Copyright: Its History and Its Law Part 15

The exception from lithographs and photo-engravings of subjects which "are located in a foreign country and ill.u.s.trate a scientific work or reproduce a work of art" is intended to permit the importation, either separately or for book use, of direct reproductions made abroad of scenes or objects which otherwise could be reproduced in this country only indirectly and at second-hand; the confusing and probably careless use of the word "and" might seem to exclude from the exemption a lithograph or photo-engraving of a natural scene, ill.u.s.trating a work of travel, but the courts might here feel justified in taking the more liberal view.

{Sidenote: Affidavit requirement}

To the manufacturing provision of the previous law has been added a new affidavit requirement (sec. 16) as follows:

"That in the case of the book the copies so deposited shall be accompanied by an affidavit, under the official seal of any officer authorized to administer oaths within the United States, duly made by the person claiming copyright or by his duly authorized agent or representative residing in the United States, or by the printer who has printed the book, setting forth that the copies deposited have been printed from type set within the limits of the United States or from plates made within the limits of the United States from type set therein; or, if the text be produced by lithographic process, or photo-engraving process, that such process was wholly performed within the limits of the United States, and that the printing of the text and binding of the said book have also been performed within the limits of the United States. Such affidavit shall state also the place where and the establishment or establishments in which such type was set or plates were made or lithographic process, or photo-engraving process or printing and binding were performed and the date of the completion of the printing of the book or the date of publication."

{Sidenote: Avoidance of errors}

In preparing the affidavit, which is necessary for books only, the applicant should be careful to note the following points, as to which errors are commonly made. The affidavit should correspond exactly with the application (as that with the t.i.tle-page or other data in the work itself). The affidavit cannot be made till _after_ publication and must state the exact day of publication or the date of completion, either or both, which last means not necessarily the completion of printing the whole edition, but of the deposit copies. The affidavit must be taken and signed by an individual, not by a corporation, company or firm as such, and the affiant must state whether he is the claimant, agent of the claimant, or printer, striking out the other designations. The name of the printer and binder must be given in the affidavit with city and state (but not street) address; but this means the printing and binding establishment and not the individual type-setter or binder. If the book is not bound but only issued in paper, the word "unbound" should be written into the affidavit. It is necessary to give the _venue_, that is, the county and state in which the affidavit is made, and to take the oath before a notary or other official authorized to take such oath in that locality (not merely a justice of the peace). The affiant's and notary's names should be signed exactly as written into the body of the affidavit, and the seal should correspond exactly with the name of the official and the _venue_. The signature of the affiant and of the notary and the seal are all necessary to validate the affidavit. The names and other writing should be written plainly, and the affiant should make sure to read the affidavit and compare it with the application and with the book.

{Sidenote: Forfeiture by false affidavit}

In case of false affidavit, forfeiture of copyright is provided (sec.

17) as follows:

"That any person who, for the purpose of obtaining registration of a claim to copyright, shall knowingly make a false affidavit as to his having complied with the above conditions shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, and all of his rights and privileges under said copyright shall thereafter be forfeited."

{Sidenote: Exact compliance necessary}

The affidavit clause is exact and specific. It may be made either by the printer or the publisher. This exacting and drastic addition to the manufacturing clause met with strong opposition from the friends of copyright, particularly authors and book publishers, as unnecessary and unreasonable, but was successfully insisted upon by the representatives of the typographical unions. The voiding of copyright because of a false affidavit by a printer or publisher, which might even be mistakenly made and of which the author would have no cognizance, was opposed as especially unjust to authors and out of keeping with the rest of the law. Under the statute as enacted, this provision must be exactly complied with, and the courts would doubtless enforce it to the letter.

{Sidenote: Importation questions}

The manufacturing provision of 1891 and its extension in the code of 1909 have raised important and difficult questions as to the time at which these provisions become effective in relation with copyrights previously existing. It was claimed by Benziger Brothers, as proprietors of a copyright American edition of the "Key of Heaven," that an edition of sheets printed in America previous to the law of 1909 and sent abroad for binding, could be re-imported notwithstanding the new provision against binding, but the decision of the appraisers at New York against this claim was upheld by the Secretary of the Treasury, under advice of the Attorney-General, and the courts have not yet had occasion to pa.s.s on the question. This ruling indicates that since July 1, 1909, copyright could not be maintained on any book unless type-set, printed and bound completely within the limits of the United States, and that any copyrighted books, partly manufactured in the United States, but bound and otherwise completed abroad since July 1, 1909, must be denied importation. It has been decided, however, by the Attorney-General, that the manufacturing requirement as to binding refers only to the original, and that copyright books rebound abroad cannot be denied importation.

Also it has been held that a foreign translation of a copyright work, for which translation American copyright is not claimed, cannot be refused importation.

The provisions supplementing the manufacturing clause by prohibiting importation are given in the chapter on importation.

{Sidenote: Foreign manufacturing provisions}

Holland is the only country in Europe which requires that the deposit copies shall be printed within the country and thus makes manufacture a condition of copyright--an inheritance probably from the times when the printer-publishers of the Protestant Netherlands were the only ones printing the books barred in Catholic countries by the _index expurgatorius_, and when deposit was naturally required from them. The law covered the Dutch West Indies, and the precedent was followed in Siam; and in the Transvaal and Orange State the Dutch law continued after they had become English colonies. Otherwise than in these countries, only the British dominions of Canada and Newfoundland and the Commonwealth of Australia have manufacturing provisions. Canada made such provision as to domestic copyright in 1886 and again in the act of May 2, 1889, which last provides that a literary, scientific, musical or artistic work shall, before or simultaneously with publication or production elsewhere, be registered in the office of the Minister of Agriculture, and be printed or published or produced in Canada within one month after publication or production elsewhere. Newfoundland in its statute of 1892, following our own of 1891, provided similarly that the condition for obtaining copyright shall be that the literary, scientific or artistic work shall be printed and published or produced in this colony. Australia, under the new code of 1905, confines domestic copyright to books (inclusive of drama) "printed from type set up in Australia, or plates made therefrom, or from plates or negatives made in Australia in cases where type is not necessarily used," and in an artistic work to those "made in Australia."

{Sidenote: English patent proviso}

Unfortunately, the precedent of our copyright act of 1891 has since been followed in England in the patent and designs act of 1907, which provides (sec. 27) that a patent may be revoked after four years "on the ground that the patented article or process is manufactured or carried on exclusively or mainly outside the United Kingdom." Such a provision had been a feature of the patent laws of Germany, Canada and other countries, but it is new in British law and has evoked strong protest from American patentees, notwithstanding that it is parallel with our manufacturing provision with respect to copyrights.

XI

DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL COPYRIGHT, INCLUDING PLAYRIGHT

{Sidenote: Dramatists' and composers' rights}

The dramatic author and the musical composer receive recompense for their creative labor not so much from publication of their works in the printed form of a book as through their performance or representation, when protected as playright or performing right, as the artist receives remuneration not only for the reproduction and sale of copies, but also from the exhibition as well as sale of his original work. Dramatic and musical copyright, in the wide sense, therefore, covers copyright in the specific sense and playright, as to which latter common law rights especially need statutory protection.

{Sidenote: American provisions}

In the protection of dramatic and musical compositions the new American code specifically provides not only for copyright, but for playright or right of performance. Under subject-matter of copyright (sec. 5) such works are cla.s.sified as "(d) Dramatic or dramatico-musical compositions; (e) Musical compositions"; and the Copyright Office Rules and Regulations further define these cla.s.ses as follows:

{Sidenote: Copyright Office definitions}

"8. _(d) Dramatic and dramatico-musical compositions_, such as dramas, comedies, operas, operettas and similar works.

"The designation 'dramatic composition' does not include the following: Dances, ballets, or other ch.o.r.egraphic works; tableaux and moving picture shows; stage settings or mechanical devices by which dramatic effects are produced, or 'stage business'; animal shows, sleight-of-hand performances, acrobatic or circus tricks of any kind; descriptions of moving pictures or of settings for the production of moving pictures.

(These, however, when printed and published, are registrable as 'books.')

"9. _Dramatico-musical compositions_ include princ.i.p.ally operas, operettas, and musical comedies, or similar productions which are to be acted as well as sung.

"Ordinary songs, even when intended to be sung from the stage in a dramatic manner, or separately published songs from operas and operettas, should be registered as musical compositions, not dramatico-musical compositions.

"10. _(e) Musical compositions_, including other vocal and all instrumental compositions, with or without words.

