Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

of the copyright, or may be bequeathed by will. An assignment is void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for a valuable consideration, without notice, unless recorded in the office of the Librarian of Congress within three months after its execution (23).

§ 18. Fees. The fees of the Copyright Office are as follows: 1. For the registration of any work subject to copyright, one dollar, which sum includes a certificate under seal (except that for photographs the fee is only fifty cents if a certificate is not demanded). 2. For every additional certificate of registration, fifty cents. 3. For recording and certifying any instrument of writing for the assignment of copyright, or for any copy of such assignment, 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 (24).

§ 19. Effect of registration. The Copyright Office does not issue or grant copyrights in the sense in which the Patent Office grants patents. A patent is issued after a full examination by the Patent Office on the merits of the applicant's case, as set out in his application, and is an opinion by the Patent Office as to the patentability of his invention. The Copyright Office, on the other hand, merely records claims to copyright protection. It

(23) Or six months in the case of execution without the limits of the United States. Secs. 42, 43, 44.

(24) Copyright Act. Sec. 61.

does not adjudicate the claims or pass upon them, or furnish any guaranty of literary or artistic property. It has no authority to question any claim as to authorship, or to consider conflicting claims, or to take any steps in relation to infringement. The acts of registration, deposit of the required copies, and inscribing with notice, as above set out, are prerequisite to the claim of any right at all after publication; but, upon the performance of such acts, the registrant's claim of copyright must depend, in case of any contest of his rights afterwards, upon his actual ownership of the work; and the legal effect of the registration will also depend upon whether or not the work is such as is entitled to copyright protection, even though it has been accepted by the Copyright Office. The effect of the registration is, in this respect, somewhat similar to the effect of recording a deed to land. It is public notice of the registrant's claim, but not an adjudication as to the merits of such claim.

During the existence

§ 20. Importation prohibited. of the copyright, the importation into the United States, with a few unimportant exceptions, of any piratical copies of the work, or of any copies of a book which have not been produced within the United States, as noted in section 11, above; and of any plates not mad efrom type set within the limits of the United States, or any copies produced by lithographic or photo-engraving process not performed within the limits of the United States, is prohibited. These prohibitions apply to the owner of the copyright as well as to others, and the treasury department is authorized to seize works imported in violation

of the prohibition, whether imported with his consent or

not (25).

§ 21. Infringement. In §§ 6-8 above, there have been enumerated the various exclusive rights which are secured to a proprietor by the copyrighting of his work under the Act. It is an infringement of his copyright to do any act in violation of one of these rights.

§ 22. Penalties for infringement. One who infringes is liable, under the Act:

(a) To an injunction restraining such infringement; (b) To pay to the copyright proprietor such damages as he may have suffered, as well as all the profits which the infringer may have made from such infringement, or in lieu of actual damages and profits such damages as to the court shall appear to be just. And in assessing such damages the court may, in its discretion, allow the amounts stated below (except that in the case of a newspaper reproduction of a copyrighted photograph such damages shall not exceed the sum of two hundred dollars, nor be less than the sum of fifty dollars, and such damages shall in no other case exceed the sum of five thousand dollars nor be less than the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, and not be regarded as a penalty). The amounts

are:

1. In the case of a painting, statue, or sculpture, ten dollars for every infringing copy made, or sold by, or found in the possession of the infringer or his agents or employes;

2. In the case of any work enumerated in section

(25) Id. Secs. 30, 31.

6 of this article, except a painting, statue, or sculpture, one dollar for every infringing copy made, or sold by, or found in the possession of the infringer or his agents or employes;

3. In the case of a lecture, sermon, or address, fifty dollars for every infringing delivery;

4. In the case of a dramatic or dramatico-musical or a choral or orchestral composition, one hundred dollars for the first and fifty dollars for every subsequent infringing performance; in the case of other musical compositions, ten dollars for every infringing performance.

(c) To deliver up on oath, to be impounded during the pendency of the action, upon such terms and conditions as the court may prescribe, all articles alleged to infringe the copyright; and

(d) To deliver up on oath for destruction all the infringing copies or devices, as well as all plates, molds, matrices, or other means for making such infringing copies, as the court may order (26).

§ 23. Same. Infringement wilful and for profit. Any person who wilfully and for profit infringes any copyright secured by the Act, or who knowingly and wilfully aids or abets such infringement, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, may be punished by imprisonment for not exceeding one year or by a fine of not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or both, in the discretion of the court (27).

(26) Id. Sec. 25. (27) Id. Sec. 28.

§ 24. False claim of copyright or fraudulent removal of notice. Any one who, with fraudulent intent, inserts or impresses any notice of copyright required by the Act, or words of the same purport, upon any uncopyrighted article; or, with fraudulent intent, removes or alters the copyright notice upon any article duly copyrighted, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars. Any person who knowingly issues or sells any article bearing a notice of United States copyright which has not been copyrighted in this country, or who knowingly imports any article bearing such notice or words of the same purport, which has not been copyrighted in this country, is liable to a fine of one hundred dollars (28).

§ 25. Jurisdiction of courts. The Circuit Courts of the United States have original jurisdiction of all suits at law or in equity arising under the patent or copyright laws of the United States.

§ 26. Act does not annul or limit common law right. Section 2 of the Act provides that nothing therein shall be construed to annul or limit the right of the author or proprietor of an unpublished work, at common law or in equity, to prevent the copying, duplicating, or use of such unpublished work without his consent, and to obtain damages therefore. It will be observed that this is the right described in § § 1 and 2 of this article, and Section 2 of the Act declares it shall still exist, independently of the Act. It follows, therefore, that the author of an unpub

(28) Id. Sec. 29.

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »