Copyright: Its History and Its Law Part 19

In the case of the White-Smith Music Pub. Co. _v._ Apollo Co., in which the aeolian Co. was supposed to be the real complainant, the representatives of the musical author were, in 1906, denied protection against the mechanical music rolls made by the defendant, by the Circuit Court of Appeals, where the judges considered themselves "constrained"

by the necessity of strict construction to decide that "a perforated roll is not a copy in fact of complainant's staff notation," while saying "that the rights sought to be protected belong to the same cla.s.s as those covered by the specific provisions of the copyright statutes."

It was presumed by many during the copyright campaign that the Supreme Court would make a broad construction of the statute, but that court held, February 24, 1908, in an opinion written by Justice Day, that the considerations adduced "properly address themselves to the legislative and not to the judicial branch of the Government" and that "as the act of Congress now stands, we believe it does not include these records as copies or publications of the copyright music involved in these cases."

Justice Holmes, while not dissenting, added a memorandum to the effect that "the result is to give to copyright less scope than its rational significance and the ground on which it is granted seems to me to demand.... On principle, anything that mechanically reproduces that collocation of sounds ought to be held a copy, or if the statute is too narrow, ought to be made so by a further act, except so far as some extraneous consideration of policy may oppose." While the judges thus felt "constrained" to deny relief, their strong language in defense of copyright control doubtless had its effect upon the legislative authorities in the framing and the pa.s.sage of the new code.

This decision was confirmatory of an earlier decision, in Stern _v._ Rosey in 1901, of Judge Shepard in the Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, that the mechanical reproduction of two copyrighted songs could not be prevented under the existing law.

{Sidenote: Punishment of infringement}

Specific and elaborate provision is made for the punishment of infringers under the mechanical music proviso (sec. 1, e) by sec. 25, e:

{Sidenote: Notice to proprietor of intention to use}

"Whenever the owner of a musical copyright has used or permitted the use of the copyrighted work upon the parts of musical instruments serving to reproduce mechanically the musical work, then in case of infringement of such copyright by the unauthorized manufacture, use, or sale of interchangeable parts, such as disks, rolls, bands, or cylinders for use in mechanical music-producing machines adapted to reproduce the copyrighted music, no criminal action shall be brought, but in a civil action an injunction may be granted upon such terms as the court may impose, and the plaintiff shall be ent.i.tled to recover in lieu of profits and damages a royalty as provided in section one, subsection (e), of this Act: _Provided also_, That whenever any person, in the absence of a license agreement, intends to use a copyrighted musical composition upon the parts of instruments serving to reproduce mechanically the musical work, relying upon the compulsory license provision of this Act, he shall serve notice of such intention, by registered mail, upon the copyright proprietor at his last address disclosed by the records of the copyright office, sending to the copyright office a duplicate of such notice; and in case of his failure so to do the court may, in its discretion, in addition to sums hereinabove mentioned, award the complainant a further sum, not to exceed three times the amount provided by section one, subsection (e), by way of damages, and not as a penalty, and also a temporary injunction until the full award is paid."

{Sidenote: Copyright Office form and fees}

The Copyright Office provides a special form (U) on a blue card for registration of "notice of use on mechanical instruments," in which the copyright owner of a musical composition gives notice that he "has used or has licensed the use of said composition for the manufacture of parts of instruments serving to reproduce mechanically such musical work." The recording fee for such notice, as fixed by the statute (sec. 61), is twenty-five cents for the first fifty words and twenty-five cents additional for each additional hundred words.

For recording and certifying the license referred to (sec. 1, e) the statute provides (sec. 61) for a fee of one dollar for not over three hundred words, two dollars if not over one thousand words and one dollar for each additional one thousand words or fraction thereof over three hundred words.

