By direction of the Librarian of Congress the matter contained herein is published as administrative information and is required for the proper transaction of the public business.

Bulletins 13-16 are for sale by the Superintendent of Documents as a set

The courteous permission given for the use in this volume of syllabi and other copyright matter from the West Publishing Company's National Reporter System and other reports, and from the Bureau of National Affairs' United States Patents Quarterly, does not authorize the use of such material by others without the consent of the copyright proprietors. (See Title 17, United States Code.)

Cite as 13-16 C.O. Bull.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

United States. Courts.

Decisions of the United States courts involving copyright and literary property, 1789-1909, with an analytical index.

Bulletin nos. 13, 14, and 15, compiled and edited under the direction of Wilma S. Davis; bulletin no. 16 prepared by Mark A. Lillis.

1. Copyright-United States-Cases. I. Davis, Wilma S. II. Lillis, Mark Augustine. III. United States. Copyright Office.

KF2990.D37 1980

ISBN 0-8444-0250-8

346'.73'048202643

78-57569

L

THEL

ibrary of Congress and the community

of creative Americans are in deep debt to BARBARA RINGER. Her

brilliant, learned, and discriminating leadership in shaping a new copyright law, and her breadth of vision continue to inspire us all.

DANIEL J. BOORSTIN

MAY 1980

THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS

PREFACE

These volumes of copyright cases are a retrospective set of bulletins compiled by the Copyright Office for official and public use. They contain a substantial number of judicial and administrative decisions concerning copyright and literary property which interpreted the copyright law of the states and federal government prior to July 1, 1909.

Shortly after the appointment of the first Register of Copyrights in 1897, the Copyright Office began publishing a series of pamphlet-sized bulletins which contained information vital to the operation of the Copyright Office and of interest to its patrons. Copyright Office Bulletin, No. 1, contained the text of the U.S. Copyright Law as it was in force in January 1898. This bulletin was up-dated and reprinted at least 15 times until 1914. With the enactment of the new Copyright Law on March 4, 1909, the bulletin number was changed to No. 14.

Similarly, Copyright Office Bulletin No. 2 set forth the "Directions for Securing Copyright," and in 1909, it became Bulletin No. 15 with a change in title to "Rules and Regulations of the Copyright Office."

Texts of the Berne Copyright Convention, and copyright statutes from those countries with which the United States had bilateral relations, formed many of the other early bulletins.

For several years following enactment of the Copyright Law of 1909, landmark opinions interpreting the new act were included in the annual reports of the Register of Copyrights. Then, in 1915, the judicial opinions reported during the years 1913-1914 were compiled and published as Copyright Office Bulletin No. 17. Later this bulletin was enlarged to include selected court cases from the years 1909-1914 and was republished in 1928. In the meantime, Copyright Decisions, 1914-1917, was issued as Bulletin No. 18, while the decisions reported during 1918-1924 appeared in Bulletin No. 19. Copyright in Canada, published in 1924 as Bulletin No. 20, was out of print by 1936 and so the number was reassigned to the compilation of court decisions for 1924-1935. Again, The Copyright Law of the Philippines, as of March 1924, Bulletin No. 21, as published in 1928, was also out of print by 1938, and its number was reused to designate the compilation of copyright decisions reported during 1935-37. Accordingly, Copyright Office Bulletin Nos. 17-40, now consist entirely of the Office's compilation of Copyright Decisions, 1909-1976. Therefore, this retrospective set of volumes has been denominated Bulletin Nos. 13-15, in order to show its relationship to the current series of court decisions. The Analytical Index for these three volumes is Bulletin No. 16.