Arguments before the Committee on Patents of the House of Representatives, conjointly with the Senate Committee on Patents, on H.R. 19853, to amend and consolidate the acts respecting copyright: June 6, 7, 8, and 9, 1906.United States. Congress. House. Committee on Patents
History
Arguments before the Committee on Patents of the House of Representatives, conjointly with the Senate Committee on Patents, on H.R. 19853, to amend and consolidate the acts respecting copyright: June 6, 7, 8, and 9, 1906.
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Patents
Copyright -- United States
There is one other point I would like to bring to the attention of you
gentlemen, and that is this: That in the cylindrical form of talking
machine it is not necessary for the manufacturer to make the roll. In
every other mechanical instrument which has been referred to here the
process is a factory process; but, as I am speaking, the very words
that I am uttering are being taken down by Mr. Hanna, and in less time
than an hour these words will be transferred to a graphophonic record;
and by that means to-morrow morning you will get your printed record.
For fifteen years the reports of the House of Representatives and the
Senate of the United States have been prepared in this manner. And
now, when you make this bill a law I can not, notwithstanding the fact
that I have purchased a piece of music of Mr. Herbert, take that which
I have purchased and sing it into my machine at all. It is impossible
to do so. I wish to draw this fine distinction, and show you that in
the cylindrical form of talking machine it is not a mechanical
operation which is done in a factory, but that it is an instantaneous
form of photographing the voice. I would like to have a notation made
of that.
You have limited me as to time, but before closing I want to show you
what the practical operation of this bill would mean.
The CHAIRMAN. Your time has expired.
Mr. CROMELIN. May I have just one moment?
The CHAIRMAN. You may have one minute more.
Mr. CROMELIN. I would like to show you the point of the multiplicity
of royalties. Under this law I go down to John F. Ellis's and buy a
sheet of music composed by Mr. Victor Herbert. I pay the royalty at
the time that I buy that music. I am a singer and I want to sing it. I
go to a talking-machine company; but no, I do not dare. I must seek
Mr. Herbert. And he says: "You are going to make a big sum on it, and
you must pay me $25." I pay him $25, and I go to the talking-machine
company and the company does not dare to proceed. They must first seek
Mr. Herbert. Mr. Herbert says: "You are going to make a lot of money
out of this; I want $100 before you can make the record." We pay that
for the record.
I do not know when I get the record whether I am going to get a thing.
It goes through a factory process, which costs me another hundred
dollars, and then the record is made. I am about to announce the
record to the people of the United States, and to give them the
privilege of hearing it. What happens? No; I do not dare to do it.
Every American has to pay tribute to Mr. Herbert. Before I can sell
those records Mr. Herbert must get a royalty of 10 per cent on every
one of them. I do not believe it is the meaning of the Constitution to
do this.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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