LIST OF PERSONS PRESENT AT THE HEARINGS BEFORE THE SENATE AND HOUSE COMMITTEES ON PATENTS. Charles W. Ames, representing United Typothetæ of America. Walter M. Bacon, representing Music Publishers' Association of the United States. R. R. Bowker, vice-president, American (Authors') Copyright League. Glenn Brown, secretary, American Institute of Architects. Aldis B. Browne, counsel, Photographers' Copyright League of America. Nathan Burkan, counsel, Music Publishers' Association of the United States. Charles S. Burton, representing manufacturers of perforated rolls and automatic instruments. S. T. Cameron, representing American Graphophone Company. George L. Canfield, counsel, Print Publishers' Association of America. Paul H. Cromelin, representing Columbia Phonograph Company. S. O. Edmunds. B. J. Falk, president, Photographers' Copyright League of America. Leo Feist, music publisher, New York. Louis Fernheimer, representing Typographical Union No. 6, of New York. Paul Fuller, Association of the Bar of the City of New York. George W. Furniss, representing Music Publishers' Association of the United States. Merrill E. Gates, jr., counsel, Perforated Record Company. F. W. Hedgeland, representing the Kimball Company. Victor Herbert, representing composers of music. Jacob Heyl, representing Chase & Baker Company, manufacturing piano players. William H. Honiss. W. J. Hughes, Department of Justice. George J. Jackson, representing International Typographical Union. F. T. F. Johnson. Hyland C. Kirk. H. P. Lewandowski, representing J. W. Stern & Co. William A. Livingstone, president, Print Publishers' Association of America. Pirie Macdonald, representing Photographers' Copyright League of America. A. Bell Malcomson, representing McLoughlin Bros. F. D. Millet, representing National Academy of Design. Charles P. Montgomery, customs division, Treasury Department. John J. O'Connell, representing manufacturers of automatic piano players. Stephen H. Olin, counsel, American Publishers' Copyright League. Horace Pettit, representing Victor Talking Machine Company. George W. Rea. Nelson M. Redfield, representing Chase & Baker Company. Frank H. Scott, president, American Publishers' Association. A. R. Serven, counsel, Music Publishers' Association of the United States. A. Beverly Smith, secretary, Reproductive Arts Copyright League. Bernard C. Steiner, librarian, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Md. A CL-06-2 XVII J. J. Sullivan, representing International Typographical Union. Albert H. Walker. Jay Witmark, representing M. Witmark & Sons. Senators Kittredge, Clapp, Smoot, Foster, Latimer, Mallory. Representatives Currier, Hinshaw, Bonynge, Campbell, Chaney, McGavin, Sulzer, Webb, Southall, Dresser. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress. ARGUMENTS ON THE BILLS S. 6330 AND H. R. 19853, TO AMEND AND CONSOLIDATE THE ACTS RESPECTING COPYRIGHT. COMMITTEE ON PATENTS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., at the Senate reading room, Library of Congress, conjointly with the Senate Committee on Patents. Present, Senators Kittredge (chairman), Clapp, Smoot, Foster, and Latimer; Representatives Currier (chairman), Bonynge, Campbell, Chaney, McGavin, Sulzer, and Webb. The CHAIRMAN. We are met to consider Senate bill 6330, relative to the copyright law. We would like to hear first from Mr. Putnam regarding the history of the proposed legislation. STATEMENT OF HERBERT PUTNAM, ESQ., LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS. Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, the origin of these bills is indicated in the message of the President to Congress last December. The passage is brief; let me read it: Our copyright laws urgently need revision. They are imperfect in definition, confused and inconsistent in expression; they omit provision for many articles which, under modern reproductive processes, are entitled to protection; they impose hardships upon the copyright proprietor which are not essential to the fair protection of the public; they are difficult for the courts to interpret and impossible for the copyright office to administer with satisfaction to the public. Attempts to improve them by amendment have been frequent, no less than twelve acts for the purpose having been passed since the Revised Statutes. To perfect them by further amendment seems impracticable. A complete revision of them is essential. Such a revision, to meet modern conditions, has been found necessary in Germany, Austria, Sweden, and other foreign countries, and bills embodying it are pending in England and the Australian colonies. It has been urged here, and proposals for a commission to undertake it have, from time to time, been pressed upon the Congress. The inconveniences of the present conditions being so great an attempt to frame appropriate legislation has been made by the Copyright Office, which has called conferences of the various interests especially and practically concerned with the operation of the copyright laws. It has secured from them suggestions as to the changes necessary; it has added from its own experience and investigation, and it has drafted a bill which embodies such of these changes and additions as, after full discussion and expert criticism, appeared to be sound and safe. In form this bill would replace the existing insufficient and inconsistent laws by one general copyright statute. It will be presented to the Congress at the coming session. It deserves prompt consideration. So far the message. It did not contain what was the fact as to the origin of this project, that it did originate in an informal suggestion on the part of the chairman of this committee. The conferences to which it refers were not open, public meetings; they were not conventions; they were conferences, and conferences 3 of organizations-that is to say, associations representing a group of interests; and those organizations were specially invited, additions being made to the list later as suggestions were made of others that should be added. The organizations selected were the most representative organizations that we could think of or that were brought to our attention as having practical concern in the amelioration of the law, but especially, of course, those concerned in an affirmative way-that is to say, in the protection of the right. They were nearly thirty in number. The list of them and their representatives is before you. (The list referred to was, by direction of the committee, made a part of the record, and is as follows:) List of associations invited to take part and the delegates nominated to be present at the conference on copyright, together with other participants. AUTHORS. 