It can't be a copyright date. Copyright goes into effect approximately the month (or within the next couple of months) that the US Copyright Office receives the item you have sent to them to file. I've filed a few times and there's no option to choose your filing date (plus, you'd want it to be as early as possible, to protect your item/manuscript). It's decided based on how busy and swamped they are, but it wouldn't be several years in the future...maybe a few months at most. A company would think ahead and not release something until the copyright was secure. It also couldn't be for what the copyright is good until, because a copyright is valid for 50 years after the death of the claimant who filed it.

But then I wonder why sometimes books say "copyright ____" and it's the following year! I've noticed that with AG books before. I guess maybe they don't know when the copyright will be official, and print the books before they get the copyright notice back (?). That really confuses me!

Could it have something to do with trademark or patent? I don't know ANYthing about trademarks, but they're more difficult to file and can take a few years to get approved. That's why so many items say things like "patent pending." [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

<font color="#41356F" size="1">[ May 03, 2004 11:28 AM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>