OoP is still an unpublished work (WAS: Getting UK versions if you are in the US)

[heiditandy]

Does this count as replying to myself? 

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Phyllis" 
<erisedstraeh2002 at y...> wrote:

> I stand corrected - according to our very own Heidi Tandy on the 
> Leaky Cauldron: "Order of the Phoenix is, at this point in time, 
> still an unpublished work under copyright law definitions" (see: 
> http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/).
> 
> Thanks, Heidi!

And for those of you who can't get enough legalese, here's what the 
Copyright Office in the US says about publication:

The 1976 Copyright Act defines publication as follows:

"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. The offering to distribute copies or 
phonorecords to a group of persons 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.

A further discussion of the definition of "publication" can be found 
in the legislative history of the 1976 Copyright Act. The 
legislative reports define "to the public" as ***distribution to 
persons under no explicit or implicit restrictions with respect to 
disclosure of the contents.***

Here, there is clearly a restriction on the disclosure of the 
contents, so there is no publication as of yet. 

However, as of 7pm Eastern Time tomorrow, it will be *very* 
difficult for Scholastic to continue to argue that the work is 
unpublished, as it will be deemed published in the UK and every 
country to the east of the UK. 

But that's just me drawing a line with legalese - it won't be 
published in the US yet, but depending on what Scholastic wrote in 
their complaint, the UK publication might make the work published 
worldwide - but as I haven't seen it yet, I don't really know. 

> ~Phyllis
> who marvels at how Heidi can be so productive with a newborn!

I have a blackberry ;) and Jon is sleeping right now, too... 

No, really - I do this kind of thing for a living, so it took me 
about 12 minutes this morning to type up the summary, and only about 
4 minutes to type up this. I pulled cites, using google, of course, 
but it's not like I had to research anything to write this...


heidi