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I frequently come across this expression in technical writing:

This document is copyright (c) 2012 XYZ Company Inc.

Is that a correct/acceptable way to express it? "This document is copyright..." sounds very weird to me.

Do the copyright laws of the UK or US perhaps mandate or necessitate a wording such as this?

EDIT

It has been suggested to close this question because it is a legal question, not a usage question. So I feel I need to clarify:

This is meant to be a question about English usage. The core of my question is the words, "Is that a correct/acceptable way to express it?", by which I mean "correct and acceptable English usage." My last sentence is merely meant as a possible guess as to the reason for a possibly strange usage.

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  • Hello, oz1cz. Can you explain exactly why it sounds so weird? More importantly, have you checked in say a dictionary whether there are examples of 'copyright' used as a predicative adjective?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    May 15, 2018 at 11:31
  • It is more correct to say 'this document has been copyrighted', I would say.
    – Nigel J
    May 15, 2018 at 11:37
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    @EdwinAshworth: Merriam Webster does give the meaning, "not allowed to be copied without permission from the author". However, as jc correctly states, following it by a year and an company still makes it weird.
    – oz1cz
    May 15, 2018 at 11:50
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is a legal question, not one of EL & U. As such any answer would depend on the legal juristriction.
    – David
    May 15, 2018 at 18:43
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    @David, my intention was to ask a question about English usage. And my words "Is that a correct/acceptable way to express it?" is intended to reflect that desire. The last sentence is meant to be a possible guess as to the reason for a possibly strange usage. I'll update the question accordingly.
    – oz1cz
    May 16, 2018 at 19:41

1 Answer 1

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You can start a campaign in support of "has been copyrighted" if you like. But I think it has already been lost.

image

LINK

Perhaps the graphs suggest something caused this wording to increase around 1940?

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  • That's a very interesting graph, @GEdgar. Thank you. You're right; it's probably a lost cause.
    – oz1cz
    May 15, 2018 at 11:55
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    You didn't look at the hits. Very few match the OP's context.
    – Hot Licks
    May 15, 2018 at 12:03

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