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days is now engraved by mechanical means in as many hours.

AS TO THE CHOICE OF BOOKBINDINGS

In bookbinding, authors are prone to suggest covers or cover-designs for their books which are either inartistic or inadvisable, because based on esthetic tastes or lack of knowledge of the limits of brass-cutting, die-stamping, or bookbinding. The selection of material for binding, of cover designs, or of colors, is, as a rule, a matter better left to the judgment of the publisher than trusted to the whims of an author. Binding is a mechanical process with which publishers are better equipped to deal than authors, for it is the publisher's business to know how to make a book, and this the reputable publisher certainly does know. The relative value of material used for binding, from the least desirable to the most serviceable, is as follows: (1) paper; (2) paperboards; (3) buckram; (4) cloth; (5) skiver; (6) roan; (7) calf; (8) Russia; (9) Turkey morocco; (10) levant morocco; (11) parchment; (12) vellum.

Writers in general should remember that their books must be made to sell, and to sell they must be able to withstand a certain amount of wear and tear. If they be bound in delicate col

ors, and remain exposed for sale for only a few weeks on the shelves in some bookstore, the color will fade, and the book, to all intents and purposes, becomes second-hand almost immediately after its publication. Then, like any soiled or shop-worn goods in a dry-goods store, the price will be marked down, and the author may experience the mortification of seeing his new work offered for sale at a price so absurdly low as to cause him to wish he had never written it. In all such matters as this the author should trust to the superior knowledge of trade conditions which his publisher must have, for it is an important factor in the issuing and marketing of books-a knowledge which is invariably the mainstay of a publishing house.

XVI

HOW TO SECURE A COPYRIGHT

THE Copyright of a book can be secured by the author or by his publisher. This may be done in the United States by applying to the Register of Copyrights, Copyright Office, Washington, D. C., for forms, which must be filled in and returned to Washington for filing before copyright papers are issued.

The following are the chief provisions of the Copyright Law of the United States, as abstracted from the Act which went into effect July 1, 1909:

Exclusive Rights.-SEC. 1. Any person entitled thereto, upon complying with the provisions of this Act, shall have the exclusive right:

(a) To print, reprint, publish, copy, and vend the copyrighted work;

(b) To translate the copyrighted work into other languages or dialects, or make any other version thereof, if it be a literary work; to dramatize it if it be a nondramatic work; to convert it into a novel or other nondramatic work if it be a drama; to arrange or adapt it if it be a musical work; to complete, execute, and finish it if it be a model or design for a work of art;

(c) To deliver or authorize the delivery of the copyrighted work in public for profit if it be a lecture, sermon, address, or similar production;

(d) To perform or represent the copyrighted work publicly if it be a drama or, if it be a dramatic work and not reproduced in copies for sale, to vend any manuscript or any record whatsoever thereof; to make or to procure the making of any transcription or record thereof by or from which, in whole or in part, it may in any manner or by any method be exhibited, performed, represented, produced, or reproduced; and to exhibit, perform, represent, produce, or reproduce it in any manner or by any method whatsoever;

(e) To perform the copyrighted work publicly for profit if it be a musical composition and for the purpose of public performance for profit; and for the purposes set forth in subsection (a) hereof, to make any arrangement or setting of, it or of the melody of it in any system of notation or any form of record in which the thought of an author may be recorded and from which it may be read or reproduced: Provided, That the provisions of this Act, so far as they secure copyright controlling the parts of instruments serving to reproduce mechanically the musical work, shall include only compositions published and copyrighted after this Act goes into effect, and shall not include the works of a foreign author or composer unless the foreign state or nation of which such author or composer is a citizen or subject grants, either by treaty, convention, agreement, or law, to citizens of the United States similar rights.

The remainder of the section treats of provisions governing mechanical reproduction of musical compositions and the penalties incurred by failure to observe them.

SEC. 2. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to annul or limit the right of the author or proprietor of an unpublished work, at common law or in equity, to prevent the copying, publication, or use of such

unpublished work without his consent, and to obtain damages therefor.

SEC. 3. The copyright provided by this Act shall protect all the copyrightable component parts of the work copyrighted, and all matter therein in which copyright is already subsisting, but without extending the duration or scope of such copyright. The copyright upon composite works or periodicals shall give to the proprietor thereof all the rights in respect thereto which he would have if each part were individually copyrighted under this Act.

SEC. 4. The works for which copyright may be secured under this Act shall include all the writings of an author.

Classification of Copyright Works.-SEC. 5. The application for registration shall specify to which of the following classes the work in which copyright is claimed belongs:

(a) Books, including composite and cyclopædic works, directories, gazetteers, and other compilations;

(b) Periodicals, including newspapers;

(c) Lectures, sermons, addresses, prepared for oral delivery;

(d) Dramatic or dramatico-musical compositions; (e) Musical compositions;

(f) Maps;

(g) Works of art; models or designs for works of art;

(h) Reproductions of a work of art;

(i) Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character;

(j) Photographs;

(k) Prints and pictorial illustrations:

Provided, nevertheless, That the above specifications shall not be held to limit the subject-matter of copyright as defined in section four of this Act, nor shall any error in classification invalidate or impair the copyright protection secured under this Act.

SEC. 6. Compilations or abridgments, adaptations, arrangements, dramatizations, translations, or other

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