But it is further provided that

If desired a notice of the reservation of the copyright or of any right included in the copyright in any work may be placed on any or all copies of such work by the owner of the copyright or the assignee or licensee of any special right pertaining to the copyright in the work.

And to prevent unauthorized use of the copyright notice it is further provided:

But any person who, with fraudulent intent, shall insert or impress any notice of copyright or words of the same purport in or upon any article in which copyright for the United States does not subsist shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, and any person who shall knowingly issue or sell any article bearing such notice or words of the same purport when copyright in such article does not subsist in the United States shall be liable to a fine of $100.

As already explained, I have first of all dealt with the provisions which the bill contains relative to adhesion to the international copyright convention and our entry into this union, but I may now briefly outline such further provisions of the bill as are different from the provisions of existing copyright legislation.

The fundamental existing copyright law of the United States, the act of March 4, 1909, is a compromise measure drafted after long continued discussion and with the inclusion of provisions not required in support of the principles of copyright but at the time thought necessary to secure enactment, such as the requirement of American manufacture, the compulsory license provisions in relation to the use of music for mechanical reproduction, and the payment of a royalty fixed by law for music so used without regard to the quality or character of the music which may have been reproduced. All these provisions are restrictions on the fundamental rights and privileges of the author and composer which should come away, and in the present bill it is proposed to eliminate them.

Copyright legislation is primarily enacted for the protection of the authors of such works as come within the scope of the copyright laws, and inasmuch as the first and fundamental endeavor has been to secure complete and adequate protection for the creators of literary, musical, dramatic, and artistic works, this bill may properly be designated an authors' bill. It distinctly affirms that copyright is secured for all the writings of authors from the time of the making of their works and that the copyright shall vest in the author of the work immediately upon its making and shall not depend upon the accomplishment of any conditions or formalities whatever. It is further expressly recognized and declared that the copyright granted secures to authors and to the administrators, executors, or assigns of such authors "the exclusive right to produce, perform, or distribute their works by any means whatsoever," and that it includes the following exclusive rights:

(a) To copy, print, reprint, publish, produce, reproduce, or transmit the copyright work in any form; and to vend or otherwise dispose of such work and to authorize its public use in any manner or by any means whatsoever;

(b) To translate said work into other languages or dialects, or to make any other version thereof;

(e) To dramatize the copyright work if it be a nondramatic work, and to convert it into a novel or other nondramatic work if it be a drama;

(g) To arrange or adapt the copyright work if it be a musical work;

(h) To complete, execute, and finish said work if it be a model or design for a work of art;

(i) To deliver or authorize the delivery of said work in public if it be a lecture, sermon, or address, prepared for oral delivery;

(k) To perform or represent said work publicly in whole or in part if it be a dramatic or dramatico-musical work, and if such work is unpublished to vend any manuscript or any record whatsoever thereof; to make or to procure the making, in whole or in part, of any transcription or record thereof or of any other contrivance by or from which 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;

(1) To perform said work publicly if it be a musical composition; and for the purpose of public performance 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 however, That nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit the performance of copyright musical works by churches or public schools, provided the performance is given for charitable or educational or religious purposes, unless a fee is charged for admission to the place where the music is so used.

It will be noted that so far as most of these lettered paragraphs are concerned, their provisions are not essentially different from the rights granted under our present copyright laws, but the following are new either in substance or in express statement:

(c) To reproduce said work in the form of a motion picture and to exhibit the same;

(d) To make, copy, and vend any phonographic record, or any perforated roll or other contrivance by means of which, in whole or in part, the copyright work may be mechanically reproduced.

(f) To convert a copyright motion-picture photoplay which is not based upon a work in which copyright is subsisting, into a story or dramatic composition;

(j) To communicate the copyright work to the public by means of radio broadcasting, telephoning, telegraphing, or any other method for transmitting sounds or pictures.

The exclusive grant (a) is broadened to authorize the public use of the copyright work "in any manner or by any means whatsoever, and very material changes from present law are proposed in (1) where the exclusive right granted the copyright owner to perform a musical composition publicly or "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," does not limit this right, as does our present law, to public performance for profit.

