https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/10149/why-do-studios-use-roman-numerals-in-the-copyright-notice-in-the-end-credits Stack Exchange Network Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Visit Stack Exchange [ ] Loading... 1. + Tour Start here for a quick overview of the site + Help Center Detailed answers to any questions you might have + Meta Discuss the workings and policies of this site + About Us Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. 2. 3. current community + Movies & TV help chat + Movies & TV Meta your communities Sign up or log in to customize your list. more stack exchange communities company blog 4. 5. Log in 6. Sign up Movies & TV Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for movie and TV enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up. Sign up to join this community [ano] Anybody can ask a question [ano] Anybody can answer [an] The best answers are voted up and rise to the top Movies & TV 1. Home 2. 1. Public 2. Questions 3. Tags 4. Users 5. Unanswered 3. Teams Stack Overflow for Teams - Start collaborating and sharing organizational knowledge. [teams-illo-free-si] Create a free Team Why Teams? 4. Teams 5. Create free Team Teams Q&A for work Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Learn more about Teams Why do studios use Roman numerals in the copyright notice in the end credits? Ask Question Asked 10 years, 2 months ago Modified 7 years, 7 months ago Viewed 53k times 62 (c) 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? * credits * copyright Share Improve this question Follow edited Sep 25, 2013 at 23:14 Xavier Casto's user avatar Xavier Casto 36622 silver badges99 bronze badges asked Feb 21, 2013 at 19:38 System Down's user avatar System DownSystem Down 32k1111 gold badges127127 silver badges172172 bronze badges Add a comment | 3 Answers 3 Sorted by: Reset to default [Highest score (default) ] 54 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": o 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": o 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. Share Improve this answer Follow edited Nov 20, 2013 at 9:04 Avner Shahar-Kashtan's user avatar Avner Shahar-Kashtan 3,05011 gold badge1818 silver badges1919 bronze badges answered Feb 21, 2013 at 20:27 Oliver_C's user avatar Oliver_COliver_C 50.3k1515 gold badges188188 silver badges240240 bronze badges 3 * It's been a lot easier since 2000 (MM) but it gets (relatively) more difficult every year thereafter. - Michael Itzoe Mar 24, 2015 at 18:16 * I second the inertia argument. I just watched a football game. At the very end, there was a copyright notice of MMXV. Clearly, this was a live production of today. There is no value in masking the age of a football broadcast. - rosends Dec 13, 2015 at 21:05 * This is just pure speculation by Feldman and the BBC with no sources given. Were old books that also used Roman numerals for their year of publication also trying to trick their readers? Is the NFL trying to trick its viewers with Superbowl "LVII"? Is Rockstar Games trying to trick its players with Grand Theft Auto "V"? - user24096 Feb 13 at 6:46 Add a comment | 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. enter image description here Share Improve this answer Follow answered Feb 21, 2013 at 20:56 Reactgular's user avatar ReactgularReactgular 12.2k99 gold badges5858 silver badges100100 bronze badges 6 * 14 Can you provide any sources for this? - Steve Melnikoff Feb 22, 2013 at 10:53 * 1 This is hard to reconcile with the rest of the titles and credits being written with Roman letters. Besides, the industry is rapidly shifting to digital capture. In a few years, practically no movie will be shot on film. - wallyk Sep 26, 2013 at 5:29 * 2 Many modern digital movies are stored for long term on film, (salt mine in Kansas) because video formats keep changing. 50 video formats since the late 80s! Film lasts longer than video isn't that wild? So title degradation is still an issue even for modern films. - user6816 Nov 19, 2013 at 18:48 * 3 What is the purpose of including the image of Arabic-Indic numerals? In your answer, you state "Arabic numbers are hard to distinguish in fine print. Two and three look very similar." which is very true for Arabic-Indic numerals, but not for "Arabic" (Hindu-Arabic) numerals. I have never seen a movie made in countries that use Roman-style alphabets that used Arabic-Indic numerals. They either used Hindu-Arabic or, perhaps more commonly, Roman numerals. - Dennis Williamson Oct 22, 2014 at 20:48 * I have to second wallyk. In the context of 'everything else' this seems like a fairly implausible reason for just the copyright date to be written out in Roman Numerals. - DA. Sep 21, 2015 at 21:39 | Show 1 more comment 0 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 Share Improve this answer Follow answered Dec 18, 2013 at 11:35 Ben Davies's user avatar Ben DaviesBen Davies 911 bronze badge 1 * 5 Both of these reasons are already stated above. - coleopterist Dec 19, 2013 at 16:10 Add a comment | You must log in to answer this question. Highly active question. Earn 10 reputation (not counting the association bonus) in order to answer this question. The reputation requirement helps protect this question from spam and non-answer activity. Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged * credits * copyright . * Featured on Meta * New blog post from our CEO Prashanth: Community is the future of AI * Improving the copy in the close modal and post notices - 2023 edition Linked 0 Did I Love Lucy and perhaps none of the 1950s or 1960s sitcoms never mention the current year? 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