Copyright: Its History and Its Law

Catalogues and indexes

The law directs that the Register of Copyrights "shall print at periodic intervals a catalogue of the titles of articles … together with suitable indexes, and at stated intervals … complete and indexed catalogues for each class of copyright entries, "which shall be admitted in any court as prima facie evidence," shall be promptly distributed to collectors of customs and postmasters of all exchange offices and shall be furnished to others at a price not exceeding $5 per annum for the complete catalogue or $1 for the catalogues issued during the year for any one class.

The practice of the Copyright Office is to make for each copyrighted book an index card, in conformity with the printed catalogue card of the Library of Congress, and to utilize the linotype slugs set for this purpose, with some modification, as the basis for the "Catalogue of copyright entries" for books. The catalogue for books proper, Part I, Group 1, is printed weekly with an annual index, which, together with Part I, Group 2, issued monthly with more condensed entries, – containing the titles for all other material registered under the legal designation "book," not found in Group 1, i. e., local directories and other annuals, pamphlets, leaflets and literary contributions to periodicals, as also dramatic compositions, lectures and maps, including also the preliminary reports of court decisions, – may be subscribed for at a price of $1 per year. Part II, appearing monthly, covers periodicals, with an annual index, at fifty cents per year. Part III, appearing monthly, covers music, with an annual index, at $1 per year. Part IV, appearing monthly, covers works of art, reproductions of a work of art, drawings or plastic works of a scientific character, photographs and prints and pictorial illustrations, with an annual index, at fifty cents per year. The subscription price for the entire catalogue is $3 per year. Subscriptions should be sent direct to the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., with money orders or drafts in his name (stamps and uncertified checks not accepted), and should not be sent to the Librarian of Congress or to the Copyright Office.

Entry cards

The Library of Congress prints for all such books as are selected from the copyright deposits for use in the Library, on the decision of the Commission appointed by the Librarian, a catalogue card which forms part of the library card catalogue system, and which can be had by public libraries and by private purchasers at the price of two cents a card. This card is used for the catalogues of the Library of Congress and for the catalogues of depository libraries throughout the country, but is not furnished in exchange by the Smithsonian Institution to foreign institutions. The catalogue cards for "books" in Group 2, representing considerably more than twice as many registrations as Group I, as well as the index cards for all articles comprised in the remaining classes of copyright deposits, are prepared in the Copyright Office, and are not furnished to other libraries or to the public.

Text provisions

The provisions as to the Copyright Office, its administration, methods and practice, are set forth in the American code of 1909 in much detail, as follows:

Copyright records

"(Sec. 47.) That all records and other things relating to copyrights required by law to be preserved shall be kept and preserved in the copyright office, Library of Congress, District of Columbia, and shall be under the control of the register of copyrights, who shall, under the direction and supervision of the Librarian of Congress, perform all the duties relating to the registration of copyrights.

Register of copyrights and assistant register

"(Sec. 48.) That there shall be appointed by the Librarian of Congress a register of copyrights, at a salary of four thousand dollars per annum, and one assistant register of copyrights, at a salary of three thousand dollars per annum, who shall have authority during the absence of the register of copyrights to attach the copyright office seal to all papers issued from the said office and to sign such certificates and other papers as may be necessary. There shall also be appointed by the Librarian such subordinate assistants to the register as may from time to time be authorized by law.

Deposit and report of fees

"(Sec. 49.) That the register of copyrights shall make daily deposits in some bank in the District of Columbia, designated for this purpose by the Secretary of the Treasury as a national depository, of all moneys received to be applied as copyright fees, and shall make weekly deposits with the Secretary of the Treasury, in such manner as the latter shall direct, of all copyright fees actually applied under the provisions of this Act, and annual deposits of sums received which it has not been possible to apply as copyright fees or to return to the remitters, and shall also make monthly reports to the Secretary of the Treasury and to the Librarian of Congress of the applied copyright fees for each calendar month, together with a statement of all remittances received, trust funds on hand, moneys refunded, and unapplied balances.

Bond

"(Sec. 50.) That the register of copyrights shall give bond to the United States in the sum of twenty thousand dollars, in form to be approved by the Solicitor of the Treasury and with sureties satisfactory to the Secretary of the Treasury, for the faithful discharge of his duties.

Annual report

"(Sec. 51.) That the register of copyrights shall make an annual report to the Librarian of Congress, to be printed in the annual report on the Library of Congress, of all copyright business for the previous fiscal year, including the number and kind of works which have been deposited in the copyright office during the fiscal year, under the provisions of this Act.