Our present law follows this last grant of such exclusive right with a detailed proviso to permit such reproduction of music by phonographic records, rolls, or other similar contrivances upon payment of a royalty fixed by law at 2 cents for each reproductive part manufactured. The present bill eliminates not only the permission to so use the music "whenever the owner of a musical composition has used or permitted or knowingly acquiesced in the use of the copyrighted work upon the parts of instruments serving to reproduce mechanically the musical work," but also eliminates the fixed statutory royalty, leaving the payment for authorized reproduction to be fixed by agreement, and the obligation to record à notice of use is dispensed with.

A proviso to the paragraph provides, however, as already pointed out, that the performance of copyright musical works by churches or public schools can not be prohibited if given for charitable or

educational or religious purposes "unless a fee is charged for admission to the place where the music is so used.'

One of the most embarrassing restrictions on the copyright proprietor under existing law is his inability to make a partial or qualified assignment of his copyright. The law gives to the author of a book, for example, the exclusive right to publish it, to translate it, to make a motion picture of it, to dramatize it, and to represent it on the stage. While all these are separate rights comprised in his copyright and are entirely different in character and must be exploited in a different manner he can not under our present law make a separate assignment.

The bill attempts to remedy this by providing:

That copyright under this or previous acts of the United States may be assigned, granted, or mortgaged, or may be bequeathed by will. In order to be valid such assignment, grant, or mortgage shall be in writing signed by the author or other owner of the copyright. Such owner of the copyright in any work may assign, grant, or mortgage the entire copyright, either generally or subject to limitations, for the entire period of the copyright or for a limited time, or for a specified territory; and he may so assign, grant, or mortgage any separate right or rights recited in section 12 of the act, and may grant any interest in any such right or in the entire copyright by license; but any separate right or use not collectively or specifically assigned shall remain the property of the author of the work or other owner of the copyright therein.

The author or his assigns may prevent infringement of, or interference with, any or all of their respective rights by legal means and may obtain damages as provided by this act for any act or acts in violation of any such rights.

And adds for safety also a proviso requiring,however—

That any such assignment, grant, license, or mortgage shall specify and clearly describe the rights granted under this act or previous acts of the United States which are so assigned, granted, mortgaged, or licensed.

The bill provides that such assignment, grant, or license may be recorded and if not recorded within three or six months "shall be void as against a subsequent purchaser for a valuable consideration, without notice, whose assignment has been duly recorded," and further provides that no action shall be maintained by an assignee for the infringement of any right "until the instrument under which he claims shall have been recorded."

Some special provisions are inserted to protect the rights of authors. I will not attempt to explain these in detail. I suppose it will suffice if I set out the leading amendments and ameliorations proposed in the bill. An example is the endeavor to confirm to the author his rights reserved under old contracts. It is provided, for example

That in the case of any copyright registered prior to the time when this act goes into effect by a proprietor under a contract, express or implied, by which some of the rights included in the copyright were reserved to the author, the ownership of the said rights is hereby confirmed to the author, or his assigns, who shall be entitled to dispose of them or to bring an action in case of their infringement as fully as the author could do under this act had copyright been originally obtained by him.

Another example is to safeguard the interests of authors who surrender to newspapers or periodicals their contributions for publication: without any specific contract. The bill declares that while the publisher of such newspaper or periodical shall be held to be the

first owner of the general copyright in its contents, under such circumstances it is enacted

That in the case of any literary or other contribution therein the author thereof shall be the owner of the copyright, and in the absence of agreement to the contrary he shall be deemed only to have licensed the publisher to print and publish the said contribution.

Registration of the claim of copyright is made optional, and it is expressly provided:

That in any action for infringement of copyright in a work for which no registration has been made, copyright in such work shall nevertheless be presumed to subsist, and if the author's name is indicated thereon, it shall be presumed that the person so named is the author of the work until the contrary is proved. If the work is anonymous or pseudonymous, the publisher whose name appears on the work shall be entitled to protect the rights of the author.

The provisions as to the optional deposit of copies and registration are very carefully prepared with well-considered details, but they do not differ very greatly from actual practice under present law, care being exercised to check the accumulation of a great quantity of useless material which involves a considerable service cost.

