feit one dollar for every sheet of the same found in his possession, either printing, printed, copied, published, imported, or exposed for sale; and in case of a painting, statue, or statuary, he shall forfeit ten dollars for every copy of the same in his possession, or by him sold or exposed for sale, one-half thereof to the proprietor and the other half to the use of the United States." U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3414.

Section 4970 is as follows:

"The Circuit Courts, and District Courts having the jurisdiction of Circuit Courts, shall have power, upon bill in equity filed by any party aggrieved, to grant injunctions to prevent the violation of any right secured by the laws respecting copyrights, according to the course and principles of courts of equity, on such terms as the court may deem reasonable." U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3416.

Section 4965 undertakes to work a forfeiture of copyrighted articles, and confers a right of action for a penalty. Relief is given in a single suit, one-half of the money recovered going to the United States. Werckmeister v. American Tobacco Company, 207 U. S. 375.

As this is a suit in equity for relief under § 4970 of the U. S. Revised Statutes, giving to the Circuit and District Courts of the United States the right to grant relief by injunctions to prevent the violations of rights secured by the copyright statutes, we are not concerned with rights and remedies under § 4965.

It is the contention of the appellant that the Circuit Court erred in failing to give effect to the provision of § 4952, protecting the owners of the copyright in the sole right of vending the copyrighted book or other article, and the argument is that the statute vested the whole field of the right of exclusive sale in the copyright owner; that he can part with it to another to the extent that he sees fit, and may withhold to himself, by proper reservations, so much of the right as he pleases.

What does the statute mean in granting "the sole right of vending the same"? Was it intended to create a right which would permit the holder of the copyright to fasten, by notice

in a book or upon one of the articles mentioned within the statute, a restriction upon the subsequent alienation of the subject-matter of copyright after the owner had parted with the title to one who had acquired full dominion over it and had given a satisfactory price for it? It is not denied that one who has sold a copyrighted article, without restriction, has parted with all right to control the sale of it. The purchaser of a book, once sold by authority of the owner of the copyright, may sell it again, although he could not publish a new edition of it.

In this case the stipulated facts show that the books sold by the appellant were sold at wholesale, and purchased by those who made no agreement as to the control of future sales of the book, and took upon themselves no obligation to enforce the notice printed in the book, undertaking to restrict retail sales to a price of one dollar per copy.

The precise question, therefore, in this case is, does the sole right to vend (named in § 4952) secure to the owner of the copyright the right, after a sale of the book to a purchaser, to restrict future sales of the book at retail, to the right to sell it at a certain price per copy, because of a notice in the book that a sale at a different price will be treated as an infringement, which notice has been brought home to one undertaking to sell for less than the named sum? We do not think the statute can be given such a construction, and it is to be remembered that this is purely a question of statutory construction. There is no claim in this case of contract limitation, nor license agreement controlling the subsequent sales of the book.

In our view the copyright statutes, while protecting the owner of the copyright in his right to multiply and sell his production, do not create the right to impose, by notice, such as is disclosed in this case, a limitation at which the book shall be sold at retail by future purchasers, with whom there is no privity of contract. This conclusion is reached in view of the language of the statute, read in the light of its main purpose

to secure the right of multiplying copies of the work, a right which is the special creation of the statute. True, the statute also secures, to make this right of multiplication effectual, the sole right to vend copies of the book, the production of the author's thought and conception. The owner of the copyright in this case did sell copies of the book in quantities and at a price satisfactory to it. It has exercised the right to vend. What the complainant contends for embraces not only the right to sell the copies, but to qualify the title of a future purchaser by the reservation of the right to have the remedies of the statute against an infringer because of the printed notice of its purpose so to do unless the purchaser sells at a price fixed in the notice. To add to the right of exclusive sale the authority to control all future retail sales, by a notice that such sales must be made at a fixed sum, would give a right not included in the terms of the statute, and, in our view, extend its operation, by construction, beyond its meaning, when interpreted with a view to ascertaining the legislative intent in its enactment.

This conclusion renders it unnecessary to discuss other questions noticed in the opinion in the Circuit Court of Appeals, or to examine into the validity of the publisher's agreements, alleged to be in violation of the acts to restrain combinations creating a monopoly or directly tending to the restraint of trade.

The decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals is

Affirmed.

SCRIBNER v. STRAUS et al., TRADING AS R. H. MACY & COMPANY.

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, INCORPORATED, APPELLANT, v. SAME.

APPEALS FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND

CIRCUIT.

Nos. 204, 205. Argued April 16, 1908.—Decided June 1, 1908.

Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, ante, p. 339, followed as to construction of § 4952, Rev. Stat., and the extent of the exclusive right to vend thereby granted to the owner of a statutory copyright.

Where the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court is invoked for the protection of rights under the copyright statute that court cannot consider questions of contract right not dependent on the statute where diverse citizenship does not exist, or if it does exist, where the statutory amount is not involved.

Both the courts below having found that there was no satisfactory proof to support complainants' claim against defendants for contributory infringement by inducing others to violate contracts of conditional sale this court applies the usual rule and will not disturb such findings.

147 Fed. Rep. 28, affirmed.

THE facts are stated in the opinion.

Mr. Stephen H. Olin, for appellants, submitted.

Mr. John G. Carlisle, with whom Mr. Edmond E. Wise was on the brief, for appellees.

MR. JUSTICE DAY delivered the opinion of the court.

These actions were submitted at the same time and admittedly involve the same questions of law. The suits were brought, the one by a partnership, as Charles Scribner's Sons,

and the other by a corporation, Charles Scribner's Sons, incorporated, against R. H. Macy & Company, to restrain the selling at retail of the complainant's books, copyrighted under the laws of the United States, at prices less than those fixed by complainants, and from buying such copyrighted books except under the rules and regulations of the American Publishers' Association. The learned counsel for the appellants in this case, by consent, filed a brief in the case of BobbsMerrill Company v. Isidor Straus and Nathan Straus, Partners as R. H. Macy & Co., No. 176, just decided, ante, p. 339. So far as the same questions are involved the decision in No. 176 is pertinent to this case, and these cases are controlled by the rulings made in that case.

The defendants carried on a department store. Among other things they sold books at retail, some copyrighted and some not. In the year 1901 the American Publishers' Association was formed among certain publishers of copyrighted books, and in their agreement is found the following:

"III. That the members of the association agree that such net copyrighted books, and all others of their books, shall be sold by them to those booksellers only who will maintain the retail price of such net copyrighted books for one year, and to those booksellers and jobbers only who will sell their books further to no one known to them to cut such net prices, or whose name has been given to them by the association as one who cuts such prices, or who fails to abide by such fair and reasonable rules and regulations as may be established by local associations as hereinafter provided."

Scribner's Sons' catalogue, invoices and bill of goods contained the following notice:

"Copyrighted net books published after May 1, 1901, and copyrighted fiction published after February 1, 1902, are sold on condition that prices be maintained as provided by the regulations of the American Publishers' Association."

In the case of a new publisher, notice was given by correspondence and by sending a blank, as follows:

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