What's the deal with post-dated copyrights?

Factual Questions
21

nvm. Didn’t realize it was a zombie

22

I so concur with the complainers on this thread. I am TRYING to study for the Windows 10 70-697 exam right now. I bought a book to study, and thought I got the book with the copyright 2017 and it is 2017 right now as I type this. As I was studying, I noticed the material in the book was WAAAY out of date, and Microsoft had changed policies several dozen times. So, I checked the copyright—2018. Wait, WHAT? 2018?? Is this guy a TIME TRAVELER? Maybe we have confirmed the conspiracy theorists… TIME TRAVEL CONFIRMED!!! And yet the data is outdated? There should be some sort of law against creating a book labeling it a year in the future with data that was outdated 3 years ago…

23

LMAO, it is but I still had to put my 2 cents worth in. I should have my post pre-dated to Jan of 2021, no? lol

24

All data is outdated. Why, your post was made more than three hours ago! Who knows how much the world has changed since! You might not even be Twidget anymore. Or at least not twidgeting. :eek:

25
  1. Books take time to produce; the old information was probably correct when the book was written, but changed between that time and the time it was published.
  2. The copyright is for the entire work. Some sections of it have been updated, but those sections were not. Often in textbooks, they make minor changes for each edition (sometimes without the author’s knowledge) and copyright the entire book.
  3. Sometimes books are available before their official publication date. The date is chosen as part of the production process using the schedule given to the printers.
  4. Likely the book was supposed to be out in 2018, but they decided to get it into print sooner for the fall 2017 school year. Instead of making the changes, they printed the file they already had. It makes no difference as far a copyright protection is concerned.
26

Yes. I’m not an expert on American publishing, but the cover date on American magazines has long been the ‘use-by’ date, and it looks like the same is true of other dated texts: If it’s dated 2018, that means the publisher hopes to keep selling it up to 2018.

27

I remember in 6th grade (maybe even earlier?) getting a math textbook that was copyright the next year. I’m now in my 30s. It’s not a new practice. Nor was it when this thread was started.