PART L

chart, musical composition, print, cut, engraving, photograph, painting, drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, or model CHAPTER XVIII. or design, 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 on the face of the substance on which the same shall be mounted, the following words—" Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year by A. B., in the office of the librarian of Congress, at Washington." (a)

A penalty of 100 dollars (to be recovered by action in any court of competent jurisdiction) is inflicted on every person inserting or impressing such a notice on any of the articles named, for which he has not obtained a copyright, one moiety of the penalty to go to the person suing for it, and the other to the use of the United States. (b)

If any one, after the recording the title of any book Piracy of books. according to the Act, shall, within the term limited, and without the consent of the proprietor of the copyright first obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or more witnesses, print, publish, or import, or knowing the same to be so printed, published, or imported, shall sell or expose to sale any copy of such book, such offender shall forfeit every copy thereof to the said proprietor, and shall also forfeit and pay such damages as may be recovered in a civil action by such proprietor in any court of competent jurisdiction. (c) There is a similar provision as to maps, prints, &c. Maps, prints, Sect. 100 enacts, "that if any person after the recording of musical compothe title of any map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, engraving, or photograph, or chromo, or of the description

of

any painting, drawing, statue, statuary or model or design intended to be perfected and executed as a work of the fine arts as provided in the Act, shall, within the term limited, and without the consent of the proprietor of the copyright first obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or more witnesses, engrave, etch, work, copy, print, publish, or import, either in whole or in part, or by varying the main design with intent to evade the law, or knowing the same to be so printed, published, or imported, shall sell or expose to sale any copy of such map or other article as aforesaid, he shall forfeit to the said proprietor all the plates on which the same shall be copied, and every sheet thereof either copied or printed, and shall further forfeit one dollar for every sheet of the same found in his possession, either printing, printed, copied, published, imported, or exposed for sale; and in case of a painting, statue, or statuary, he shall forfeit ten dollars for every copy of the same in his (a) Sect. 97. (b) Sect. 98. (c) Seet. 99.

sitions, &c.

PART I.

possession, or which have by him been sold or exposed for CHAPTER XVIII sale; one moiety to go to the proprietor, the other to the United States."

Dramatic representations.

Piracy in general.

Limitation of actions.

Remedies for infringement.

Any person who publicly performs or represents any dramatic composition for which a copyright has been obtained, and without the consent of the proprietor or his heirs or assigns, is to be liable to damages (recoverable by action in any court of competent jurisdiction), to be assessed in all cases at such sum, not less than 100 dollars for the first, and 50 dollars for every subsequent performance, as to the court shall appear to be just. (a)

An assignee of a dramatic composition cannot maintain an action for its unauthorised representation unless he has performed all the acts required by law to secure a copyright.(b)

An authorised public circulation of a printed copy of a drama, for which there is no legislative copyright, is a publication which legalises a subsequent theatrical representation by anybody from such copy.(c)

If so much is taken as to impair the value of the original work, or so that the labours of the original author are substantially appropriated, that is sufficient to constitute a piracy. (d) But the question of piracy does not depend solely on the question of quantity. (e)

Intention is not a necessary element in the offence of piracy. If a copyright has been invaded, whether the party knew the work was copyrighted or not, he is liable to the penalty for violation. (f)

A translation is not a copy of a book within the meaning of the statute.(g) The words "copy of a book " mean a transcript or copy of the entire book.(h)

All actions for forfeitures and penalties under the Act must be commenced within two years after the cause of action shall have arisen. (i)

All actions, suits, controversies, and cases are to be originally cognisable, as well in equity as at law, whether civil or penal in their nature, by the circuit courts of the United States, or any district court having the jurisdiction of a circuit court, or in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, or any territory; and the court is empowered upon bill in equity, filed by any party aggrieved, to grant (a) Sect. 101. (b) Keene v. Wheatley (9 Amer. Law Reg. 44). (c) Ib. (d) Folsom v. Marsh (2 St. 115). (e) Story's Executors v. Holcombe (4 M'Lean, 309, 310). (f) Millett v. Snowden (1 West. L. J. 240). (g) Stowe v. Thomas (2 Amer. Law Reg. 230). (h) Rogers v. Jewett (12 Mo. L. Rep. 340, 341).

(i) Sect. 104.

injunctions to prevent the violation of any rights secured by the copyright laws according to the course and principles of courts of equity, on such terms as the court may deem reasonable. (a)

A writ of error or appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States lies from all such judgments and decrees of any court in the same manner and under the same circumstances as in other judgments and decrees of such courts, without regard to the sum or value in controversy. (b)

In all recoveries either for damages, forfeitures, or penalties, full costs are to be allowed. (c)

In all actions under the copyright laws the defendant may plead the general issue and give the special matter in evidence. (d)

The jurisdiction given to the Federal Court by the Acts of Congress has not taken away or diminished the original jurisdiction, which before such Acts (e) the State Courts exercised; except where the jurisdiction was made exclusive in express terms, or by the necessary construction of the Federal Constitution. (f)

Under the Acts giving to the circuit courts cognisance of these cases, the citizenship of the litigant parties is immaterial.(g)

PART 1.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Copyrights may be assigned in law by any instrument Assignment of of writing. Such assignment is to be recorded in the copyright. office of the librarian of Congress within 60 days after its execution, in default of which it is to be void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for a valuable consideration without notice. (h)

The librarian of Congress is made chargeable with all the duties pertaining to copyrights required by law. (1) He is to make an annual report to Congress of the number and description of copyright publications for which entries have been made during the year. (k)

(a) Sect. 106. (b) Sect. 107.