{Sidenote: The const.i.tutional question}

The actual fixing of a specified price, as that of two cents or a halfpenny on each reproduction, is a feature quite new in law, American or English, and involves a serious const.i.tutional question. Congress has granted to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and state legislatures to specified authorities, as public service commissions, power to regulate prices; and the U. S. Supreme Court, in 1909, confirming the N. Y. Court of Appeals in the Consolidated Gas Co. cases, upheld the application of the sovereign power of the state to limit the price of gas to 80 cents per 1000 cubic feet, as sold by a corporation enjoying a public franchise. In this compulsory license provision of the copyright code, Congress has gone further in two directions: it has fixed a royalty price, not by definition or limitation of a "reasonable" price, but absolutely, and it has applied this provision not to a corporation enjoying franchise privileges, but to the individual owner of property created by his own labor.

{Sidenote: English law}

The English laws had not mentioned mechanical reproduction up to the musical copyright act of 1906, which in section 3 expressly provided that "'pirated copies' and 'plates' shall not, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to include perforated music rolls used for playing mechanical instruments, or records used for the reproduction of sound waves, or the matrices or other appliances by which such rolls or records respectively are made." The test case meanwhile on this question was that of Boosey v. Whight, which was finally decided in the Court of Appeal in 1900, with respect to the use of copyrighted songs on the perforated rolls of the aeolian. Justice Sterling in the lower court had decided that the perforations were not an infringement of the copyright but that the marginal directions for playing might be such; Justice Lindley, M. R., held with him that the perforated roll was not a "copy"

of the sheet music, but overruled him on the second point, holding that the directions, though copied from the printed page, were neither music nor a literary composition.

{Sidenote: The new British code}

The new British measure as prepared in 1910 included as incident to copyright the sole right "in the case of a literary, dramatic or musical work, to make any record, perforated roll, cinematograph film, or other contrivance by means of which the work may be mechanically performed or delivered," thus in the simplest fashion completely covering the control of mechanical reproduction in conformity with the convention of Berlin.

But in the Parliament of 1911 the bill emerged from committee stage with an elaborate proviso, based on the American precedent, excepting from the definition of infringement contrivances for the mechanical reproduction of sounds on (1) proof that the copyright owner has previously acquiesced in mechanical reproduction, (2) prescribed notice of intention, and (3) payment of royalty of 2-1/2 or 5 per cent with a minimum of a halfpenny for each record, or in the case of different works on the same record, to each copyright proprietor.

{Sidenote: The Berne situation, 1886}

When the international representatives met at Berne in 1886, the mechanical reproduction of music was confined chiefly if not wholly to Swiss music-boxes and orchestrions and to hand-organs, of comparatively little commercial importance; and, possibly with some thought of the recognition of the hospitality of Switzerland, little emphasis was placed on the protection of musical composers against mechanical reproduction of their works. In fact, the final protocol of the Berne Convention of 1886 contained, as clause 3, the following paragraph: "It is understood that the manufacture and sale of instruments for the mechanical reproduction of musical airs which are copyright, shall not be considered as const.i.tuting an infringement of musical copyright."

{Sidenote: Lack of action at Paris, 1896}

Despite strong representations at the congresses of the International a.s.sociation for the protection of literary property, held at London in 1890, Neufchatel in 1891, and Milan in 1892, and a vigorous endeavor in connection with the Paris convention of 1896 to replace this clause, it was not modified until the convention of Berlin in 1908, in preparation for which a strong resolution was pa.s.sed at the congress of the International a.s.sociation at Vevey in 1901.

{Sidenote: The Berlin provision, 1908}

With the increasing development of the phonograph and of the mechanical player, mechanical reproductions became so important a matter to musical composers and publishers, that much of the discussion in respect to the amendatory convention of Berlin of 1908 was upon this subject. In the amended convention, the subject was fully covered by article 13:

"Authors of musical works have the exclusive right to authorize: (1) the adaptation of these works to instruments serving to reproduce them mechanically; (2) the public performance of the same works by means of these instruments.

