Mystic Page 1186.6 Hack

Don,

In the US, copyright notice is not required as a condition of registration, for works created on or after January 1, 1978. (Between 1909 and 1977, notice was essentially an absolute requirement for protection.) However, if it is used, then an infringer cannot use the defense of "innocent infringement" in a copyright infringement lawsuit. That defense usually results in a lower judgment of damages, if any. Therefore, use of the notice is usually recommended.

Proper notice form is:

Copyright 2016 Jane Doe, Inc.

where "2016" is replaced with the correct year of completion of the work, and "Jane Doe, Inc." is replaced with the name of the copyright owner. Using the incorrect legal entity name, a fake name, a pseudonym, etc., can have negative effect, so this is a time not to hide, and to use the true copyright owner's true name.

The following government circular (6 page PDF) goes into this in more detail.
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf

Chris

apastuszak, just so you know, since your last post raised a particular question that needs individualized legal advice, it is not something I personally will be commenting on in substance. Others may be comfortable doing so.

Chris

I'm not looking for specific legal advice. I'm just looking for an opinion by anyone reading the post.

Not a lawyer but even lawyers do not agree.

Mystic would likely only complain if they felt you were impacting their business. I do not think it is likely unless one created a sizeable work. I am sure Mystic sells the albums without much margin (if any) to feed their main business. In my opinion, the only aspect of the hacked pages that is possibly copyright related is the stamp descriptive section on the backside of each page and using the page numbering Mystic uses. The layout is pretty generic.

If they were to claim copyright issues, I would expect one letter to the SCF telling them what they are posting is a violation and then send another to the poster.

That's why I stopped with 2000. The USPS issued so many se-tenants in the 21st century, that I would actually have to make so many pages that it would take me forever and would probably take up 75% of each supplement.