public of copies of a work from which it can be read or otherwise visually perceived."Many countries around the world follow this definition, although some make some exceptions for particular kinds of works. In Germany, §6 of theUrheberrechtsgesetzadditionally considers works of the visual arts (such as sculptures) "published" if they have been made permanently accessible by the general public (i.e., erecting a sculpture on public grounds is publication in Germany).Australia and the UK (as the U.S.) do not have this exception and generally require the distribution of copies necessary for publication. In the case of sculptures, the copies must be even three-dimensional.

Biological classification

Inbiological classification(taxonomy), thepublicationof the description of ataxonhas to comply with some rules. The definition of the "publication" is defined innomenclature codes.Traditionally there were the following rules:

• The publication must be generally available.
• The date of publication is the date the published material became generally available.

Electronic publicationwith some restrictions is permitted for publication of scientific names of fungi since 1 January 2013.

Types

Material types

There are many material types of publication, some of which are:

• Bookorcodex:a medium for recordinginformationin the form ofwritingorimages,typically composed of manypagesboundtogether and protected by acover.
• Booklet:a leaflet of more than one sheet of paper, usually attached in the style of a book.
• Broadside:a large single sheet of paper printed on one side, designed to be plastered onto walls, produced from the 16th to 19th centuries, obsolete with the development of newspapers and cheap novels.
• Flyeror handbill: a small sheet of paper printed on one side, designed to be handed out free.
• Leaflet:a single sheet of paper printed on both sides and folded.
• Pamphlet:an unbound book.

Electronic publishing

Main article:Electronic publishing

Modern computing and networking have revolutionized publishing.

Aserver rackdelivers data to online inquiries.

Electronic publishing (also referred to as e-publishing or digital publishing) includes the digital publication ofwebsites,webpages,e-books,digital editionsofperiodical publications,and the development ofdigital libraries.It is now common to distribute books, magazines, and newspapers to consumersonline.Publications may also be published onelectronic mediasuch asCD-ROMs.

Content types

Types of publication can also be distinguished by content, for example:

• Brochure:an informative document made for advertising products or services, usually in the form of a pamphlet or leaflet.
• Bulletin:information written in short on a flyer or inside another publication for public viewing, or a brief message or announcement broadcast to a wide audience by way of television, radio, or internet.
• Journal:aperiodical publicationin which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published.
• Magazine:a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content.
• Monograph:a long research publication written by one person.
• Newsletter:a bulletin, leaflet, pamphlet, or newspaper distributed to a specific audience.
• Newspaper:a periodical publication of several pages printed with news, sports, information, and advertising, and which may be published and distributed daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.
• Tract:a religious or political argument written by one person and designed to be distributed free, usually in the form of a booklet or pamphlet, but sometimes longer.

Type standards

See also:BibTeX § Entry types,BIBFRAME § Specific formats,andISO 690

ISO 690,a set of guidelines for bibliographic references and citations to information resources, defines apublicationas a "message or document offered for general distribution or sale and usually produced in multiple copies", and lists types of publications including monographs and their components andserialsand their components.Commonbibliographic softwarespecificationssuch asBibTeXandCitation Style Languagealso list types of publications,as do various standards forlibrary cataloging.For example,RDA,a cataloging standard adopted by theLibrary of Congressin 2013 and by some other national libraries, differentiates betweencontent types,media types,andcarrier typesof information resources.

Unpublished works

See also:Category:Unreleased works by mediumandList of unpublished musical compositions

A work that has not undergone publication, and thus is not generally available to the public, or forcitationin scholarly or legal contexts, is called anunpublished work.In some cases unpublished works are widely cited, or circulated via informal means.Anauthorwho has not yet published a work may also be referred to as being unpublished.

The status of being unpublished has specific significance in the legal context, where it may refer to thenon-publication of legal opinions in the United States.

External links

• RayMing Chang, "Publication Does Not Really Mean Publication: The Need to Amend the Definition of Publication in the Copyright Act", 33AM. INTELL. PROP. L. ASS'N Q.J.225:This article analyzes the definition of publication in the USCopyright Act of 1976and finds strong support for the proposition that electronic dissemination (e.g., "Internet publishing" ) of works does not result in publication under American copyright law. This article argues that the definition of publication needs to be amended to explicitly include electronic dissemination.