Wikidata:Property proposal/copyright registration

US copyright registration ID

Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Authority control

   Done: copyright registration (P9976) (Talk and documentation)

Description	ID assigned by the US copyright office recording the registration of copyright for a creative work, or the renewal of such a copyright
Represents	copyright registration (Q5169284)
Data type	External identifier
Template parameter	copyright registration
Domain	item, subclasses of creative work (Q17537576), plus some instances of version, edition or translation (Q3331189)
Allowed values	[A-Z][A-Za-z. ]*[\d-]+\d
Example 1	copyright renewal (Q108896873) → A15797 (object has role (P3831) → copyright registration (Q5169284))
Example 2	copyright renewal (Q108896873) → no value (object has role (P3831) → copyright renewal (Q108896873))
Example 3	Prelude to a Million Years (Q108896902) → A68499 (object has role (P3831) → copyright registration (Q5169284))
Example 4	Prelude to a Million Years (Q108896902) → R273092 object has role (P3831) → copyright renewal (Q108896873))
Planned use	use for recording renewal information currently captured in s:en:Template:Copyright-until
Number of IDs in source	100s of thousands
Expected completeness	eventually complete (Q21873974) (in that copyright IDs are no longer being issued as copyright in the US is automatic now)

Motivation

WikiProject Books has more than 50 participants and couldn't be pinged. Please post on the WikiProject's talk page instead.: Works published in the US after 1926 and before 1963 has to be registered and renewed to retain copyright. This means the presence of a registration (which has a unique ID) is what determines if many works are in the PD or not. See more details at s:en:Help:Copyright renewals.

The prefix of the ID determines the type of work (e.g. A = book, E = music) and R means "renewal".

Sometimes a renewal or registration only covers part of a work (e.g. just the preface in a certain edition). So in that case, a qualifier of applies to part (P518) probably makes sense. A date qualifier for each should usually be present.

I am not sure if there should be a separate property for renewal, or if a qualifier of object has role (P3831) is better.

This will assist with automating and processing copyright information at Wikisource. Inductiveload (talk) 20:57, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Relevant property that could be used as a qualifier on this property: Wikidata:Property_proposal/relevant_date_for_copyright

Discussion

•  Comment can you add a text in the "description" field of the property proposal explaining the information it's meant to include? --- Jura 21:18, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

•  Done Inductiveload (talk) 21:23, 20 August 2021 (UTC)
  • Thanks. If the identifier is indeed unique and this is limited to the US, the datatype should be external-id and a label "US copyright registration ID" would work better. --- Jura 21:32, 20 August 2021 (UTC)
    •  Done (though I haven't moved the page) Inductiveload (talk) 21:34, 20 August 2021 (UTC)
  • Looks good. Moving the page isn't needed. --- Jura 21:37, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

See [1] for formatting, the prefix also indicates if the work was registered as published or unpublished. Jarnsax (talk) 15:21, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

@Jarnsax: and the other file you showed me: https://www.copyright.gov/historic-records/admin-classification.pdf for a description of the historical formats, so the format is something much more complex.

And the actual formatting as printed in the Catalog of Copyright Entries is variable: phab:F34641030 says Class A, XXc, no. 232831, but by that guide PDF, it is also written more like A xxc 232831. So I changed the format to [A-Z][A-Za-z. ]*[\d-]+\d which should cover most variants.

There is still apparently no universal service for looking these up (LoC has post-1978 numbers at cocatalog above, Stanford has book renewals), so I'm not sure about the formatter URL. Inductiveload (talk) 18:55, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

@User:Inductiveload It's probably worth pointing out that the Standford db is explicitly not reliable (it's based on an unchecked transcription). It's only meant to serve as a finding aid, and errors are rampant. Jarnsax (talk) 19:06, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

 Support, long-needed functionality. PseudoSkull (talk) 11:21, 13 September 2021 (UTC)

 Support but the proposed formatter URL should be entered instead as a third-party formatter - it's not the official one, and as noted it doesn't work for original id's. ArthurPSmith (talk) 17:26, 13 September 2021 (UTC)

@ArthurPSmith: Happy to, but how does one enter it as a third-party formatter? Inductiveload (talk) 11:50, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Just use third-party formatter URL (P3303) on the property page after it is created. ArthurPSmith (talk) 16:49, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Ah right, thanks! I removed it from the proposal. Inductiveload (talk) 16:20, 15 September 2021 (UTC)

 Support, data can be added from enWS. - ei (talk) 18:17, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

•  Done @Inductiveload, Jura1, Jarnsax, PseudoSkull, ArthurPSmith, Einstein95: created as copyright registration (P9976). Enjoy! --99of9 (talk) 12:16, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

  @99of9 thank you, very much appreciated! Inductiveload (talk) 19:51, 14 October 2021 (UTC)