What does Copyright mcmxxv and mcmlxxii mean?

Answer 1

Entries in books that read "Copyright MCMXXV", "Copyright MCMLXXII" and the like are given to tell the reader the year in which the item was published in the United States. Under US law in force until about 1976, the right to control who could make a copy of the piece was controlled by the Copyright owner for up to two periods of 28 years each, from the year of publication. That meant that it was important to know when a book or magazine was published if you wanted to reproduce it without paying a fee to the copyright owner and without being take to court. During the 19th and early 20th Century, it was customary to give the year of publication in Roman numerals. This became less common after the middle-20th century. While the copyright law in the US had changed, there are still legal advantages to including copyright statements like this in publications. Roman Numerals such as these are read as follows:

M = 1000

D = 500

C = 100

L = 50

X = 10

V = 5

I = 1

A smaller 'numeral' to the left of a larger one subtracts that amount from the latter ... so LX would be 60, but XL would be 40

So:

MCMXXV = 1925

MCMLXXII = 1972

Answer 2

mcmxxv - 1925 mcmlxxxii - 1982