Seal

"(Sec. 52.) That the seal provided under the Act of July eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy, and at present used in the copyright office, shall continue to be the seal thereof, and by it all papers issued from the copyright office requiring authentication shall be authenticated.

Rules

"(Sec. 53.) That, subject to the approval of the Librarian of Congress, the register of copyrights shall be authorized to make rules and regulations for the registration of claims to copyright as provided by this Act.

Record books

"(Sec. 54.) That the register of copyrights shall provide and keep such record books in the copyright office as are required to carry out the provisions of this Act, and whenever deposit has been made in the copyright office of a copy of any work under the provisions of this Act he shall make entry thereof.

Certificate

Receipt for deposits

"(Sec. 55.) That in the case of each entry the person recorded as the claimant of the copyright shall be entitled to a certificate of registration under seal of the copyright office, to contain his name and address, the title of the work upon which copyright is claimed, the date of the deposit of the copies of such work, and such marks as to class designation and entry number as shall fully identify the entry. In the case of a book the certificate shall also state the receipt of the affidavit as provided by section sixteen of this Act, and the date of the completion of the printing, or the date of the publication of the book, as stated in the said affidavit. The register of copyrights shall prepare a printed form for the said certificate, to be filled out in each case as above provided for, which certificate, sealed with the seal of the copyright office, shall, upon payment of the prescribed fee, be given to any person making application for the same, and the said certificate shall be admitted in any court as prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein. In addition to such certificate the register of copyrights shall furnish, upon request, without additional fee, a receipt for the copies of the work deposited to complete the registration.

Catalogue and index provision

"(Sec. 56.) That the register of copyrights shall fully index all copyright registrations and assignments and shall print at periodic intervals a catalogue of the titles of articles deposited and registered for copyright, together with suitable indexes, and at stated intervals shall print complete and indexed catalogues for each class of copyright entries, and may thereupon, if expedient, destroy the original manuscript catalogue cards containing the titles included in such printed volumes and representing the entries made during such intervals. The current catalogues of copyright entries and the index volumes herein provided for shall be admitted in any court as prima facie evidence of the facts stated therein as regards any copyright registration.

Distribution and subscriptions

"(Sec. 57.) That the said printed current catalogues as they are issued shall be promptly distributed by the copyright office to the collectors of customs of the United States and to the postmasters of all exchange offices of receipt of foreign mails, in accordance with revised lists of such collectors of customs and postmasters prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster-General, and they shall also be furnished to all parties desiring them at a price to be determined by the register of copyrights, not exceeding five dollars per annum for the complete catalogue of copyright entries and not exceeding one dollar per annum for the catalogues issued during the year for any one class of subjects. The consolidated catalogues and indexes shall also be supplied to all persons ordering them at such prices as may be determined to be reasonable, and all subscriptions for the catalogues shall be received by the Superintendent of Public Documents, who shall forward the said publications; and the moneys thus received shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States and accounted for under such laws and Treasury regulations as shall be in force at the time.

Records open to inspection and copying

"(Sec. 58.) That the record books of the copyright office, together with the indexes to such record books, and all works deposited and retained in the copyright office, shall be open to public inspection; and copies may be taken of the copyright entries actually made in such record books, subject to such safeguards and regulations as shall be prescribed by the register of copyrights and approved by the Librarian of Congress.

Preservation of deposits

"(Sec. 59.) That of the articles deposited in the copyright office under the provisions of the copyright laws of the United States or of this Act, the Librarian of Congress shall determine what books and other articles shall be transferred to the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, including the law library, and what other books or articles shall be placed in the reserve collections of the Library of Congress for sale or exchange, or be transferred to other governmental libraries in the District of Columbia for use therein.

Disposal of deposits

"(Sec. 60.) That of any articles undisposed of as above provided, together with all titles and correspondence relating thereto, the Librarian of Congress and the register of copyrights jointly shall, at suitable intervals, determine what of these received during any period of years it is desirable or useful to preserve in the permanent files of the copyright office, and, after due notice as hereinafter provided, may within their discretion cause the remaining articles and other things to be destroyed: Provided, That there shall be printed in the Catalogue of Copyright Entries from February to November, inclusive, a statement of the years of receipt of such articles and a notice to permit any author, copyright proprietor, or other lawful claimant to claim and remove before the expiration of the month of December of that year anything found which relates to any of his productions deposited or registered for copyright within the period of years stated, not reserved or disposed of as provided for in this Act: And provided further, That no manuscript of an unpublished work shall be destroyed during its term of copyright without specific notice to the copyright proprietor of record, permitting him to claim and remove it.

Fees

Only one registration required

"(Sec. 61.) That the register of copyrights shall receive, and the persons to whom the services designated are rendered shall pay, the following fees: For the registration of any work subject to copyright, deposited under the provisions of this Act, one dollar, which sum is to include a certificate of registration under seal: Provided, That in the case of photographs the fee shall be fifty cents where a certificate is not demanded. For every additional certificate of registration made, fifty cents. For recording and certifying any instrument of writing for the assignment of copyright, or any such license specified in section one, subsection (e), or for any copy of such assignment or license, duly certified, if not over three hundred words in length, one dollar; if more than three hundred and less than one thousand words in length, two dollars; if more than one thousand words in length, one dollar additional for each one thousand words or fraction thereof over three hundred words. For recording the notice of user or acquiescence specified in section one, subsection (e), twenty-five cents for each notice if not over fifty words, and an additional twenty-five cents for each additional one hundred words. For comparing any copy of an assignment with the record of such document in the copyright office and certifying the same under seal, one dollar. For recording the extension or renewal of copyright provided for in sections twenty-three and twenty-four of this Act, fifty cents. For recording the transfer of the proprietorship of copyrighted articles, ten cents for each title of a book or other article, in addition to the fee prescribed for recording the instrument of assignment. For any requested search of copyright office records, indexes, or deposits, fifty cents for each full hour of time consumed in making such search: Provided, That only one registration at one fee shall be required in the case of several volumes of the same book deposited at the same time."

Present organization

The organization of the Copyright Office under the present administration of the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam, appointed by President McKinley in 1898, and the Register of Copyrights, Thorvald Solberg, the first and only occupant of that post, appointed by the Librarian of Congress in 1897, presents a standard of efficiency, celerity and economy which is a model for governmental departments, or indeed for any administrative business. The enormous amount of detail is systematized and controlled by a remarkable method of record, and blank forms provide in the utmost variety of detail for every feature of the work of correspondence, especially in calling the attention of applicants to defects in their applications, which are many and various.

Efficiency of methods

As the result of this organization, the complex law of March 4, 1909, was put in operation July 1, 1909, without a hitch; and inquiries made to the Copyright Office are answered, usually on the same day, with remarkable dispatch and accuracy. For instance, the many letters directed mistakenly to the Register of Copyrights, instead of to the Commissioner of Patents, the frequent applications for the protection of prints designed for articles of manufacture, and the multitudinous applications on articles not subject to copyright, or for projected works or for book manuscripts previous to publication, are each covered by a form letter with an index card of a distinctive color for each, so that a full record is kept in the Copyright Office of such errors without unduly complicating the copyright records proper. The Copyright Office now handles approximately half a million items of entries, deposits and correspondence during the year, and covers into the Treasury more than $100,000, returning to the government a substantial sum above the direct cost of administration.

Registration 1909-1910

The Copyright Office prints annually a summary of its work, from which it appears that in the year ending June 30, 1910, the first year of operation of the new copyright code, it had issued copyright certificates to the number of 96,634, representing an equal number of registrations at $1 each. In addition thereto 11,433 registrations were made for photographs at fifty cents each, for which no certificates were issued. This annual summary for the fiscal year ending June 30 is printed as a part of the annual report, for presentation to Congress each December; and a summary for the calendar year is printed in separate form at the beginning of the new year.

Certificates for court use

In addition to the regular certificates in card form, the Copyright Office also issues certificates in quarto shape when desired, which are especially utilized in court proceedings as parts of the record.

Searches

The Copyright Office makes searches for information, under the provisions of the new law, at the rate of fifty cents for each full hour of the person employed in such search.

The new Rules provide for such searches as follows:

"(49.) Upon application to the Register of Copyrights, search of the records, indexes, or deposits will be made for such information as they may contain relative to copyright claims. Persons desiring searches to be made should state clearly the nature of the work, its title, the name of the claimant of copyright and probable date of entry; in the case of an assignment, the name of the assignor or assignee or both, and the name of the copyright claimant and the title of the music referred to in case of notice of user."

Patent Office registry for labels

Question having been raised by the Commissioner of Patents whether the act of 1909 did not charge the Copyright Office with the registration as "prints" of labels, etc., the Attorney-General, in an opinion of December 22, 1909, held that the copyright act of 1909 did not relieve the Patent Office of this duty, and it is still required to register all prints which have heretofore been registered therein under the act of June 18, 1874, and in the same manner as they have heretofore been registered.

