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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., Ist 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. ƒ 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 copyright. Presented by Mr. Barchfeld. H. R. bill No. 24782. Printed, 38 pp. 4°. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.]

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, 1909. 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

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. 4o.

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. 8°.

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, Govern

ment 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. 4o. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.]

machine to be protected by patent, or (b) before any copyright shall be issued by the United States on any article, musical composition, musical instrument, or device for reproducing music or musical compositions, or any picture, book, pamphlet, or any other work of literature or art to be protected by copyright, to any citizen of any foreign country, the applicant for such copyright registration or patent shall pay to the United States the same amount of copyright or patent fees, and subject himself to all the laws, conditions, restrictions, rules, limitations, and regulations that are imposed by the country of said citizen or subject upon a citizen of the United States for securing copyrights or obtaining and maintaining patents or for manufacturing and selling the patented article or article copyrighted in such foreign country, and the failure on the part of the following patentee to comply with this law shall operate as a forfeiture and cancellation of such copyright or letters patent: Provided, That citizens of any foreign country having no copyright or patent laws, or having such laws do not permit copyrights or patents to issue to citizens of this country, shall not be entitled to copyrights or patents in the United States.a

No further action by Congress has been taken in relation to either of these bills.

II. International copyright relations

The Berne Convention creating the International Copyright Union for the protection of works of literature and art was signed on September 9, 1886, and went into force on December 5, 1887. The Additional Agreement formulated at the first conference of revision, which met in Paris, was signed on May 4, 1896, and went into effect on December 9, 1897. This modified articles 2, 3, 5, 7, 12, and 20 of the convention, and Nos. 1 and 4 of the "Protocole de Clôture." A declaration interpreting certain provisions of the Berne Convention of 1886 and the Additional Agreement of Paris of 1896 was also signed on May 4, 1896, to go into effect on September 9, 1897.

a 1909 (March 29).—A bill requiring any citizen of a foreign country who may apply for a copyright registration or for letters patent from the United States for an invention to pay to the United States for such copyright or patent the same amount of fees and be subject to the same laws, rules, and regulations relating to the registration of copyrights and the issuance of letters patent, and relating to the issuance and maintenance of copyrights and letters patent, as the government of such foreign country exacts by its laws and regulations from citizens of the United States in such cases. Presented by Mr. Stephens. H. R. bill 5882 Printed, 4 pp. 4o. [Referred to the Committee on Patents.]

A second conference of revision was held in Berlin from October 14 to November 14, 1908, and a new text to take the place of the three documents cited above was formulated by the representatives of the following fifteen countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Tunis.

Representatives from the following nonunion countries were also present at the conference: Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Mexico, the Netherlands (Holland), Nicaragua, Peru, Persia, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Siam, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Designated by the Secretary of State as Delegate from the United States, I attended the Berlin Conference instructed to "observe and report," with no authority to take part in the discussions beyond making an explanatory statement relative to my attendance. Mr. Arthur Orr, Third Secretary of the United States Embassy at Berlin, was also present at the sittings of the conference.

The convention was signed on November 13 and the conference closed on November 14. Article 28 of the convention provides that it shall be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged at Berlin, not later than the 1st of July, 1910. To give prompt publicity to the proposed treaty the official text was, by resolution of the conference, published in the organ of the International Copyright Bureau at Berne, "Le Droit d'Auteur," for November 15. This French text of the treaty is reprinted here, together with an English translation from the text as published in "Le Droit d'Auteur." The new convention can not go into effect until ratified by the various countries of the Copyright Union, and it will not wholly supersede the previous Conventions of Berne (1886) and Paris (1896). These texts, therefore, are also printed in an English translation. and 2.)

Respectfully submitted

(See Addenda, Nos. I

THORVALD SOLBERG

Register of Copyrights

HERBERT PUTNAM

Librarian of Congress

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