"The limitations and conditions relative to the application of this article shall be determined by the domestic legislation of each country in its own case; but all limitations and conditions of this nature shall have an effect strictly limited to the country which shall have adopted them.

"The provisions of paragraph 1 have no retroactive effect, and therefore are not applicable in a country of the Union to works which, in that country, shall have been lawfully adapted to mechanical instruments before the going into force of the present Convention.

"The adaptations made by virtue of paragraphs 2 and 3 of this article and imported without the authorization of the parties interested into a country where they are not lawful, may be seized there."

{Sidenote: German precedents}

In Germany, under the general copyright law of 1870, the higher courts gave to musical composers control over mechanical reproductions from which, as the industry grew, the authors or publishers obtained some little return. But succeeding the adoption of the permissive clause in the Berne convention of 1886, it was proposed in the new copyright law to free mechanical reproductions from the control of the composer. A protest was at once made by musical authors and publishers, which resulted in a modification of the form proposed by the government and the addition of a clause giving control where the reproduction involved personal interpretation. In this form the "unfortunate section 22"

became part of the law of 1901 relating to copyright in literary and musical works. Section 22 was in the following language:

"Reproduction is permitted when a musical composition is, after publication, transferred to such discs, plates, cylinders, bands and similar parts of instruments for the mechanical rendering of pieces of music. This provision is applicable also to interchangeable parts, provided that they are not applied to instruments by which the work can, as regards strength and duration of tone and tempo, be rendered in a manner resembling a personal performance."

{Sidenote: Law of 1910}

This had the extraordinary and contradictory effect of giving the author control over the finer reproductions of his works but denying to him any control over the cruder reproductions, as on hand-organs, orchestrions, etc. The opposition which developed against this impossible situation was largely influential in bringing about the modification at Berlin in 1908 of the Berne clause. The law of May 22, 1910, amended the previous general laws in conformity with the Berlin convention, especially by extending protection to the mechanical reproduction of music and cinematograph reproduction of artistic works. Section 22 of the law of 1901 was specifically replaced by an elaborate section, modeled on the American compulsory license provision and requiring a composer who permitted mechanical reproduction to grant similar rights on equal terms to any other manufacturers domiciled in Germany, with provisions for reciprocity and for the treatment of non-German composers through the tribunals of Leipzig. This law became effective coordinately with the Berlin convention on September 9, 1910, and in connection with it an ordinance promulgated by the Emperor July 12, 1910, defined the time during which mechanical reproductions already made of copyrighted works should still be permitted. The use of extracts from musical as from other works, as perhaps in _potpourris_, seems however still to be permitted as a result of the law of 1901.

{Sidenote: Germany and the United States}

As a result of the reciprocal provisions of the new German law, the President of the United States on December 8, 1910, proclaimed reciprocal relations between Germany and the United States with reference to mechanical reproductions of music. In the opinion of May 6, 1911, approved by the Attorney-General, a Presidential proclamation is required to determine "the existence of reciprocal conditions" as to the mechanical music provision (sec. 1, e) as in respect to sec. 8; but as the proclamation of December 8 did not recite that reciprocal conditions existed between September 9 and December 8, 1910, it is held that "it would not afford evidence sufficient to sustain an action for infringement between said dates."

{Sidenote: French precedents}

In France the general copyright act of 1793, as considered to cover mechanical music, was interpreted or modified by the act of 1866, which enacted that "the manufacture and sale of instruments serving to reproduce mechanically musical airs which are still in the private domain, does not const.i.tute musical infringement." In the suit of Enoch _v. Societe des phonographes et gramophones_, the Civil Court of the Seine had decided in 1903 that phonographic instruments were excepted from the protection of the law of 1793 by the "general immunities"

