Glossary term
Publisher line
Definition
Classroom English for staying impersonal, bona fide, and regular. One book for every student. Not legal advice; counsel still classifies a live product.
How it works
The publisher line is classroom English for a distinction in US securities law between a publisher and an investment adviser. The course reads the publisher exclusion through three tests drawn from the Supreme Court's 1985 decision in Lowe v. SEC: the content must be impersonal, bona fide, and of general and regular circulation.
Impersonal means the same for every reader, not tailored to one person's situation. Bona fide means genuine commentary rather than a cover for a position the author wants moved. General and regular circulation means an actual publication with a rhythm. The tests ask what a product does, not what it calls itself, so a disclaimer cannot repair a feature that reads your holdings or prints share counts.
Worked example
Apply the tests to four hypothetical products. A weekly column on 12 securities sent to 40,000 subscribers passes all three: 40,000 identical copies, no author position, a weekly rhythm. The same column fails the bona fide test if the author secretly owns 2 of the 12 names.
A tool that takes a reader's 14 holdings and returns percentages for them fails the impersonal test even without a share count, since the output is computed against that reader's situation. A feature that reads the 14 holdings and prints "buy 37" fails it twice. The course's answer is one shared $100,000 book, leans instead of orders, and no per-person sizing.
Hypothetical, for education only. Not a recommendation and not a prediction.
Common mistake
The mistake is believing the line is satisfied by good intentions, a label like educational, or a disclaimer at the bottom of the page. Status attaches to conduct. A second mistake is treating the course's design as settled law. It is classroom English, not legal advice, and counsel still classifies a live product; the course itself notes that regulators are asking open questions about algorithm-driven products.