Mr. REID. Did I understand you to say that this bill has been prepared with great detail and care; is that what you said there? Mr. SOLBERG. Yes. I will repeat it if you want. The provisions as to the optional deposit of copies and registration are very carefully prepared with well-considered details and I think I may claim it extends to the entire bill.

The provisions as to the copyright office are practically the same as under existing law, and I shall not attempt a detailed explanation of them at this time, but shall hold myself in readiness to answer any questions or to explain any provision not readily understood at any time so far as it is possible for me to do so.

The provisions of existing law as to infringement of copyright and remedies have been taken over into the present bill with little change except a rearrangement in the order of the sections intended to add clearness and remove confusion where due to amendment.

A new statutory penalty of $100 for each infringing performance of a choreographic work or pantomime has been added, as these are new classes of works protected, and a like penalty for the infringement of motion pictures to cover the omission to provide any statutory damages for such infringement in the present law.

A partial assignee is given the right of suit in his own name, with a proviso that all assignees must record their assignments before they can bring suit.

As already noted there are provisions for certain presumptions of law in suits for infringement when registration has not been made, and for giving the publisher of a newspaper or periodical the right to sue for infringement of copyright in any contribution which appeared in such paper, except where such publisher has acquired only a license to print the contribution in question.

The bill retains the common law protection for the rights of the author or copyright owner of an unpublished work as expressed in section 2 of the act of 1909, but provides further that nothing in the bill is to deprive the owner of the copyright in any work or the owner of any rights under the copyright which have been

infringed "of any remedy in law or equity external to the provisions of this act

The elaborate and detailed provisions of section 31 of the act of 1909 prohibiting the importation of books were very fully discussed in the various public hearings on that act during 1906 and 1908. These provisions were inserted in the act to give support to the requirement that all books in the English language in order to secure copyright in the United States must be reprinted from type set within the limits of the United States. No single provision of the act of 1909 called out so much discussion, and I think it may be desirable to indicate briefly here where the full stenographic reports of that discussion may be found in case any one desires to follow up the matter in the printed report of the hearings. In "Arguments before the Committees of Patents" June 6-9, 1906, at pages 18-19, 36-41, 53, 57-58, 62-66, 91-92, 178-179; in the hearings for December 7, 8, 10, and 11, 1906, at pages 53-56, 58-77 (librarians), 79-80, 93–94, 121-126, 190-193; in "Revision of copyright laws, hearings before the Committee on Patents," March 26-28, 1908, at pages 12-13, 120-124, 134-138, 140-148, 167, 241-242, 412-426; and a very elaborate summary by the Librarian of Congress on The importation of authorized foreign editions of a work in which there is domestic copyright," pages 382-411.

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The inclusive statements of the pages occupied by the discussions will indicate the interest in this particular subject of the bill.

Prior to 1891 our copyright laws contained no provisions prohibiting importation except in the case of pirated copies. The prohibition of importation of unauthorized copies is essential to copyright protection and the bill so provides, and that such illegal im portation shall be deemed to infringe the copyright. When the requirement of manufacture in the United States was inserted in the act of March 3, 1891, it was provided, in order to give force and full effect to such compulsory remanufacture, that—

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. * * *

The articles enumerated in sections 512 to 516, inclusive, of the free list of the tariff act of 1890 were made exceptions to this inclusive prohibition of importation.

In 1909 the compulsory manufacturing provisions were reenacted. But the prohibition of importation of copies of the authorized original edition was confined to books. The original proposals for such prohibition met with strong opposition, and modifications were finally incorporated permitting the importation for individuals and libraries, etc., of one copy for use and not for sale.

In the present bill all these restrictions on the importation of copies of the authorized edition of the foreign author's book are eliminated. These prohibitive provisions are corollary to the requirement of American manufacture and when that is abrogated, logically these restrictions should also be abrogated.

On the other hand, there has been complaint that the provisions of section 31 of the act of March 4, 1909, permit this limited importation, so far as libraries, etc., are concerned, of copies of foreign reprints of books by American authors, whether authorized or not.