concerning the mechanical musical instruments in the act of 1866. But in 1905 the Court of Appeals of Paris reversed this decision, holding that the law of 1866 applied solely to musical airs, that is, those involving no words, on the ground that the law of 1793 was enunciatory of the rights of authors, applying to all modes of publication and distribution, and that the word "publication" should be understood broadly "as jurisprudence has applied it to numerous modes of publication discovered since the law of July 19 and 24, 1793, and the Code of 1810, and as nothing prevents its extension, in consequence of scientific progress"; and it therefore concluded that literary works either by themselves or a.s.sociated with music were practically under the law of 1793 and not exempted by the law of 1866. A more recent case, in the Court of Commerce of the Seine in 1905, resulted, however, in the dismissal of a suit for infringement. France accepted the Berlin convention, June 28, 1910; but its provision in article 13, that "the limitations and conditions" as to mechanical music protection "shall be determined by the domestic legislation of each country in its own case,"

makes uncertain whether protection becomes effective in the absence of specific legislation.

{Sidenote: Belgian precedents}

In Belgium in 1904, in the suit of Ma.s.senet and Puccini _v. Compagnie Generale des phonographes, et al._, it was held by the court of first instance of Brussels that the introduction for sale of discs and cylinders reproducing the musical compositions of the plaintiffs was illegal and liable for damages and punishable as an infringement. This decision was, however, overruled by the Court of Appeals of Brussels in 1905. Belgium accepted the Berlin convention, May 23, 1910, has since protected mechanical reproduction, and was proclaimed as in reciprocal relations with the United States, June 14, 1911.

{Sidenote: Italian precedents}

In Italy the copyright law was considered in relation to mechanical instruments by several court decisions of which the latest and most important seems to be in the case of the _Societa Italiana d. Autori v._ Gramophone Co. of London, in which, in 1906, the Royal Court of Milan held that reproductions of music by gramophone const.i.tuted infringement.

This decision held that article three of the Berne convention of 1886 could not derogate from or modify the domestic private law of 1882, and as the Italian law specifically covers publication and reproduction "by any method," it includes gramophone discs. "Publication means a process by which the intellectual concept of the artist is revealed, and brought to the knowledge of others." "What the legislature wanted has been this: that the author be the exclusive owner of the external form in which the creation of the mind has been fixed, and, so to speak, materialized; and that the right be reserved to him to get from his studies and his exertions all the economic benefits which he could derive therefrom."

{Sidenote: Other countries}

In the laws of Switzerland of 1883, and Monaco and Tunis of 1889, the fabrication and sale of mechanical instruments or devices for reproducing musical airs were excepted from the definition of piracy.

But all these countries have ratified the Berlin convention "without reservation." Luxemburg and Norway have applied the Berlin provision and were proclaimed as in reciprocal relation with the United States on June 14, 1911. Russia has followed American precedent in the new law of 1911, but has no reciprocal relations with the United States.

{Sidenote: Argument for inclusion}

As the opposition to the control by musical composers of mechanical reproductions of their works is still strong in the United States and in several countries, notwithstanding recent conventions and legislation, and is based largely upon restrictive definitions of the words "writings" and "copies" or their equivalent in other languages, it may be well to include here the argument made by the writer as Vice-president of the American (Authors) Copyright League, at the Congressional hearings on the new American code, of which the essential portions are as follows:

"The American Copyright League stands, as it has stood for a quarter of a century, simply and solely for the protection of authors' rights to the fullest extent, and it a.s.serts that a musical composer is as fully ent.i.tled as is the author of any other creative work to the exclusive and full benefits of his compositions, in whatever manner reproduced.

The opponents of the bill base their objections largely on a restrictive definition of the word 'writings,' and criticise the bill because this word 'writings' is interpreted throughout the bill by the word 'works,'

although this accurately reflects the understanding of Congress and the interpretation of the courts. They would, in fact, confine copyright protection specifically, it may be said, to e-y-e-deas, that is, visible records, and exclude as not visible or legible by the eye, copies of musical compositions mechanically made and interpreted.

{Sidenote: Inscribed writings}