two copies required to be so deposited have been 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, and the place within the limits of the United States at which such type was set or plates or negatives were made and by whom.

"SEC. 2. Any person violating any of the provisions of this act, or who shall be guilty of making a false affidavit as to his having complied with the conditions thereof for the purpose of obtaining a copyright, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, and all of his rights and privileges under said copyright shall thereafter be forfeited."

This bill is a reenactment of section 4956 of the Revised Statutes, and is the same in every particular as that section now reads in the statutes, containing no new matter whatever except that contained in the amendment above proposed.

The law now provides that no person shall be entitled to a copyright unless he shall on or before the day of publication 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 a printed copy of the title of his publication or other matter for which he applies for copyright. He is also required by the existing law, not later than the day of publication, to deposit with the Librarian of Congress two copies of such copyright book, map, chart, etc., and the law expressly provides that these two copies "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." The law which thus requires the deposit of two copies of the publication and that the same shall be printed from type set within the limits of the United States, etc., before a copyright can be obtained, does not require any proof to be filed that such books have been thus printed within the limits of the United States, nor does it impose any penalty whatever upon an author or publisher

Senate bill, no. 5314

who obtains a copyright without having first complied with this condition as to the printing from type set within the limits of the United States.

After investigation your committee have reason to believe that it is not only possible, but that in some instances the present law has been evaded and violated to the injury of American labor, and that this can be done with comparative ease under the existing law; that there is no remedy and no means of enforcing this condition as to printing from type set by American labor and within our own country. That being the case, your committee is of the opinion that the person applying for a copyright should be required as a condition precedent to furnish proof in the form of an affidavit that all of these conditions with respect to the labor employed in the printing and the place of printing the copies of books to be deposited have been complied with, and in the event that any false statement is made in said affidavit concerning a material fact, and upon conviction thereof, the person thus attempting to obtain a copyright should be punished and the copyright forfeited.

The bill as amended, therefore, provides merely for the filing of this proof and for a penalty for the making of false proof or willful failure to comply with the conditions of the present law. as contained in section 4956 of the Revised Statutes.

Therefore your committee recommends that, as amended, the bill do pass.

[S. 5314. Fifty-eighth Congress, second session. In the Senate of the United States. March 30, 1904.]

Mr. Platt, of Connecticut, introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Patents.

A BILL to amend title sixty, chapter three, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, relating to copyrights.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-six of the Revised Stat

utes of the United States be, and the same is hereby, amended, so that it shall read as follows:

"SEC. 4956. No person shall be entitled to a copyright unless he shall, on or before the day of publication 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, statue, 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 the 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 in paragraphs five hundred and twelve to five hundred and sixteen, inclusive, in section two of the act entitled 'An act to reduce the revenue and equalize the duties on imports, and for other purposes,' approved October first, eighteen hundred and ninety; but the privilege accorded to certain institutions under paragraph five hundred and fifteen of

section two of said act, to import free of duty not more than two copies of books, maps, lithographic prints, and charts, shall apply to the importation of books, maps, lithographic prints, and charts which have been copyrighted in the United States, only when the holders of the American copyrights thereof in writing consent to such importation; and except in the case of persons purchasing for use and not for sale, who import subject to the duty thereon and with the written consent of the holders of the American copyrights, not more than two copies of such book at any one time; and except in the case of newspapers and magazines, not containing in whole or in part matter copyrighted under the provisions of this act, unauthorized by the author, which are hereby exempted from prohibition of importation: Provided, nevertheless, That in case of books in foreign languages, of which only translations in English are copyrighted, the prohibition of importation shall apply only to the translation of the same, and the importation of the books in the original language shall be permitted."

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF COPYRIGHT

I. BILLS

FIRST CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION

1789 (June 23).-A bill to promote the progress of science H. R. bill, no. and useful arts by securing to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and inventions. Presented by Mr. Benjamin Huntington, of Connecticut. H. R. bill, no. 10. Printed, 11 pp. 4°.

(1)

NOTE. This was the first Federal copyright bill. Its presentation followed the filing of petitions from various well-known authors urging Congress to enact a law to protect books and maps (see Chronological Record, p. 114). This bill included also patents, the larger part of the bill relating to the latter subject. Later on, in the second session of the first Congress, separate bills were introduced for copyrights and patents. This bill as amended became the first Federal copyright law, approved May 31, 1790.

FIRST CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

39

1790 (January 28).-A bill for securing the copy-right H. R. bill, no. of books to authors and proprietors. Presented by Mr. Ædanus Burke, of South Carolina. H. R. bill, no. 39. (2)

NOTE.-Reported from committee on February 1, with amendments; on February 2, ordered to be recommitted, and a substitute bill (1st Cong., 2d sess., H. R. bill, no. 43) presented on February 25.

43. Ist Federal

1790 (February 25).—A bill for the encouragement of H. R. bill, no. learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, books, and copyright law other writings, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned. Presented by Mr. Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey. H. R. bill, no. 43.

(3)

NOTE. This bill was passed by the House of Representatives on April 30, 1790, and by the Senate on May 14, with amendments, which were agreed to by the House on May 17, and the act was approved by the President on May 31, 1790, and became law on that date, being the first Federal copyright law.