copyright on substantially the same basis as to its own citizens, or
copyright protection equal to that secured by the foreign author
under the United States act, or when the foreign state is a party to
an international agreement providing for reciprocity in the granting
of copyright, and the United States may, by the terms of that
agreement, become a party thereto. After copyright has been
secured by publication of a work, two complete copies of the best
edition published must be “promptly” deposited in the copyright
office, or mailed to the register of copyrights, the postmaster, on
request, giving a receipt and mailing the books without cost. If the
work be a contribution to a periodical, one copy of the issue containing
it must be sent, or if it be a work not reproduced in copies for
sale, a copy, print, photograph or other identifying reproduction
must accompany the claim. Prior to 1891 the works of authors
could be put into print on either side of the Atlantic. The act of
1891 laid down that, in order to secure copyright, all editions of the
works of all authors, resident or non-resident, must be entirely
“Manu-
facture” clause.manufactured within the United States, the term “manufactured”
including the setting of type as well as printing
and binding. This manufacturing condition was insisted
on by the typographical unions. There is no logical
connexion, however, between the right of an author or artist to the
control of his production and the interests of American workmen;
the attempt to legislate for them jointly must bring about no little
confusion and inequity. If American working-men cannot secure a
living in competition with labourers on the other side of the Atlantic,
their needs should be cared for under the provisions of the protective
tariff. It is, however, the belief of a large number of those who are
engaged in the manufacturing of books that, with his advanced
methods of work, the skilled American labourer has no reason to
dread the competition of European craftsmen. With this manufacturing
condition out of the way, there would be nothing to
prevent the United States from becoming a party to the Bern
Convention. This would place intellectual property on both sides
of the Atlantic on the same footing. The power of the unions was
sufficiently strong to prevent this condition being eliminated from
the act of 1909, but the just claims were met of authors whose books
are originally produced in some language other than English, the
Exemption of text of foreign book.“original text of a book of foreign origin in a language or
languages other than English” being exempted
from
the
requirements as to type-setting in the United States. On
the other hand the manufacturing condition is extended by
the act of 1909 to illustrations within a book, and also to
separate lithographs or photo-engravings, “except where in either
case the subjects represented are located in a foreign country and
illustrate a scientific work or reproduce a work of art.” The notice
of copyrights required by the act consists either of the word “copyright”
or by the abbreviation “Copr.,” accompanied by the name
of the copyright proprietor, and in the case of printed literary,
musical or dramatic works, the notice must include also the year in
which the copyright was secured by publication. In the case of
works specified in 6 to 11 inclusive, of the classification given above,
the copyright notice may consist of the letter C enclosed within a
circle, thus: ©, accompanied by the initials, monogram, mark or
symbol of the copyright proprietor, provided that on some accessible
portion of the copy or of the margin, or on the back or pedestal his
name appears.
The act of 1909 gives an interim protection to a book published
abroad in the English language before publication in the United
States, the deposit in the copyright office, not later than
thirty days after its publication abroad,
of one complete
Interim protection.copy of the foreign edition, with a request for the reservation
of the copyright and a statement of the name and
nationality of the author and copyright proprietor, securing copyright
for thirty days from the date of deposit. Any person infringing
a copyright work is liable to an injunction, and to pay such
damages as the copyright proprietor may have suffered
by the infringement; in lieu of actual damages and profits
the courts may award such damages as appear to be just, and in
assessing them may, at its discretion, allow the amounts mentioned
below, except that in the case of a newspaper reproduction of a
copyrighted photograph such damages must not exceed the sum of
Infringement.two hundred and fifty dollars nor be less than fifty dollars, and in
no other case must the damages be more than five thousand dollars
or less than two hundred and fifty dollars: (1) In the case of a
painting, statue or sculpture, ten dollars for any infringing copy
made or sold or found in the possession of the infringer or his agents
or employees; (2) in the case of any work enumerated in the classification
given before, except a painting, statue or sculpture, one dollar
for every infringing copy; (3) in the case of a lecture, sermon or
address, fifty dollars for every infringing delivery; (4) in the case of
dramatic or dramatico-musical or a choral or orchestral composition,
one hundred dollars for the first and fifty dollars for every subsequent
infringing performance; in the case of other musical compositions,
Musical composi-
tions.ten dollars for every infringing performance; all infringing
copies and devices must also be delivered up for destruction.
