Copyright: Its History and Its Law Part 34

{Sidenote: Mr. Lowell's epigram}

It was at this time that Mr. Lowell wrote his famous quatrain on "International copyright," which presented effectively the fundamental argument:

"In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing."

On May 21, 1886, the Committee on Patents presented a report to the Senate, favoring the Chace bill, but no action resulted.

{Sidenote: President Cleveland's second message, 1886}

In President Cleveland's annual message December 6, 1886, at the opening of the second session, he called the attention of Congress to the fact that "the drift of sentiment in civilized communities toward full recognition of the rights of property in the creation of the human intellect has brought about the adoption by many important nations of an International Copyright Convention, which was signed at Berne 18th of September, 1885.... I trust the subject will receive at your hands the attention it deserves, and that the just claims of authors, so urgently pressed, will be duly heeded." But the Congress adjourned without heeding them.

{Sidenote: Campaign of 1887}

Senator Chace reintroduced his bill into the Fiftieth Congress, December 12, 1887. In the same month there was organized the American Publishers'

Copyright League, with William H. Appleton as president and George Haven Putnam as secretary, and from that time forward the authors' and publishers' leagues acted in close cooperation. Copyright a.s.sociations were formed in Boston, Chicago and elsewhere, to influence Congress and the public; Henry van d.y.k.e, especially by his address on "The national sin of piracy," and other clergymen helped to emphasize the moral issue, and authors' readings held in New York, Washington and elsewhere brought the question widely to public notice and helped to raise funds for the campaign. During this period, R. U. Johnson, a.s.sociate editor of the _Century_ magazine, who had been treasurer of the Authors' League, became its secretary, and throughout the campaigns ending in 1891 and 1909, had the working oar. The Typographical Unions, represented by John Louis Kennedy and James Welsh, gave support to the bill conditioned on the acceptance of the type-setting clause, and the opposition to it came chiefly from Gardiner G. Hubbard and certain legal representatives of unnamed clients.

{Sidenote: Senate pa.s.sage of Chace bill, 1888}

{Sidenote: Bryce bill, 1888}

The Chace bill, modified to require printing from type set or plates made within the United States and to prohibit the importation of foreign-made editions, pa.s.sed the Senate, Senators Chace, Hawley, h.o.a.r and O. H. Platt of Connecticut being foremost in its support, by vote of 35 to 10, May 9, 1888. It had been introduced into the House by W. C.

P. Breckinridge of Kentucky, March 19, and favorably reported by the Judiciary Committee, April 21, 1888. A bill which had been introduced by Lloyd S. Bryce of New York, January 16, and referred to the Committee on Patents, was favorably reported by that Committee with amendment September 13, 1888. But the Mills tariff bill and other circ.u.mstances blocked the way, and the Fiftieth Congress adjourned without action by the House.

{Sidenote: President Harrison's message, 1889}

{Sidenote: Simonds bill, 1890}

{Sidenote: Simonds report, 1890}

President Harrison, in his first annual message, December 3, 1889, to the Fifty-first Congress, said, "The subject of an international copyright has been frequently commended to the attention of Congress by my predecessors. The enactment of such a law would be eminently wise and just." Senator Chace having resigned his seat, Senator O. H. Platt became chairman of the Committee on Patents and the chief advocate of the Chace bill, which he reintroduced December 4, 1889. In the House it was again introduced by Mr. Breckinridge on January 6, 1890, and referred to the Judiciary Committee, which made a favorable report, prepared by G. E. Adams of Illinois February 15, 1890. It was also introduced on the same day by Benjamin b.u.t.terworth of Ohio, as a Republican, and referred to the Committee on Patents, of which he was chairman. A third bill was also introduced on January 6, by W. E.

