Notice on unpublished excerpt

A fellow writer has posed a question about copyright notice wording, and I'm hoping that one of the legal authorities on this list will have the answer.

An individual ("The Heir") has received an inheritance, including an unpublished memoir, from a grandparent. The Heir, a writer, plans eventually to edit the memoir and see to its publication. (The grandparent was not a writer but was prominent in another field and in fact had published two volumes of memoirs; this will be the third.)

Meanwhile, another writer ("The Author") has become aware of the content of the memoir and wishes to include a short excerpt in a work now in progress. The Heir is agreeable to this but wishes to require, among other conditions, that the excerpt be accompanied by a copyright notice.

Yes, The Heir is aware that it's not required but wishes it to appear nevertheless. No, the memoir has not been registered with the Copyright Office.

Title 17 specifies that the notice, if used, must include the name of the copyright owner (that would be The Heir, not the grandparent, yes?) and the "year of first publication"--but this material has not been published. I can't find instructions applying to unpublished materials. What year should be used? The year of the grandparent's death? Or the year that The Author's work, containing this brief excerpt from the unpublished work, appears?

Or should The Heir rush to register the full memoir and use THIS year?

--DS Received on Mon Feb 27 2006 - 22:30:00 GMT