The act gives full control over his compositions
to a musical composer, and the right to make any
arrangement or setting of it, or of the melody of it, in any system of
notation or form of record from which it may be read or reproduced.
His right to control the reproduction of his music by mechanical
instruments is restricted (1) to cover only music published and
copyrighted after the act went into effect; (2) to include a musical
composition by a foreign composer only in the case of a citizen of a
foreign state that grants to citizens of the United States similar
rights; (3) where the owner of a musical copyright has permitted
the use of his work upon parts of instruments serving to reproduce
the composition mechanically, permission for a similar use of such
work must be accorded to any other person on the payment of a
fixed royalty of two cents on each part manufactured. The act makes
Transfer and assignment of copyright.a clear distinction between the property in the copyright
and that in the material object representing the copyright,
and enacts that the sale or conveyance of the material
object shall not of itself constitute a transfer of the copyright.
Transfer of copyright in the United States is to be
effected by an instrument in writing signed by the proprietor
of the copyright, or the copyright may be bequeathed by
will. Assignment of copyright executed in a foreign country must
be acknowledged by the assignor before a consular officer of the
United States. Every assignment of copyright must be recorded
in the copyright office within three calendar months after its execution
in the United States or within six months without the limits of
the United States. The importation into the United States is forbidden
of any piratical copies of a copyrighted book or of any copies
Importation of copyright works.not produced in accordance with the manufacturing
provisions of the act (although authorized by the author
or proprietor), but importation is allowed to any society
or institution incorporated for educational, literary,
philosophical, scientific or religious purposes, or for the
encouragement of the fine arts, or to any State school, college, &c.,
or to free public libraries, when importation is for use and not for
sale. The act of 1891 allowed “two copies in any one invoice” to be
imported, but by the act of 1909 not more than one copy is to be
imported in one invoice.
The provisions having to do with international copyright become operative in the case of a foreign state only when the president proclaims that the state has fulfilled the condition of reciprocity. The act of 1891 was put into force with foreign states as follows:—1st of July 1891, Great Britain, Belgium, France, Switzerland; 8th of March 1892, Germany (by separate treaty); 31st of October 1892, Italy; 8th of May 1893, Denmark; 15th of July 1895, Spain; 20th of July 1895, Portugal; 27th of February 1896, Mexico; 13th of April 1896, Sweden and Norway; 25th of May 1896, Chile; 19th of October 1899, Costa Rica; 20th of November 1899, the kingdom of the Netherlands. In the case of each state the territory covered by the provisions of the law included the possessions, dependencies, &c. The copyright agreement with Great Britain therefore covered the crown colonies of the empire, including India and the self-governing dominions and states, such as Canada, Australia, &c. An American work duly entered for copyright in Great Britain secures, as a British publication secures, the protection of copyright under the provisions of the Bern convention throughout the territory of the several states that are parties to that convention.
Artistic Copyright
19. Literary authors had protection for their literary work much earlier than artists for their artistic productions. Pictures and illustrations, when included in books or newspapers, are protected by the law which applies to the latter, but that is a separate question. It was not until the reign of George II. that the legislature in England afforded any protection for the work of artists. The English law on artistic copyright is alone considered in this account, the American having been included in the section United States above (18), while for other countries the details are so various that it is only possible to refer the reader to the leading text-books.
The first Artists’ Copyright Bill was passed in the interest of William Hogarth, one of the greatest of English painters, who was engraver as well as painter, and who devoted a considerable portion of his time to engraving his Engravings.own works. No sooner, however, were these published than his market was seriously damaged by the issue of inferior copies of his engravings by other publishers. To protect Hogarth from such piracy the Engraving Copyright Act 1734 was passed, which provided that “every person who should invent and design, engrave, etch, or work in mezzotinto or chiaroscuro, any historical or other print or prints, should have the sole right and