Simonds of Connecticut, amending the patent and trade-mark acts with an incidental reference to copyright. Mr. Simonds presented a favorable report from the Committee on Patents February 18, but no action was taken on this report. The main bill was, however, reported from the Judiciary Committee by Mr. Adams, and on motion of William McKinley of Ohio, was made the special order for May 2, when it was debated, with amendments introduced by Mr. Adams and defeated on the third reading by a vote of 99 to 125. The bill was reintroduced, however, by Mr. Simonds with the inclusion of a reciprocity clause, May 16, 1890, and on June 10 the Committee on Patents through Mr. Simonds presented a strong report with a subst.i.tute bill, essentially the same. The Simonds report set forth that aside from "practical reasons" for the bill, "it is a sufficient reason that an author has a natural exclusive right to the thing having a value in exchange which he produced by the labor of his brain and hand. No one denies and everyone admits that all men have certain natural rights which exist independently of all written statutes." And in respect to international protection, the report said "the United States of America must give in its adhesion to international copyright or stand as the literary Ishmael of the civilized world." The report is printed in full and a detailed account of the campaign for this bill is given in G. H. Putnam's "The question of copyright." On December 3, 1890, the bill was again voted upon by the House and received a vote of 139 to 95 on its final pa.s.sage.

{Sidenote: Senate debate, 1891}

In the Senate there was a notable debate lasting six days, February 9, 12-14, 17-18, 1891, in which Senators Sherman and Carlisle championed an amendment permitting the importation of authorized foreign editions which was opposed by the Typographical Unions as violating the manufacturing clause, and by authors and publishers as a restriction on authors' rights of control. Senator Frye on February 9, 1891, advocated an amendment extending the manufacturing clause beyond books to include maps, charts, dramatic or musical compositions, engravings, cuts, prints, photographs, chromos and lithographs. With these and other amendments, the bill pa.s.sed the Senate 36 to 14, February 18, 1891. On February 28, 1891, the House voted 128 to 64 non-concurrence in the Senate amendments, and a Conference Committee was appointed.

{Sidenote: Pa.s.sage of act of March 4, 1891}

This first Conference Committee, reporting on March 2, 1891, disagreed on the Sherman amendment, and accepted the other Senate amendments; the report was accepted by the House, 139 to 90, on March 2, 1891. The Senate, on March 3, refused by a vote of 33 to 28 to recede from the Sherman amendment, and a second Conference Committee was appointed. This second Conference Committee modified the Sherman amendment, and after an all-night session the copyright bill was pa.s.sed, 127 to 77, by the House, March 3, and was also pa.s.sed, 27 to 18, by the Senate at half past two in the morning, March 4, 1891.

The bill as pa.s.sed was in the form of amendments to the Revised Statutes, omitting the limitation to citizens or residents of the United States, confining copyright, in the case of a book, photograph, chromo or lithograph, to works of which the deposit copies should be "printed from type set within the limits of the United States, or from plates made therefrom, or from negatives or drawings on stone, made within the limits of the United States or from transfers made therefrom," and extending copyright to citizens of a foreign country only when such country protects American citizens "on substantially the same basis as its own citizens," or is a party to international arrangements, as determined by proclamation of the President.

{Sidenote: Approval by President Harrison}

The signature of President Harrison was promptly affixed before the close of the legislative day, and the United States at last, though in a restricted form, accepted international copyright after an exciting and dramatic contest, which began more than half a century before. The bill became effective July 1, 1891.

{Sidenote: Review of the publishing situation}

There had been a continuous growth in the United States, though displayed somewhat intermittently, of an active sentiment in favor of international copyright. For some years the question was less insistent, from the practical point of view, because of what was called "the courtesy of the trade," by which a publisher who was the first to reprint an English work was not disturbed by rival editions of that and of succeeding works by the same author. Under this custom, the leading American publishers voluntarily made payments to foreign authors, in many cases the same ten per cent paid to American authors, and reaching in one case of "outright" purchase of "advance sheets" $5000, though there was no protection of law for the purchase. American and English works then competed on much the same terms. In 1876 the cheap "quarto libraries" were started, reprinting an entire English novel, though on poor paper and often in dangerously poor type, for 10, 15, or 20 cents.

They presently obtained the advantage, by regular issue (one "library"

at one time issuing a book daily, others weekly), of the low postal rates for periodicals, of two cents a pound, and thus obtained a further advantage over books by American authors. These quartos gradually gave way to the "pocket edition," in more convenient shape, but not always in better print, at 20 or 25 cents. The sales of corresponding American books had meanwhile definitely fallen.

{Sidenote: Lack of unified policy}

{Sidenote: Compromise of 1891}

The history of the movements for international copyright in America shows that there had been no continuous and well-defined policy on the part of the government authorities, or of publishers, or of authors.

