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Anonymous works are works, such as
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
or
literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, that have an anonymous, undisclosed, or unknown creator or author. In the case of very old works, the author's name may simply be lost over the course of history and time. There are a number of reasons anonymous works arise.


Description

In the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, anonymous work is legally defined as "a work on the copies or
phonorecord A phonorecord is defined by the United States Copyright Act of 1976 to be a material object that embodies sounds (other than those accompanying audio-visual recordings such as movies). From the Copyright Act: “Phonorecords” are material objec ...
s of which no
natural person In jurisprudence, a natural person (also physical person in some Commonwealth countries, or natural entity) is a person (in legal meaning, i.e., one who has its own legal personality) that is an individual human being, distinguished from the bro ...
is identified as
author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
."


Explanations

In the case of very old works, the author's name may simply be lost over the course of history and time. In such cases the author is often referred to as
Anonymus Anonymus is the Latin spelling of anonymous, traditionally used by scholars in the humanities for any ancient writer whose name is not known, or to a manuscript of their work. Such writers have left valuable historical or literary records through ...
, the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
form of "anonymous". In other cases, the creator's name is intentionally kept secret. The author's reasons may vary from fear of
persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...
to protection of his or her reputation. Legal reasons may also bar an author from self-identifying. An author may also wish to remain anonymous to avoid becoming famous for their work.


See also

*
Anonymous post An anonymous post, is an entry on a textboard, anonymous bulletin board system, or other discussion forums like Internet forum, without a screen name or more commonly by using a non-identifiable pseudonym. Some online forums such as Slashdot do n ...
*
List of anonymously published works Throughout the history of literature, since the creation of bound texts in the forms of books and codices, various works have been published and written anonymously, often due to their political or controversial nature, or merely for the purpose ...
*
List of works published under a pseudonym This is a list of books published under a pseudonym. Works published under a pseudonym *''Ali and Nino'' published in the German language in 1937 by E.P. Tal in Vienna under the pseudonym Kurban Said, now known to be written by core author Yusif ...
*
List of anonymous masters In art history, an anonymous master is an Old Master whose work is known, but whose name is lost. Renaissance Only in the Renaissance did individual artists in Western Europe acquire personalities known by their peers (some listed by Vasari in hi ...
*
Notname In art history, a ''Notname'' (, "necessity-name" or "contingency-name") is an invented name given to an artist whose identity has been lost. The practice arose from the need to give such artists and their typically untitled, or generically title ...


References

Intellectual property law Literature Publishing {{law-term-stub