INTRODUCTION. A copyright is "the exclusive privilege, secured according to certain legal forms, of printing, or otherwise multiplying, publishing and vending copies of certain literary or artistic productions." 1 1 In England a certain common law right of copyright existed at one time, but such common law copyright was never recognized in this country. The power to issue copyrights was granted to Congress by the same provision of the United States Constitution that gave this body the power to issue patents: (Congress shall have power)-to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." 2 Copyrights as they exist in the United States, thus, depend wholly upon legislation by Congress.3 Copyright law being thus entirely statutory in its origin, it is treated like patents, by giving the portions of the Federal statutes relative to this subject, with such annotations as are considered necessary for an understanding of the text of the statutes. Annotated Federal Statutes on Copyrights. COPYRIGHTS TO BE UNDER CHARGE OF LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS. Sec. 4948. All records and other things relating to copyrights and required by law to be preserved shall 1 Bouviers Law Dictionary. 2 United States Constitution, Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 8. Vol. V-17. 257 9 Banks vs. Manchester, 128 U. S., 244. be under the control of the Librarian of Congress, and kept and preserved in the Library of Congress; and the Librarian of Congress shall have the immediate care and supervision thereof, and, under the supervision of the joint committee of Congress on the Library, shall perform all acts and duties required by law touching copyrights. PERSONS AND PUBLICATIONS ENTITLED TO COPY RIGHTS. Sec. 4952. The author, inventor, designer, or proprietor of any book, map chart, dramatic, or musical composition, engraving, cut, print, or photograph, or negative thereof, or of a painting, drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and of models or designs intended to be perfected as works of the fine arts, and the executors, administrators, or assigns of any such person shall, upon complying with the provisions of this chapter, have the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, completing, copying, executing, finishing, and vending the same; and, in the the case of dramatic composition, of publicly performing or representing it or causing it to be performed or represented by others; and authors or their assigns shall have the exclusive right to dramatize and translate any of their works for which copyright shall have been obtained under the laws of the United States. Books rest safely under copyright which show only ordinary skill and diligence in their preparation. The courts will not undertake to assume the functions of critics or to measure carefully the degree of originality or literary training involved.* Henderson vs. Tompkins, 60 Fed. Rep., 758. There can be no precise rule laid down as a test of originality; a book may be original in the eye of the law when it is not in the eye of the critic." 6 A copyright may be taken out in the name of a trustee, a corporation," or in the name or style under which a person is carrying on business. An abridgement of another book," an article forming part of an encyclopaedia,10 or a single page complete in itself " are all proper subjects of copyright. So, also is a photograph of such a character as to be considered as a product of the plaintiff's intellectual invention.12 Legal blanks may be copyrighted, 13 and also those parts of annotated state statutes which are the work of the author.14 Some things which have been held incapable of copyright are the following: An inchoate and intended publication.15 The labor done by judicial officers in the discharge or their judicial duties.10 The laws and public records of a state." A particular method of making maps,18 or a particular plan for gathering information.19 The title as distinct from the work which it is used to designate.20 & Boucicault vs. Fox, 5 Blatcf. (U.S.), 87. Hanson vs. Jaccard Jeneby Co., 7 Mutual Advertising Co. vs. Refo, Story vs. Holcombe, 4 McLean, 10 Black vs. Henry G. Allen Co., 11 Scovilel vs. Toland, 6 West. L. J., TERM OF COPYRIGHTS. Sec. 4953. Copyrights shall be granted for the term of twenty-eight years from the time of recording the title thereof, in the manner hereinafter directed. FURTHER TERM OF EXCLUSIVE RIGHT-PUBLICATION OF RECORD. Sec. 4954. The author, or designer, if he be still living, or his widow or children, if he be dead, shall have the same exclusive right continued for the further term of fourteen years, upon recording the title of the work or description of the articles so secured a second time, and complying with all other regulations in regard to original copyrights, within six months before the expiration of the first term; and such persons shall, within two months from the date of said renewal, cause a copy of the record thereof to be published in one or more newspapers printed in the United States for the space of four weeks. ASSIGNMENT OF COPYRIGHTS AND RECORDING. Sec. 4955. Copyrights shall be assignable in law, by an instrument of writing, and such assignment shall be recorded in the office of the Librarian of Congress within sixty days after its execution; in default of which it shall be void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgage for a valuable consideration, without notice. Before copyright, the rights of an author may be assigned by parol.21 DEPOSIT OF TITLE AND PUBLISHED COPIES-IMPOR TATIONS. Sec. 4956. No person shall be entitled to a copyright unless he shall, on or before the day of publication "Callaghan vs. Myers, 128 U. S., 167. in this or any foreign country, deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress, or deposit in the mail within the United States, addressed to the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, a printed copy of the title of the book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a description of the painting, drawing, statute, statuary, or a model or design for a work of the fine arts for which he desires a copyright, nor unless he shall also, not later than the day of the publication thereof in this or any foreign country, deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, or deposit in the mail within the United States, addressed to the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, two copies of such copyright book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, chromo, cut, print, or photograph, or in case of a painting, drawing statue, statuary, model, or design for a work of the fine arts, a photograph of same: Provided, That in the case of a book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph, the two copies of the same required to be delivered or deposited as above shall 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. During the existence of such copyright the importation into the United States of any book, chromo, lithograph, or photograph, so copyrighted, or any edition or editions thereof, or any plates of the same not made from type set, negatives, or drawings on stone made within the limits of the United States, shall be, and it is hereby, prohibited, except in the cases specified |