The copyright notice

It is advisable for all publications to carry a copyright notice in one of the following forms:

Copyright - the symbol c encircled - year of publication - by - name of copyright holder: e.g. Copyright 2007 by The Publishers Association Ltd Copyright - the symbol c encircled - name of copyright holder - year of publication: e.g. Copyright The Publishers Association Ltd 2007.

This notice most frequently appears on the reverse of the title-page in a book or, if this is not available for any reason, in another prominent position. The copyright notice does not, under normal circumstances, change at any time and should continue to be printed with the same date of first publication anywhere in the world in all editions of a book as long as it remains in copyright. Thus a book first published in the USA in one year and in the UK the next retains the date of the US publication in the copyright notice. The only current exception is when a substantially revised edition of a book is published, in which case it may be legitimate to amend the copyright notice to say 'Copyright c in this revised edition by...'

Copyright term and ownership

Copyright exists in an original work from the moment it is crated, until 70 years after the death of the author.The copyright notice serves as information regarding the copyright holder and a warning that copyright exists. It is most commonly vested in the author, unless the work is a publication written by employees of an organisation in the course of their work or is a compilation of various authors' work; in which case it is additionally possible for separate parts of the work to be the copyright of the individual authors whilst the publisher retains the copyright in the compilation volume. Since 1996 the term of copyright in the UK has been brought into line with other states in the European Union and extended from 50 years to 70 years after the end of the year in which the author died, or, in the case of copyright held by the company or institution, after the end of the year of publication. At the expiry of this period, any publisher may freely issue editions of the works in question without further consultation and without payment.

Additional safeguards
Copying Many publishers also print a notice covering illegal photocopying on the title-verso of their publications, thus: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

Publishers Association, 29B Montague Street, London WC1B 5BW Tel: +44 (0)207 691 9191 Fax: +44 (0)207 691 9199, Email: mail@publishers.org.uk, Website: www.publishers.org.uk

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Binding style Publishers of paperbacks customarily print on the title-verso of their books the following additional warning (though for commercial rather than strictly copyright reasons): This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Typography Copyright in the printed edition of a book exists for 25 years from the end of the year of publication in that edition or page layout. Within that period no book may be reproduced and reprinted without the payment of a fee to the creator of that edition (normally the publisher of the edition in question).

Publishers Association, 29B Montague Street, London WC1B 5BW Tel: +44 (0)207 691 9191 Fax: +44 (0)207 691 9199, Email: mail@publishers.org.uk, Website: www.publishers.org.uk