Publication occurs when copies are distributed to the public by which methods?

• A. Sale, rental, lease, or lending
• B. Posting online publicly
• C. Displaying in a gallery
• D. Sending to a private recipient only

Answer: (A)

Publication in copyright law happens when copies or phonorecords of a work are distributed to the public. That means transferring ownership or control of actual copies to people beyond the author, not just making the work available in some other way. The methods that clearly involve distributing copies to the public are sale, rental, lease, and lending, because each of these transfers copies into public possession.

Posting online publicly isn’t automatically publication in the traditional sense, since it can depend on whether copies are being distributed to the public; simply making a work available online could be treated differently in some contexts. Displaying in a gallery and sending to a private recipient involve public display or private distribution, respectively, but do not constitute distribution of copies to the public in the same way as selling, renting, leasing, or lending copies. That’s why the listed methods of sale, rental, lease, and lending best capture the concept of publication.