Mr. REID of Illinois. After examining this may we have the privilege of recalling and, cross-examining Mr. Butler? We don't want to be shut off.

Mr. BUTLER. I will be very happy to come. These three gentlemen are here and they will give you an opportunity to get the facts from the publishers' standpoint.

Mr. REID of Illinois. Who stands responsible for the statement? Mr. BUTLER. Mr. Putnam, who is chairman of the National Association of Book Publishers.

Mr. HAMMER. It is what he was to send us.

Mr. BUTLER. These three gentlemen who are publishers are here and the chairman will call upon them.

Mr. REID of Illinois. What is your position?

Mr. BUTLER. I am simply Washington counsel for the association.

Mr. BLOOM. May I ask one question? Is this a statement you ask to put in?

Mr. REID of Illinois. Yes; he is putting in a statement.

Mr. BLOOM. Then, Mr. Chairman, I would suggest that this statement be put in at the end of Mr. Burkan's address.

Mr. BUTLER. Oh, yes; that will be entirely agreeable to me. (The statement submitted by Mr. Butler is as follows:)

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BOOK PUBLISHERS

FEATURES OF THE PERKINS COPYRIGHT (BILL H. R. 11258)

[Drafted by Thorvald Solberg, backed by the Authors' League of America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers]

1. Importations: Section 41 permits importation either for use or for sale of all books (except those by American authors) whether they have an American publisher or not. See the full argument on this point from the argument before the Patents Committee by Maj. George Haven Putnam, representing the publishers.

2. Published or unpublished: Section 1 extends copyright to all "writings of authors from the time of the making of their works, whether published or unpublished." The word "writings" is used to cover all literature, music, art, etc., because it is the only word used in the Constitution. Copyright of unpublished works, now introduced in the United States Code, is provided in the English and other codes.

3. Registration: Section 1 provides optional registration for facilitating legal transfers and as prima facie evidence in court cases.

4. Assignments: Section 15 provides that the owner of copyright may assign any part of his rights, for any period of time and for any specified territory. (At present the first user of copyrightable material, magazines for instance, holds all other rights causing great confusion and loss.)

Section 17 calls for the recording of all assignments of any work, American or foreign, before any action for infringement.

5. Term of copyright: Section 20 extends copyright to 50 years after death of the author. Section 21 to 50 years after publication for work done for a publisher for hire. Section 24 extends subsisting copyrights to the same periods.

6. Broadcasting: Section 12 protects to author the rights in broadcasting. Our present code protects music and plays for public performance for profit, but not the literary material.

7. Manufacturing: No section calls for obligatory manufacturing in United States either of books by American authors (which would be allowable under the Berne convention) or of books by foreign authors. The substitute, Section 41 offered by the book publishers provides that if books are manufactured here under an assignment of book rights, there shall then be custom house protection against the importation of competing editions.

8. International copyright: Sections 68 and on provide for entrance into the International Copyright Union, which will completely change our publishing relations outside our borders. All books by American writers will have copy

right abroad from the moment they are written here, including translation rights, and the works of all foreign authors (save Russia, Turkey, Mexico, and China) will have copyright here and translation rights. Section 70 provides, however, that enterprises connected with the publishing here of foreign authors which has been lawfully undertaken before the passage of the act shall not be prejudiced.

SITUATION ON THIS BILL

1. It has the tactical advantage of having been drafted by an unprejudiced party, a Government official.

2. It will have the powerful and continuous backing of the Authors' League of America, who are impatient of further delays and whose members are losing just protection every day under present law.

3. It will be backed by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, who have able counsel. They have much to gain by the bill and little to fear from the importing clause which will handicap the book publishers. 4. It will be favored by the American Library Association because the bill provides for unrestricted importation.

5. It will be opposed by labor because the manufacturing clause for American books was omitted and importing is made wide open.

6. It will be opposed by the phonograph and player-piano people, as it abolishes the fixed 2-cent fee for records and rolls and closes the open road to much European music.

7. It will be opposed by the broadcasting interests because it confirms the control of the composer over all public performances of music and extends similar control to authors.

8. It will be opposed by the motion-picture producers, who have a bill of their own (the Dallinger bill) which they like better and because they find in the phraseology of this bill certain legal pitfalls.

9. It will be opposed by the motion picture theater owners because they are fighting the control of the composers over the public use of music in their theaters. 10. The book publishers will suggest one amendment with regard to importations because as the provision is drafted, foreign authors have not the same rights here as American authors and American publishers have dealings with both.

11. According to the Authors' League Bulletin, January, 1925, "the bill as drafted omitted reference to several points on which other interests might seek its amendment, and to which the Authors' League would oppose no objection, provided there was no actual invasion of the creator's rights as defined in the bill."

