Why do studios use Roman numerals in the copyright notice in the end credits?
© Time Warner Studios MCMXCVIII
Something like this is almost always used at the very end of the credits creep in movies (and TV shows). But why the cumbersome use of Roman numerals? Why not just say 1998 and be done with it?
Best Answer
According to David Feldman's book Imponderables: The Solution to the Mysteries of Everyday Life:
Why are copyrighted dates on movies and television shows written in Roman numerals?
The general consensus is the "deception theory":
- to "make it difficult for viewers to determine exactly how old the show is", the reason being the older the date the "staler" the material may seem to the audience.
Then there's the "inertia theory":
- That's just the way it's always been done.
This BBC article says something similar:
Perhaps one of the most notable areas where people are likely to come across Roman numerals is in TV and film credits, where the convention is not to spell out what year something was made.
The practice is believed to have started in an attempt to disguise the age of films or television programmes. In other words, the opposite of claiming an undeserved antiquity.
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Why are Roman numerals used in copyrights?
Why are copyright dates on films and tv programmes always given in Roman numerals? Because most of the audience (unlike Guardian readers of course) will be unable to read them and so will not realise that the film is so old.When did they stop using Roman numerals in movies?
None of these films lived up to the originals at the box office, though, and it wasn't until Rocky II (1979) and the Star Wars sequels (beginning with Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980) that Roman numerals really took off.What does the Roman numeral on IMDb mean?
It's the same meaning, that there are two or more films with the same title in the same year. There are, in fact, at least four 2012 movies in the database with the title Flight. For some reason IMDb has begun to display the roman numeral to differentiate the films in a different format.What is the Roman numeral of 2022?
2022 in Roman Numerals is MMXXII.MS Word - Cover page, TOC / Roman Numerals and normal page numbering by Chris Menard
More answers regarding why do studios use Roman numerals in the copyright notice in the end credits?
Answer 2
Readability and Internationalization
Movies are mostly produced on reels of film (few are digital). Physical film can degrade over time making it difficult to read numeric values. Some numbers will look exactly the same, for example the number 6 will become 5 when the film becomes old. Where as, roman numerals are easier to read when the film degrades. A lot of television shows are also shot with film.
The other problem is languages. Arabic numbers are hard to distinguish in fine print. Two and three look very similar. So the film industry started using roman numerals to ensure the copyright date was always readable.
Answer 3
It's quite often done in order to hide in which year it was created. This way people may think it's older or younger than it actually is.
And as stated above in a previous answer Arabic numbers are hard to distinguish in fine print.
Source: Roman numerals
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