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ADDENDUM.

THE following information has been published in th United States, showing by what means a copyright ca there be secured.

Copyrights may be secured under the revised Act d Congress, which took effect on the 8th of July, 1870, b observing the following regulations :—

1. A printed copy of the title of the book, map, char dramatic or musical composition, engraving, cut, prin photograph, chromo, or design for a work of the fine art for which copyright is desired, must be sent by mai addressed "Librarian of Congress, Copyright matter Washington, D.C."

This must be done before publication of the book o other article.

2. A fee of 50 cents, for recording the title of eac book or other article, must be inclosed with the title a above, and 50 cents in addition (or 1 dollar in all) fo each certificate of copyright under seal of the Librarian o Congress, which will be transmitted by return mail.

3. Within ten days after publication of each book o other article, two complete copies of the best edition issued must be mailed to perfect the copyright, with th address, "Librarian of Congress, Copyright matter Washington, D.C.”

If the above direction is complied with, both books an titles will come free of postage, and postmasters will giv receipt for the same if requested. Without the deposi copies above required, the copyright is void, and a penalt

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of 25 dollars is incurred. No copy is required to be deposited elsewhere.

4. Copyrights recorded at a date prior to the 8th of July, 1870, in any district clerk's office, do not require re-entry at Washington. But one copy of each book or other article published since the 4th of March, 1865, is required to be deposited in the Library of Congress, if not already done. Without such deposit copyright is void.

5. No copyright is valid unless notice is given by inserting in the several copies of every edition published, on the title-page or the page following, if it be a book; or if a manuscript, musical composition, print, cut, engraving, photograph, painting, drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, or model of a sign intended to be perfected and completed as a work of the fine arts, by inscribing upon some portion of the face or front thereof, or the face of the substance on which the same is mounted, the following words, viz. : "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year

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at Washington."

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, in the office of the Librarian of Congress,

6. Each copyright secures the exclusive liberty of publishing the book or article copyrighted for the term of twenty-eight years. At the end of that period the author or designer may secure a renewal for the further term of fourteen years, making forty-two years in all.

7. Any copyright is assignable in law by any instrument of writing; but such assignment must be recorded in the office of the Librarian of Congress within sixty days from its date. The fee for this record is fifteen cents for every 100 words, and ten cents. for every 100 words for a copy of the record of assignment.

8. In the case of books published in more than one volume, or of periodicals published in numbers, or of engravings, photographs, or other articles published with variations, a copyright must be taken out for each column of a book, or number of a periodical, or variety, as to size or inscription, or any other article.

9. To secure a copyright for a painting, statue, or model or design, intended to be perfected as a work of the fine arts, so as to prevent infringement by copying or vending such design, a definite description of such work of art must accompany the application for copyright, and a photograph of the same, at least as large as "cabinet size," should be mailed to the Librarian of Congress within ten days from the completion of the work.

10. In all cases where a copyright is desired for any article not a book, the applicant should state distinctly the title or description of the article in which he claims copyright.

11. Every applicant for a copyright must state distinctly in whose name the copyright is to be taken out, and whether title is claimed, as author, designer or proprietor.

THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE COPYRIGHT LAWS.

COPYRIGHT may be defined as the sole and exclusive Definition and liberty of multiplying copies of an original work or composition (a).

The right of an author to the productions of his mental exertions may be classed among the species of property acquired by occupancy; being founded on labour and invention (b).

A literary composition, so long as it lies dormant in the author's mind, is absolutely in his own possession. Ideas drawn from external objects may be communicated by external signs, but words demonstrate the genuine operations of the intellect. The former are so identical with himself, that when by the author resolved into the latter, they lose not their original characteristic; and whether or not they be regarded as of pecuniary value in the

(a) 14 M. & W. 316. The term "copyright" may be understood in two different senses. The author of a literary composition, which he commits to paper belonging to himself, has an undoubted right at common law to the piece of paper on which his composition is written, and to the copies which he chooses to make of it for himself, or for others. If he lends a copy to another his right is not gone; if he sends it to another under an implied undertaking that he is not to part with it, or publish it, he has a right to enforce that undertaking. The other sense of that word is, the exclusive right of multiplying copies; the right of preventing all others from copying, by printing or otherwise, a literary work which the author has published. This must be carefully distinguished from the other sense of the word. (Per Baron Parke, in Jefferys v. Boosey, 4 H. L. C. 920.)

(b) Hoffman's 'Legal Outlines,' sect. iii.; Locke on Gov. pt. 2, c. 5.

B

nature of copyright.

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