12 president; American (Authors') Copyright League: Edmund Clarence Stedman 1,2, Richard R. Bowker, vice president; Robert Underwood Johnson 1,2, secretary; Edmund Munroe Smith, acting secretary (not present). National Institute of Arts and Letters: Edmund Clarence Stedman 1,2, president; Brander Matthews',". DRAMATISTS AND PLAYWRIGHTS. American Dramatists Club: Bronson Howard, president; Joseph I. C. Clarke', first vice president; Harry P. Mawson 1,2, chairman committee on legislation; Joseph R. Grismer', committee on legislation; Charles Klein 3. Association of Theatre Managers of Greater New York: Charles Burnham', first vice president; Henry B. Harris', secretary. ARTISTS: PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, ARCHITECTS. American Institute of Architects: Glenn Brown, secretary. 3. vice National Sculpture Society: Daniel Chester French 3, president; Karl Bitter 2,3, president. Society of American Artists: John La Farge', president; John W. Alexander 1,2. COMPOSERS. Manuscript Society: Miss Laura Sedgwick Collins1 (charter member), F. L. Sealy 2. PUBLISHERS. American Publishers' Copyright League: William W. Appleton, president; George Haven Putnam 2,3, secretary; Charles Scribner 1,2, treasurer; Stephen H. Olin 2,3, counsel. Association of American Directory Publishers: W. H. Lee 2,3, president; W. H. Bates, secretary; Alfred Lucking, counsel; Everett S. Geer, president Hartford Printing Company; William E. Murdock 3, trustee of the Association of American Directory Publishers; Ralph L. Polk 3, trustee of the Association of American Directory Publishers; S. T. Leet. PUBLISHERS OF NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES. American Newspaper Publishers' Association: Don C. Seitz 1,2, acting chairman copyright committee; John Stewart Bryan 1,2, copyright committee; Louis M. Duvall 1,2, copyright committee; Thos. J. Walsh, at the request of Mr. Seitz. Periodical Publishers' Association of America: Charles Scribner 1,2. 1 PUBLISHERS OF ARTISTIC REPRODUCTIONS: LITHOGRAPHERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS. National Association of Photoengravers: B. W. Wilson, jr.2 Photographers' Copyright League of America: B. J. Falk, president; Pirie MacDonald; A. B. Browne, counsel. Print Publishers' Association of America: W. A. Livingstone, president; Benjamin Curtis 3, secretary; George L. Canfield 3, counsel. Reproductive Arts Copyright League (Lithographers' Association-East): Robert M. Donaldson, president: Edmund B. Osborne, vice-president; A. Beverly Smith, secretary; Fanueil D. S. Bethune 2,3, counsel. PUBLISHERS OF MUSIC. Music Publishers' Association of the United States: J. F. Bowers 2,3, president; Charles B. Bayly, secretary; George W. Furniss, chairman copyright committee; Walter M. Bacon, of copyright committee; Nathan Burkan 2,3, counsel; A. R. Serven, counsel; Leo Feist; Isidore Witmark ; R. L. Thomæ,3 (Victor Talking Machine Company, of Philadelphia). PRINTERS AND LITHOGRAPHERS. United Typothetae of America: Isaac H. Blanchard 1, of executive committee; Chas. W. Ames2, 3. International Typographical Union: J. J. Sullivan, chairman I. T. U. copyright committee; P. H. McCormick, president, and George J. Jackson, organizer, of New York Typographical Union No. 6. Central Lithographic Trades Council: W. A. Coakley 3. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. National Educational Association: George S. Davis', associate city superintendent of schools; Claude G. Leland 2, librarian board of education of New York. PUBLIC LIBRARIES. American Library Association: Frank P. Hill, president; Arthur E. Bostwick. BAR ASSOCIATIONS. 3 American Bar Association-Advisory committee: Arthur Steuart1, 3, chairman; Edmund Wetmore', Frank F. Reed (not present). Association of the Bar of the City of New York-Advisory committee: Paul Fuller3, chairman; William G. Choate, John E. Parsons, John L. Cadwalader, Edmund Wetmore, Henry Galbraith Ward, Arthur H. Masten. (Of this committee, appointed after the second conference, only Mr. Fuller was present.) counsel. MISCELLANEOUS. International Advertising Association: Will Phillip Hooper1, 2; James L. Steuart', The Sphinx Club: Will Phillip Hooper1, 2. OTHERS PRESENT, BUT NOT FORMALLY PARTICIPATING. Samuel J. Elder, of Boston; André Lesourd3, of New York; A. Bell Malcomson3, of New York; Ansley Wilcox 3, of Buffalo; A. W. Elson2, 3, of Boston; Gen. Eugene Griffin3, of New York; Charles H. Sergel3, of Chicago. Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam. Register of Copyrights, Thorvald Solberg. Commissioner of Patents, Frederick I. Allen (was not present, but submitted written suggestions). Department of Justice, Henry M. Hoyt3, Solicitor-General (present, but not formally participating); William J. Hughes2, 3, of the Solicitor-General's Office (present, but not for formally participating). Treasury Department, Charles P. Montgomery, of the Customs Division. NOTE.-Persons marked', 2, or 3 were present only at the sessions thus indicated. The absence of a mark following a name indicates attendance at all three sessions. |