While authors almost unanimously, and publishers generally, favored international copyright, the division lines as to method were not between authors and publishers, but between some authors and other authors, and between some publishers and other publishers. There were those, in both cla.s.ses, who objected to any bill which did not acknowledge to the full the inherent rights of authors, by extending the provisions of domestic copyright to any author of any country, without regard to other circ.u.mstances. There were others, at the other extreme, who opposed international copyright unless it was restricted to books manufactured in this country, issued simultaneously with their publication abroad, and of which the importation of other than the American copies was absolutely prohibited. The act of 1891 was finally pa.s.sed with the a.s.sent of the advocates of authors' rights who were willing to waive the abstract principle in favor of any moderate measure which should be at least a first step of recognition, and which might justify by its results, even to the opponents of international copyright, further steps of future progress.

{Sidenote: Need of general revision}

While the act of 1891 was unsatisfactory to the friends of copyright, who desired rather that the United States might grant unrestricted international copyright and become a signatory power in the convention of Berne, it was thought fair and right not to attempt broader legislation for some years. Copyright legislation had become, however, confused and uncertain in the multiplicity of statutes, and the need of revision was emphasized in annual and special reports by Thorvald Solberg, an expert in copyright and skilled bibliographer, who had been appointed Register of Copyrights on the creation of that office in 1897 with the approval of the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam, who had been appointed in 1899. In 1903 the Register of Copyrights presented a special report on copyright legislation which was made part of the report of the Librarian of Congress for 1903, and accompanied by a list of all copyright statutes by the original states and by the United States, the text of the revised statutes with notations of later provisions and a list of foreign copyright laws in force, which three doc.u.ments were also published as separate pamphlets.

{Sidenote: Ad interim copyright act, 1905}

In 1905, March 3, an act was pa.s.sed granting _ad interim_ protection for one year to works in a foreign language published in a foreign country, pending manufacture in America within one year of the original work or a translation thereof. This protection was conditioned on the deposit within thirty days from publication in a foreign country of a copy of the foreign edition bearing copyright notice and a reservation in the following form: "Published____, 19__. Privilege of copyright in the United States reserved under the Act approved March 3, 1905, by ____,"--which was also to be printed on all copies of the foreign work sold or distributed in the United States.

{Sidenote: Copyright conferences, 1905-06}

On January 27, 1905, Senator Kittredge announced (in Senate Report 3380) that the Committee on Patents purposed to "attempt a codification of the copyright laws at the next session of the Congress" and in a letter to the Librarian of Congress suggested that he call a conference of the several cla.s.ses interested in such codification. Accordingly on April 10, the Librarian of Congress announced such a conference, of which sessions were held at the City Club in New York, May 31 to June 2, and November 1 to 4, 1905, and in the Library of Congress, Washington, March 13 to 16, 1906. At these conferences, organizations representing authors, dramatic and musical as well as literary, artists, publishers, printers, lithographers, librarians, the legal profession and the public, partic.i.p.ated through delegates, and discussed first a basic memorandum presented by the American (Authors) Copyright League and thereafter successive drafts of a copyright measure prepared by the Register of Copyrights. As a result of these discussions, presided over by Librarian Putnam, the final draft was prepared under the immediate direction of the Librarian of Congress, which became the basis of the bill "to amend and consolidate the acts respecting copyright" introduced into the Senate by Senator Kittredge (Senate bill 6380) and into the House by Chairman Frank D. Currier (H. R. bill 19853), May 31, 1906.

{Sidenote: "Copyright in Congress, 1789-1904"}

In connection with these conferences, a number of valuable doc.u.ments were prepared by Register Solberg and published through the Copyright Office, among them a chronological record of "Copyright in Congress, 1789-1904," with bibliography, summarizing all Congressional proceedings in relation to copyright through the second session of the Fifty-eighth Congress.

