Publication

[1][2] While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content, including paper (newspapers, magazines, catalogs, etc.).

to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of people outside a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times.The US Copyright Office provides further guidance in Circular 40, which states:[4] When the work is reproduced in multiple copies, such as in reproductions of a painting or castings of a statue, the work is published when the reproductions are publicly distributed or offered to a group for further distribution or public display.Generally, the right to publish a work is an exclusive right of copyright owner (17 USC 106), and violating this right (e.g. by disseminating copies of the work without the copyright owner's consent) is a copyright infringement (17 USC 501(a)), and the copyright owner can demand (by suing in court) that e.g. copies distributed against their will be confiscated and destroyed (17 USC 502, 17 USC 503).

Exceptions and limitations are written into copyright law, however; for example, the exclusive rights of the copyright owner eventually expire, and even when in force, they do not extend to publications covered by fair use or certain types of uses by libraries and educational institutions.

[5] Australia and the UK (as the U.S.) do not have this exception and generally require the distribution of copies necessary for publication.

[6][7] In biological classification (taxonomy), the publication of the description of a taxon has to comply with some rules.

[9] Common bibliographic software specifications such as BibTeX and Citation Style Language also list types of publications,[10][11] as do various standards for library cataloging.