Publication is the act of transferring the ownership of private intellectual property to the general public.

Copyright is a grant of a time limited monopoly on reproduction of intellectual property to the private owner in exchange for its publication.

This monopoly is at odds with the public’s ownership of this IP and freedom from restraint to enjoy its own property, including the production of derivative works thereof.

This is exacerbated by the extension of the term of this monopoly from a couple of decades to a couple of centuries.

It is time for the true and original definition of publication to be reasserted:

Publication is the act of transferring the ownership of private intellectual property to the general public, without encumbrance, let or hindrance.

That includes ‘without grant of monopoly over its reproduction’.

This does not conflict with privacy or truth.