(e) Pierpont v. Fowle (2 Wood & Min. 43-45). (f) Woolsey v. Judd (4 Duer, 382).

(c) Sect. 108.

(d) Sect. 105.

(k) Sect. 85.

(g) Keene v. Wheatley (9 Amer. Law Reg. 44, 45).
(h) Sect. 89.
(i) Sect. 109.

PART II.

LAW RELATING TO NEWSPAPERS.

Whether there THE question whether a newspaper is within the Copyright

is copyright in newspapers.

Act (5 & 6 Vict. c. 45), first came before a court for express decision in the recent case of Cox v. The Land and Water Journal Company, (a) where the plaintiff, the proprietor of the Field newspaper, sought to restrain the publication in the Land and Water Journal of a "list of hounds," alleged to be copied from a list printed in the former paper. It was contended, on behalf of the defendants-(1) that the plaintiff had no copyright in the article of the piracy of which he complained; (2) that if he had a copyright he could not sue until his paper was registered under the Copyright Act. Malins, V.C., said: "The preliminary objection taken in this case raises a point of vast importance to the proprietors of newspapers and to the public at large. It is so important that it seems almost incredible that the point should never have arisen, namely, whether the proprietor of a newspaper has or has not such a property in articles published in that newspaper, and paid for by the proprietor, as entitles him to prohibit the publication by any other newspaper in any other form whatever." On account of the importance of this, the only case decided on the subject, we shall give in full the Vice-Chancellor's reasons for holding that a newspaper does not require to be registered in order to entitle the proprietor to one in respect of a piracy of its

contents.

"For the purposes of the argument," said his Honour, "it must be assumed that the article complained of was a copy of the article of the plaintiff, and upon that ground the defendant takes the objection that there can be no copyright in any article published in this newspaper, because it is not registered under the Act 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45, commonly called the Copyright Act. Now suppose, for instance, the

(a) L. Rep. 9 Eq. 324; 21 L. T. N. S. 548; 18 W. R. 206.

proprietor of a newspaper employs a correspondent abroad,
and that correspondent, being employed and sent abroad at
great expense, makes communications to a newspaper which
are highly appreciated by the public, can it be said that
another newspaper, published perhaps in the evening of the
same day, may take and publish those communications in
extenso, with or without acknowledgment? If the con-
tention of the defendants is right, the paper which copied
might say: 'But they are common property. True it is, I
admit, that you have paid for them. I admit that you have
given a great deal of money for them, and they are so very
valuable that I desire to turn them to account by publishing
them in my newspaper; but you have no property in them,
although you pay for them; you cannot sue for your news-
paper as a book, for then the copyright must be registered,
and as you have not registered the book, nothing in the
newspaper is protected.' If that is the law, it is a monstrous
state of the law-repugnant to common sense and common
honesty-because that there is a property in these articles
there can be no shadow of doubt. Still, however clear the
right of property may be, if the case falls within the Act of
Parliament, I must follow the same course which I took in
the Brighton Directory case, Mathieson v. Harrod.(a) . . . .
Now, I have put the case of letters from correspondents
abroad. With foreign papers, we all know, it is the practice.
to publish novels, and in some English newspapers it is also
done. Supposing a newspaper proprietor were to engage
the first novelist of the day to write for him a novel to be
published in his newspaper, part every day, and pay him
highly, is the proprietor of such a newspaper to lose all pro-
perty because the paper is not registered? What informa-
tion would it give if it were registered? Would the
registration of a paper called the Field, registered twenty
years ago, give information as to when the copyright would
commence and end?-not the slightest; and therefore it is
not within the policy of the Act, and I am of opinion that
it is not within the words of the Act. The question depends
first
upon the 2nd section of the Act. What is a book?
because every book must, by the 24th section, be registered.
We find that 'book' under the 2nd section shall be con-
strued to mean and include every volume, part or division
of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of letter-press, sheet of music,
(a) L. Rep. 7 Eq. 270; 19 L. T. N. S. 629; 38 L. J. 129, Ch.
this case a bill to restrain the piracy of the plaintiff's directory was
dismissed with costs because the entry at Stationers' Hall of the date of
first publication contained only the month, and not the day of the month,
on which it had first been published. Vide ante, p. 89.

In

PART II.