(Chas. Henry Butler, of counsel for the Copyright Bureau of the National Association of Book Publishers, submitted a printed statement of George Haven Putnam, chairman of Bureau of Copyright, National Association of Book Publishers, made to the Members of the Patent Committees of the House and Senate, January 9, 1925, and the amendment proposed to section 41 of the pending act.)

1. The opening sections of the pending act appear to secure for the author, as has been the case with the provisions of preceding American acts and of the copyright acts of other countries, the full control of the property rights in the works produced by him. It is recognized that it is only when this full control is vested in the author that he is placed in the position, in assigning the publishing rights in the several markets in which his book can be sold, to secure from each market the largest possible return.

2. In Section XLİ, however, which prohibits the importation into this country of foreign editions of the copyrighted works of an American author, no such prohibition is made to apply to the works of an English, Canadian, or of any other foreign author. The importation of editions of the works of an English, Canadian, or of other foreign author is left open for everybody whether importations be for use or for sale. Yet if an English, Canadian, or other foreign author is not in a position to assign to an American publisher the full control of the American market, the compensation secured by him from this market, is, of necessity, lessened. It is as if a man should undertake to convey the title to a field, but was obliged to admit that the field was open for the use of anybody who desired to camp upon it. I think it probable that this distinction made between the foreign and the American authors may be held by the authorities in Berne to be a contravention of the regulations of the Berne convention.

3. It is important for American readers that every encouragement should be given to American publishers to make the investment required for the production of works of continued value and importance. Under this proposed statute, the English publisher can sell in this maket copies of the English edition, even after the author has given valid assignment of the American book rights to an American house. It is the only case that I know of in which the American law proposes to give an advantage to the foreign manufacturer at the expense of the American manufacturer.

4. It is important for the interests of the American buyer of books that American editions shall be produced of as many works from other countries as possible. Such editions are more likely to meet his own habits and requriements. The edition which is printed in this country is more effectively "published," that is to say it is more effectively advertised, and the distribution facilities are better. The book is brought to the attention of booksellers, libraries, and individual buyers in a way that is not practicable, because it is not profitable, for books which are presented here in imported editions.

5. We submit as an alternative for Section XLI as worded in the bill that is now on the calendar, this draft (p. 4). This gives freedom either to the librarian, or to the individual, to import, through the owner of the book rights for America, copies of the edition from the country of origin in the cases in which, on one ground or another, such edition is better suited for his requirement than the American edition. This provision thus worded makes the law consistent in that it leaves, as is done in the opening sections of the law, in the hands of the author and of the author's assign, full and consistent control of all copyright privileges.

6. In Section XII, the author, whether American or of any other country, is vested with the exclusive right not only to produce but to vend the copyrighted work in any form. This right, however, can not be maintained unless his assign, the American publisher, is left in control of the American market.

7. Section XV provides, as is provided in other copyright statutes, that the owner of a copyright may assign his right for limited time and for specified territory.

8. Section XLI provides machinery for protecting specified territory, but this machinery is made available for the use of American authors only. This distinction constitutes an injustice to the authors of other countries and to their assigns, the American publishers, and constitutes, of course. an inconsistency in the statute as proposed.

ALTERNATIVE PROPOSED FOR SECTION XLI

The following substitute for section 41, which, while safeguarding the interests of American publishers, is just to English authors in giving them the same rights which American authors have in respect to the American market, as is the general purpose of the bill, may prove acceptable to American publishers and printers as well as to the English Society of Authors and the Authors' League of America: "During the existence of the copyright in any work, the author of which is an American citizen or domiciled resident and to which protection is accorded under this act, and which is manufactured within the limits of the United States or its dependencies, and in the case of a work by a foreign author not domiciled in the United States when such work has been published and manufactured within the limits of the United States or its dependencies under an assignment covering stated rights for the United States registered in the copyright office; then, during the period in which an edition of American manufacture is published and kept on sale by the American proprietor the importation into the United States of any copies thereof, except second-hand copies, shall be and is hereby prohibited, except with the assent of the proprietor of the United States copyright, after registration and deposit of two copies of the American edition:

'Provided, however, That, except as regards piratical copies, such prohibition shall not apply

"(a) To any work published in the country of origin with the authorization of the author or copyright proprietor, when imported, not more than one copy each, for use and not for sale or hire, in good faith, by or for any person, library or branch thereof, school, college, society, or institution incorporated for educational, literary, philosophical, scientific or religious purposes, or for the encouragement of the fine arts, provided the publisher of the American edition of such work has, within 10 days after written demand, declined or neglected to agree to supply the copy demanded at a price equivalent to the foreign price thereof and transportation charges.

"(b) To works which form parts of libraries or collections purchased en bloc for the use of societies, institutions or libraries designated in the foregoing para

graph, or from parts of the libraries or personal baggage belonging to persons or families arriving from foreign countries and are not intended for sale;

"(c) To works in raised characters for the use of the blind.