{Sidenote: President Roosevelt's message, 1905}

Meantime President Roosevelt, in his annual message of December 5, 1905, to the Fifty-ninth Congress, had made strong recommendations in favor of copyright reform: "Our copyright laws urgently need revision. They are imperfect in definition, confused and inconsistent in expression; they omit provision for many articles which, under modern reproductive processes, are ent.i.tled to protection; they impose hardships upon the copyright proprietor which are not essential to the fair protection of the public; they are difficult for the courts to interpret and impossible for the Copyright Office to administer with satisfaction to the public. Attempts to improve them by amendment have been frequent, no less than twelve acts for the purpose having been pa.s.sed since the Revised Statutes. To perfect them by further amendment seems impracticable. A complete revision of them is essential. Such a revision, to meet modern conditions, has been found necessary in Germany, Austria, Sweden and other foreign countries, and bills embodying it are pending in England and the Australian colonies. It has been urged here, and proposals for a commission to undertake it have, from time to time, been pressed upon the Congress. The inconveniences of the present conditions being so great, an attempt to frame appropriate legislation has been made by the Copyright Office, which has called conferences of the various interests especially and practically concerned with the operation of the copyright laws. It has secured from them suggestions as to the changes necessary; it has added from its own experience and investigations, and it has drafted a bill which embodies such of these changes and additions as, after full discussion and expert criticism, appeared to be sound and safe. In form this bill would replace the existing insufficient and inconsistent laws by one general copyright statute. It will be presented to the Congress at the coming session. It deserves prompt consideration."

{Sidenote: Congressional hearings, 1906-08}

It was arranged that the two Committees on Patents of the Senate and House should hold joint sessions for public hearings on the copyright bill, and these hearings were held in the Senate reading room in the Library of Congress, the first June 6 to 9, 1906, the second December 7 to 11, 1906, the third March 26 to 28, 1908, of each of which full stenographic reports were printed for the Committees. At the first hearing the discussions were largely on the general principles of copyright and their special application to the right of musical composers to control mechanical reproduction of their works. Amendments proposed at this hearing were printed by the Copyright Office in two parts, and a third or supplementary part gave the comment of the Bar a.s.sociations' Committees. Register Solberg also printed as preliminary to the second hearing the copyright bill compared with copyright statutes then in force, and earlier United States enactments.

{Sidenote: Kittredge-Currier reports, 1907}

In 1907, at the second session of the Fifty-ninth Congress, the copyright measure was introduced by Senator Kittredge January 29, 1907 (Senate bill 8190), accompanied later by the majority report, February 5, 1907 (Senate report 6187), and a minority report, February 7, 1907 (Senate report 6187; part 2); and by Chairman Currier January 29, 1907 (H. R. bill 25133), accompanied later by the majority report, January 30, 1907 (H. R. report 7083), and by a minority report, March 2, 1907 (H. R. report 7083, part 2). No action was taken at this session.

{Sidenote: Smoot-Currier, Kittredge-Barchfeld bills, 1907-08}

At the first session of the Sixtieth Congress, Senator Smoot, who had become Chairman of the Patents Committee on the retirement from it of Senator Kittredge, introduced a majority bill December 16, 1907 (Senate bill 2499), and Senator Kittredge a minority bill December 18, 1907 (Senate bill 2900); and in the House, Chairman Currier introduced the majority bill December 2, 1907 (H. R. bill 243), and A. J. Barchfeld the minority bill January 6, 1908 (H. R. bill 11794). The Smoot-Currier bills, practically identical, were less favorable to authors, particularly in respect to mechanical reproductions of music, than the Kittredge-Barchfeld bills; and in a pamphlet "The copyright bills in comparison and compromise," prepared by R. R. Bowker in behalf of the American (Authors) Copyright League in March, 1908, the features of the several measures were compared and the views of the Copyright League set forth in a combined measure, with annotations. The "canned music"

question, indeed, absorbed most of the time at the third hearing, in the stenographic report of which a combined index to the several hearings was printed.

{Sidenote: Washburn, Sulzer, McCall, Currier bills, 1908}

After the hearings, other bills were introduced into the first session of the Sixtieth Congress by C. G. Washburn May 4, 1908 (H. R. bill 21592), more fully representing authors' views; by Wm. Sulzer May 12, 1908 (H. R. bills 21984, 22071), embodying views of dramatic authors; by S. W. McCall May 12, 1908 (H. R. bill 22098), embodying an amendment to the manufacturing clause as phrased by the American (Authors) Copyright League, excepting from the manufacturing provision "the original text of a foreign work in a language other than English," and by Chairman Currier May 12, 1908 (H. R. bill 22183). But again no action was taken at this session.

{Sidenote: Fourth Congressional hearing, 1909}