Under the 1978 US law, a copyright notice must contain the copyright symbol (a lower case letter c completely surrounded by a circle) or its equivalent. The word "copyright" or the abbreviation "Copr." are also accepted in the US, but not in other countries. Works distributed outside the US use the © symbol. The copyright notice must also contain the year in which the work was first published (or created), and the name of the copyright owner, which may be the author (including the legal author/owner of a work made for hire), one or more joint authors, or the person or entity to whom the copyright has been transferred. According to US copyright law the copyright notice must be affixed and positioned to give "reasonable notice of the claim of copyright".