Arguments before the Committee on Patents of the House of Representatives, on H. R. 11943, to Amend Title 60, Chapter 3, of the Revised Statutes of the United States Relating to Copyrights: May 2, 1906.United States. Congress. House. Committee on Patents
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Arguments before the Committee on Patents of the House of Representatives, on H. R. 11943, to Amend Title 60, Chapter 3, of the Revised Statutes of the United States Relating to Copyrights: May 2, 1906.
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Patents
Copyright -- United States
Mr. FROEMNE. I wish to say that according to these very interests and
the statements made in evidence the rights of performance can only be
secured by the purchase of a copy of the score for each and every
singer taking part. A copy of each score was bought for the past
fifteen years by Mr. Tams. The publishers knew he was renting it out.
It has only been a few months ago they wanted to make a stop of it, and
I will now say that for the future--from now on--he should not have the
right, or any other library have the right, to rent them out; but he
certainly has a right to the use of the stock he has, which he bought
and paid for. He does not reprint them, you understand. My friend
refers you to a patent. Look at a patent. A patent has two sides to it.
You have a right to buy a patented machine, but you have no right to
manufacture it.
Now, we are not making plates to print these books. We don't buy one
book and print a thousand of them and rent them out. That would be an
infringement; but we are paying whatever the price of it is, 20 cents
or 30 cents or a dollar for each book, and we have bought thousands of
books, and these music publishers have received from Mr. Tams from
$3,000 to $4,000 a year for the past fifteen years. Where is the
justice now, when he has his place stocked up, in preventing him from
making any profit on it? He has his musical library in connection with
his other library; he rents out dramatic compositions and other things
on which royalties are being paid.
Mr. GILL. May I make a suggestion? As to what he has already purchased,
his rights in that connection and the conditions under which he
purchased would be for the courts to determine, would it not?
Mr. FROEMNE. Yes.
Mr. GILL. We can not affect that in any way?
Mr. FROEMNE. True. But I am saying now where one of these church choirs
can rent the music it is a great blessing. I have some letters here to
that effect, saying it is a great advantage to them to have a place
where they can rent a book which is sold for from 50 cents to a dollar,
the rent being, probably, only 10 cents apiece, or, say, one-sixth the
cost. As I explained yesterday--some of you gentlemen were not
here--these societies can only use a book once a year. They can not
give the same performance two years in succession, and it is to their
advantage either to change it, or, if they bought the books, to turn
them over to another society, which it seems they should have the right
to do, as they have once paid for the book. If you buy a sewing machine
or any other patented article you have a right to sell it or rent it or
give it away, although you have no right to manufacture it--that would
be an infringement of the patent.
Mr. CHANEY. What is that suit you were going to explain?
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