Number of entries of United States productions recorded_ _ Total number of titles recorded_____ Number of certificates of United States entries_ Number of certificates of foreign entries. Total number of certificates_ Number of certified copies of record. 1,783 604 CONDITION OF COPYRIGHT OFFICE WORK (a) Current work At this date (July 9, 1909) the remittances received up to the third mail of the day have been recorded and acknowledged. The account books of the bookkeeping division are written up and posted to June 30, and the accounts rendered to the Treasury Department are settled up to and including the month of June, while earned fees to June 30, inclusive, have been paid into the Treasury. All copyright applications received up to and including June 30 have been passed upon and refunds made. The total unfinished business for the full twelve years from July I, 1897, to June 30, 1909, amounts to but $81.66. At the close of business on July 9, 1909, the titles for record had been dated, classified, and numbered to July 2, inclusive, for books and periodicals and to July 1 for all other classes, and all titles had been indexed up to and including June 30. The articles of all classes deposited had been stamped, catalogued, and credited up to the receipts of June 25, inclusive, for class D (drama), and to June 30, inclusive, for all other classes. The certificate and noncertificate entries had been recorded to June 30, inclusive, and certificates and notices of entry to the same date made, revised, and mailed. (b) Copyright business prior to July 1, 1897 Congress in the appropriation act for the fiscal year just. Prior copyclosed continued the special force for work on the arrears of Copyright Office business prior to July 1, 1897. The examination and arrangement of the mass of deposits have been continued. DEPOSITS RECEIVED PRIOR TO JULY 1, 1897 During the fiscal year 1908-9, 21,962 articles received, Deposits prior to July 1, 1897 prior to July 1, 1897, were credited to their respective entries, and 562 articles were filed away as unclearable, no entries being found therefor, making a total of 22,524 articles finally disposed of during the year. Of the titles filed prior to July 1, 1897, in bundles, the remainder, amounting to 106,738, have now been collated, arranged, and permanently disposed of. COPYRIGHT LEGISLATION AND INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT RELATIONS I. Legislation The record of proposed copyright legislation was brought down (in my last year's report) to the end of the first session of the Sixtieth Congress. Promptly in the second session of that Congress the consolidated copyright bill was reintro Public hearing duced in various texts which, while mainly in accord, differed in certain important particulars. Mr. Barchfeld, of the House Committee on Patents, reintroduced his bill on December 19, 1908. Mr. Sulzer presented, on January 5, 1909, an amended text of his former bill. On January 15, 1909, Mr. Washburn, of the House Committee on Patents, brought in a bill containing those sections of the general copyright bill which related to the administration of the Copyright Office, with a view to the enactment of administrative provisions for the relief of the office in case the bill as a whole failed of enactment.c On January 20 the Copyright Subcommittee of the House Committee on Patents gave a hearing on the clause in section 4 of Mr. Washburn's bill (H. R. 21592, 60th Cong., 1st sess.), reading: "That subject to the limitations and conditions of this Act copyright secured hereunder shall be entitled to all the rights and remedies which would be accorded to any other species of property at common law." Arguments were submitted and discussed by Mr. Arthur Steuart of Baltimore; Mr. William A. Jenner of New York; and Mr. Robert H. Parkinson of Chicago, and a stenographic report was printed. Following this hearing Mr. Washburn introduced on January 28, 1909, a new edition of his bill, which was ordered to be printed and referred to the Committee on Patents of the House of Representatives.f New copy-On February 17 Mr. Currier introduced a new draft of the right bills a 1908 (December 19).—A bill to consolidate and revise the Acts respecting copy- right. b 1909 (January 5).—A bill to amend and consolidate the Acts respecting copy. right. Presented by Mr. Sulzer. H. R. bill No. 25162. Printed, 38 pp. 4°. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.] c 1909 (January 15).—A bill to provide for the administration of the Copyright Office. Presented by Mr. Washburn. H. R. bill No. 26282. Printed, 8 pp. 1 1. 4°. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.] d Frank D. Currier, chairman; Edmund H. Hinshaw, John C. Chaney, Charles McGavin, Charles G. Washburn, William Sulzer, George S. Legare. e 1909 (January 20).—Arguments before the Copyright Subcommittee of the Committee on Patents, House of Representatives, on Common-law Rights as applied to Copyright (Sec. 4, H. R. 21592). 42 pp. 8°. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909. f 1909 (January 28).—A bill to amend and consolidate the Acts respecting copyright. Presented by Mr. Washburn. H. R. bill No. 27310. Printed, 38 pp 4°. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.] House Committee's bill. This bill was reported by Mr. Currier from the House Committee on Patents on February 22, and bill and report were ordered to be printed. On the same day Mr. Smoot, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Patents, introduced the same bill in the Senate, where it was read twice and referred to the Committee on Patents.c This bill was reported by Mr. Smoot without amendment, on March 1, and the report was ordered printed. The Senate report itself is very brief, reading as follows: “The Committee on Patents, to whom was referred the bill (S. 9440) to amend and consolidate the acts respecting copyright, having carefully considered the same, beg to report it back with the recommendation that it do pass." The House report was adopted, however, as part of the Senate report and reprinted with it. On Tuesday, March 2, 1909, Mr. Currier, under a motion to suspend the rules, submitted certain committee amendments to the bill, which were read and printed in full in the Congressional Record. On Wednesday, March 3, Mr. Currier moved again to suspend the rules, agree to the committee amendments, and to pass the bill. After some discussion, participated in by Mr. Currier, Mr. Sulzer, Mr. Washburn, Mr. Chaney, Mr. Cooper of Wisconsin, Mr. Wilson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Olmsted, Mr. Driscoll, and others, the bill was agreed to and passed, to go into effect on July 1, Later on the same day Mr. Smoot, in the Senate, proposed to substitute the House bill (No. 28192) as amended and passed for the Senate bill (No. 9440), and this, after 1909. a 1909 (February 17).—A bill to amend and consolidate the Acts respecting copy right. Presented by Mr. Currier. H. R. bill No. 28192. Printed, 36 pp. 1 1 4°. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.] b 1909 (February 22).—To amend and consolidate the Acts respecting copyright, Mr. Currier, from the Committee on Patents, submitted the following report (to accompany H. R. 28192). 60th Congress, 2d session, House of Representatives. Report No. 2222. Printed, 21 pp. 8°. c 1909 (February 22).—A bill to amend and consolidate the Acts respecting copyright. Presented by Mr. Smoot. Senate bill No. 9440. Printed, 36 pp. 1 1. 4°. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.] d 1909 (March 1).-To amend and consolidate the Acts respecting copyright. Mr. Smoot, from the Committee on Patents, submitted the following report (to accompany S. 9440). 60th Congress, 2d session. Senate report No. 1108. Printed, 21 pp. 8°. e 1909 (March 2).-Amendments to the Copyright Bill (H. R. 28192). Agreed to by the Committee on Patents February 26, 1909. Printed, 2 pp. 4°. some little discussion including support of the bill by Senator Kittredge, was agreed to and the bill was passed. The bill as enacted was printed in the usual large type, folio form, for signing by the President, who affixed his signature on the morning of Thursday, March 4. It was then printed in the usual manner as an act (Public-No. 349).a An edition (of 3,000 copies) with marginal notes and full index was promptly printed by the Copyright Office. A second impression of 3,000 copies was issued on April 7, 1909, and a third impression of the same number on June 25. This last has as an appendix the Rules for Practice and Procedure under section 25, promulgated by the Supreme Court on June 1.6 (For full text, see Addenda, No. 1.) In addition to the consolidated copyright bill Mr. John H. Stephens, of Texas, on December 7, 1908, in the second session of the Sixtieth Congress, introduced a bill, which was referred to the Committee on Patents and ordered to be printed. This bill, in revised text, was reintroduced in the first session of the Sixty-first Congress on March 15, 1909, again referred to the Committee on Patents, and ordered to be printed (H. R. bill 78). It was a third time presented by Mr. Stephens on March 29, 1909, referred to the Committee on Patents, and ordered to be printed (H. R. bill 5882). It differs materially from the other bills, and provides as follows: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) before any letters patent shall be issued by the United States on any article, commodity, compound, device, mechanical appliance, or a 1909 (March 4).—An act to amend and consolidate the acts respecting copyright (approved March 4, 1909. Public-No. 349). Printed, 15 pp. 8o. The Copyright law of the United States of America in force July 1, 1909, replacing the Revised Statutes of the United States, title 60, chapter 3 (1873), and subsequent amendatory acts. 2 p. 1. 43 pp. 80 Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909. (Copyright Office Bulletin No. 14.) c 1908 (December 7).—A bill requiring any citizen of a foreign country who may procure a copyright or letters patent from the United States to pay to the United States for such copyright or patent the same amount of fees and to subject himself to the same laws, rules, and regulations relating to such patent, its use and control, as the government of such foreign country exacts by its laws and regulations from citizens of the United States, and for other purposes. Presented by Mr. Stephens. H. R. bill 22296. Printed, 4 pp. 4°. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.] |