"November 19, 1974" is what is written on the "Date of Publication of This Issue" line in Copyright "Form B" (for periodicals) used at the time. The form then states "The copyright law defines the 'date of publication' as '. . . the earliest date when copies . . . were placed on sale, sold or publicly distributed." The form is then signed pursuant to 17 U.S.C. sec. 506(e), which provided for a substantial fine in the event that any false representation was made on the form.
There is no reason to doubt the date of publication in the notice. In fact, there is every reason to believe it is correct. In the magazine business it is a routine business practice to have actual publication occur months prior to the "cover date" the publisher places on the magazine. The reason for this is so that the magazines could remain on the newsstands for at least a few months without appearing to be stale. This is particularly the case with magazines published on a monthly cadence. Just as a check, I looked up the publication date of the January 1975 issue of Playboy. According to the copyright registration, it was November 20, 1974. > Date: Mon, 6 May 2024 01:27:28 +0000 (UTC) > From: ED SHARPE <couryho...@aol.com> > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Altair 8800 50th birthday... > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > Cc: Sellam Abraham <sellam.ism...@gmail.com> > Message-ID: <1726519925.3966543.1714958848...@mail.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Perhaps After doing the layout work in the November it was perhaps > copyrighted Immediately during layout But it did not ship Until January > Think! back in those days things did not instantly happen and we're instantly > shipped Ed# > > Sent from AOL on Android > > On Fri, May 3, 2024 at 7:09 AM, Sellam Abraham via > cctalk<cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: On Fri, May 3, 2024, 1:28 AM Smith, > Wayne via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > > I looked up the Jan. 1975 issue of Popular Electronics in the > > Copyright Office's Periodicals Digest. It was published on Nov. 19, > > 1974 if you are looking for an actual anniversary date. > > > > The January issue was certainly not available in November of 1974. > > When did it actually get sent out and start showing up in people's mailboxes? > > Sellam >