"(d) To works imported by the authority or for the use of the United States. "Provided further, that copies imported as above may not lawfully be used in any way to violate the rights of the proprietor of the American copyright or annul or limit the copyright protection secured by the act, and such unlawful use shall be deemed an infringement of copyright." Respectfully submitted.

GEORGE HAVEN PUTNAM,
Chairman Bureau of Copyright

The CHAIRMAN. We will now take a recess until 2 o'clock this afternoon.

(Thereupon, at 12.15 o'clock p. m., the committee recessed until 2 o'clock this afternoon.)

AFTER RECESS

The committee reconvened pursuant to the taking of the recess, Hon. Florian Lampert (chairman) presiding.

STATEMENT OF MR. PAUL KLUGH, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS, NEW YORK

Mr. KLUGH. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I represent the National Association of Broadcasters, and I do not think that I should even attempt to touch upon those phases of this controversy between radio and our opponents, because they have been so thoroughly covered in the hearings held last spring, both in the Senate and in this very room.

Mr. REID. Now let us get "your opponents" straightened out. This is a new bill, introduced by Mr. Perkins. Are your opponents the same in this?

Mr. KLUGH. I refer, Congressman, particularly to those who opposed us on the two former bills, the Dill bill

Mr. REID. That is what I want to know. We have a little different set-up here. You are referring to Mr. Burkan and his crowd, I presume.

Mr. KLUGH. I did not want to refer to it by name, because of the gracious courtesy in which these gentlemen touched upon radio this morning. However, I think it is well established here

Mr. REID. I wanted to know who your opponents were; that is all Mr. KLUGH. I think it is well established who our opponents on the controversy have been, and they remain the same to-day. There is no doubt about that. Those hearings were complete; they were very full; they took days; they took lots of time, and there was ample scenery set up, a great show was set up, one in this room, if I remember correctly. The reports of those hearings, of course, are available to the members of this committee, and I especially recommend to your inspection the hearing held before the Subcommittee on Patents in the Senate last April on the Dill bill. It was a very complete hearing. In fact, it is said that the reports of those hearings were so voluminous that some statistician computed if you would put the words in a row they would reach from the Capitol to

the offices of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers in the Rawl Building, New York, and, by a detour, might even reach as far as Mr. Sol Bloom's office.

Of course, you know, without my saying here, that we are opposed to this bill, and especially to those phases which touch upon radio. There are many phases of the bill that touch upon radio, yet the paragraph applying directly to it is rather short. It is not my purpose at all to go into the matter. You know very well how we

stand on that.

Mr. REID. What paragraph is that?

Mr. KLUGH. I have not got it right before me, Mr. Reid: it is just one paragraph. I will read it to you if you say so.

Mr. SOLBERG. Section 12, subsection (j).

Mr. PERKINS. Here is section (j).

Mr. KLUGH. Section 12 (j) is right. We are, however, gentlemen, interested in the origin of the bill. I was much interested in the comments of Mr. Mills, who said that, as far as he was concerned, and on behalf of his organization, he would be perfectly willing to underwrite any bill which would be prepared by the register of copyrights; and, after an inspection of the bill, I should say that he was all right in that suggestion. I would, too, if I were Mr. Mills. But, gentlemen, the ordinary procedure, the custom which has been established, as far as I have been able to determine, when new legislation is proposed and especially when it originates in a department of the Government, is that consultations and conferences be held with those interests which will directly be affected by that bill; and, it is perfectly obvious that when the register of copyrights drew this bill, he inserted therein drastic clauses which directly affect radio, when he knew well that there was a controversy or that that controversy had been aired in two lenghty hearings, and it looks to us as though he had departed somewhat from that zone of neutrality, if you please, that a government employee ordinarily occupies when preparing and originating new legislation,

I heard Mr. Mills say that they knew nothing of the bill, and Mr. Burkan repeated that this morning. I believe that is true, officially true; but is it not a fact that the president of the American Society, Mr. Burkan, has also stated he is a member of the Authors' League, or some part of it, and did not a witness here testify that the Authors' League had been in consultation with the register of copyrights, if my memory serves me correctly, for a period of years, and he stated that they had been working upon the revision of this copyright law for fourteen years. And then did not the register of copyrights say that he prepared the bill out of his own mind, uninfluenced by anybody?

Well, gentlemen, I think the bill as prepared is so obviously favorable to those interests who uphold the present bill that there is no doubt about their being thoroughly satisfied with its method of preparation, without knowing anything about it, and I wish we were in just as comfortable a situation.

To support my contention as to what the ordinary procedure is, I want to call your attention to the message of the President of the United States to Congress, in December, 1905, bearing upon the origin of the bill that is now the law of the land-the copyright bill,