Many of the features of the Copyright Office, such as the forms for applications, certificates, etc., have been treated in detail in the chapter on formalities, which should be read in connection with this chapter.

Foreign practice

In Great Britain there is no official copyright office, but registration has been made at Stationers' Hall in charge of the Stationers' Company, a quasi public institution, while deposit is made primarily in the national library at the British Museum. The records at Stationers' Hall and the printed or other catalogues of the British Museum are public. But there is no printed copyright list except of prohibitions of importations issued by the Commissioners of Customs. Under the new British measure there is no registration at Stationers' Hall or elsewhere.

In France there is no copyright office proper and the deposit copies required from the printer are deposited with the Ministry of the Interior at Paris or at the Prefecture or town clerk's office in the provinces. In other European countries, the registration, when required, is made for the most part in one of the government departments, as Ministry of Interior, Department of Agriculture, etc. In Italy, as in several Spanish-American countries, the registry is provincial instead of central, though in some of these countries provision is made for report from time to time to a central government office. In few countries is there a copyright office proper, distinctively organized and named, except in certain English colonies, as Australia and Canada, which have now a copyright office and a Registrar of Copyrights.

XVIII

INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT CONVENTIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS

International protection of property

With the growth of civilization, the practice of protecting in all countries the property of the citizen of any other country has also grown, until it is now a generally recognized principle. This principle, applied to literary property, has resulted in international copyright among most civilized nations.

Early copyright protection

The first provision for international copyright, aside from the ancient practice in France of giving protection to authors of other countries who published their works therein, was made by Prussia in 1837, in a law which provided that any country might secure copyright for its authors in Prussia to the extent of reciprocal privileges granted by that country.

Early English protection

England followed, in 1838, with an "act for securing to authors, in certain cases, the benefit of international copyright," which empowered the Queen, by an Order in Council, to direct that the author of a book first published in a foreign country should have copyright in the United Kingdom, on certain conditions, providing that country conferred similar privileges on English authors. The act of 1844 extended this privilege to prints, sculpture and other works of art, and provided for international playright. It expressly denied the privilege, however, to translations of foreign works, and it was not until 1852 that provision was fully made for translations of books and of dramatic compositions, the latter with the proviso that "fair imitations or adaptations" of foreign plays or music might be made. In this early period Great Britain negotiated treaties with the German states (1846-55), France (1851), Belgium (1854), Spain (1857), and Sardinia (1860), afterward extended throughout Italy. The treaties generally included a proviso that duties on books, etc., imported into the treaty country, should not be above a stated sum, and in the case of France there was to be no duty either way. The domestic copyright acts had also provided, on the condition of first publication in the United Kingdom, a practical measure of international copyright. The international copyright act of 1875 repealed the exception as to plays, and authorized the protection of foreign plays against imitation and adaptation. Under these international copyright acts, registration at Stationers' Hall, at a fee of one shilling only, was made a condition of the copyright of foreign works, and the deposit of a copy of the first edition and of every subsequent edition containing additions or alterations at Stationers' Hall, for transmission to the British Museum, was required, besides other local formalities, particularly in connection with the limited protection of translations, which was for five years only.

Adhesion to Berne convention

Great Britain became a signatory power of the Berne convention of 1886, and the international copyright act of 1886, amending and in part repealing the previous international copyright acts, was passed to enable Her Majesty through Orders in Council to become a party to this convention, which was ratified in 1887. This was made effective with respect to the eight other countries which were parties to the original Berne convention by the Order in Council of November 28, 1887, taking effect December 6, 1887. The provisions of 1886 made registration and deposit unnecessary for foreign works which had complied with the formalities requisite in the country of origin, but it was nevertheless held in Fishburn v. Hollingshead, in 1891, by Justice Stirling, that a foreign work must comply with the provisions of the copyright acts applicable, as to registration and delivery, to works first produced in the United Kingdom, since a foreign work was entitled only to the protection afforded to natives. In Hanfstaengl v. Holloway, in 1893, Justice Charles took the opposite view, and he was supported by the Court of Appeal in Hanfstaengl v. American Tobacco Company, in 1894, which decided finally that the acts of 1842 and 1844 were repealed as to foreign works and that registration and deposit of a foreign work were unnecessary. The decision of the Court of Appeal in 1908, in Sarpy v. Holland, that notice of reservation may be in foreign languages, confirmed the provisions that no formalities beyond those in the country of origin were requisite.

Effect of Berne convention