"But when the text is printed alone it should be registered as a 'book,'

not as a 'musical composition.'"

{Sidenote: Rights a.s.sured}

To dramatic and musical authors are given (sec. 1) in addition to the general right, granted in subsection "(a) To print, reprint, publish, copy and vend the copyrighted work," the specific exclusive rights:

"(b) ... to dramatize it if it be a non-dramatic work; to convert it into a novel or other non-dramatic work if it be a drama; to arrange or adapt it if it be a musical work;...

{Sidenote: Dramatic rights}

"(d) To perform or represent the copyrighted work publicly if it be a drama or, if it be a dramatic work and not reproduced in copies for sale, to vend any ma.n.u.script or any record whatsoever thereof; to make or to procure the making of any transcription or record thereof by or from which, in whole or in part, it may in any manner or by any method be exhibited, performed, represented, produced, or reproduced; and to exhibit, perform, represent, produce, or reproduce it in any manner or by any method whatsoever;

{Sidenote: Musical rights}

"(e) To perform the copyrighted work publicly for profit if it be a musical composition and for the purpose of public performance for profit; and for the purposes set forth in subsection (a) hereof, to make any arrangement or setting of it or of the melody of it in any system of notation or any form of record in which the thought of an author may be recorded and from which it may be read or reproduced";--to which provision of subsection (e), in respect to copyright control of mechanical records, are added provisos that such control shall not extend to compositions published and copyrighted before July 1, 1909, and works of foreigners whose state does not grant similar right to American citizens, and shall be subject to compulsory license arrangements, requiring that if the author permits any mechanical reproduction, he shall license any manufacturer under conditions stated in detail in the act, all of which exceptions and conditions are fully stated in the chapter on mechanical music provisions.

{Sidenote: Excepted performance}

An exception to these exclusive rights is, however, made in the proviso (sec. 28) "_Provided, however_: That nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to prevent the performance of religious or secular works, such as oratorios, cantatas, ma.s.ses, or octavo choruses by public schools, church choirs, or vocal societies, rented, borrowed, or obtained from some public library, public school, church choir, school choir, or vocal society, provided the performance is given for charitable or educational purposes and not for profit."

This proviso is singularly defective in phraseology, as the phrase "octavo choruses" has no musical significance and uses a music-trade term to designate choruses usually but not necessarily published in octavo form; and the duplication of the words "public school," etc., is probably a verbal error in the bill which mistakenly became part of the law. The proviso is doubtless intended and would fairly be construed to permit gratuitous unauthorized performance of religious or secular works such as oratorios, cantatas, ma.s.ses, and choruses by public schools, church choirs, school choirs or vocal societies, from copies rented, borrowed, or obtained from some public library, provided the performance is given for charitable or educational purposes and not for profit.

Curiously the letter of the proviso would seem to provide that the beneficiary organization cannot perform from a purchased copy, but only from copies rented, borrowed or "obtained from" some public source; but this also is an evident error.

{Sidenote: Performance "for profit"}

It should be noted that the omission from subsection (d) as to drama and the inclusion in subsection (e) as to music, of the words "for profit,"--doubtless with the intent of a.s.suring to the individual purchaser of music the right to perform it privately,--have significance here, and serve, it would seem, to give the dramatic author absolute control even over gratuitous performances and to limit the control of the musical author to performances which are not gratuitous, a negative provision covering, and giving much wider lat.i.tude than, the proviso (sec. 28) above cited. But as dramatico-musical compositions are cla.s.sified (sec. 5, d) with dramatic compositions, and an oratorio and possibly a cantata might be considered as a dramatico-musical composition, the proviso (sec. 28) may have a specific effect as to this kind of dramatico-musical compositions. The law is unfortunately defective and confusing by reason of this proviso and will be so difficult of judicial construction as to suggest the omission, by amendment, of this proviso. The use of the word "public" in both cases implies that the author cannot control private representation and opens other questions difficult of judicial interpretation.

{Sidenote: Works not reproduced}

It is provided (sec. 11): "That copyright may also be had of the works of an author of which copies are not reproduced for sale, by the deposit, with claim of copyright, of one complete copy of such work if it be ... a dramatic or musical composition"; provided that the required deposit of two copies shall be made, as in the case of books, on publication thereafter by the multiplication and public sale or distribution of copies.