RE: Re: Delivery for further distribution = publication

Steve -  

Thanks for your reply, and for your request for clarification..  

The purpose of my question was to allow me to assist authors in making the determination as to whether or not their work has been published under the stated circumstances: the work has been delivered to a client who will then further distribute the work. The hypothetical presented is not related to any existing matter.  

While I agree that this determination is relatively less important in the post-'78 era, the accurate determination of the publication status of a work remains critically important to US authors today. In registering a work with the copyright office, an author must register the work as either published or unpublished. An author's ability to later seek statutory damages and attorneys fees in the event of an infringement is very often directly dependent upon the strength of the registration, which is determined in part by the accuracy of the information presented on the registration --- most especially the determination as to whether or not the work has been published at or prior to the time of registration.  

Steve Jamar wrote:

>When did this all take place?

<<< for the purposes of this hypothetical, assume post 1978  

Is there a license or contract involved?

<<< Assume that the photographer has licensed non-exclusive limited reproduction rights defining the scope of the client's right to exploit the work.  

To repeat the question more concisely:  

If the work is delivered to a client for the purpose of further distribution under license, is that work published upon delivery to the client under either of the below scenarios:  

(a) the work is then re-distributed by the client in essentially the same state as delivered by the author

or

(b) the work is not re-distributed in the same state received, but is reproduced in an advertisement (cropped, retouched, type added, grouped with other photographs, etc.) and then published in magazines.  

Thanks in advance

Jeff S_e_d_l_i_k   Received on Fri May 21 2004 - 17:05:13 GMT