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
Now, inasmuch as the Æolian Company would have the exclusive right to
perforate sheets for half the music that the people want, nobody could
sell a music-playing instrument unless it was manufactured by the
Æolian Company, because the Æolian Company as a part of their policy
would refuse to sell their perforated sheets except for use in
connection with their own instruments; and this would be the
situation: You want to buy a pianola. You go to New York and call on
the Æolian people. They say: "We will sell you a pianola, and if you
buy it from us you can use it to play any tune known to man, classical
or modern. Go over to our neighbor across the street, and he will sell
you a pianola, too, but he can only sell you music rolls to represent
classic music and uncopyrighted music. If you are contented with
Beethoven and Mozart and the masters, and do not care for Sousa and
Victor Herbert and their contemporaries, go across the street and buy
your pianola. But if you want a pianola that will enable you to play
any copyrighted music at all, you must buy it from us; for there is
not another party in the United States that can sell you one of those
machines."
So that the passage and enforcement of this bill would practically
give the Æolian Company, of Meriden, Conn., a permanent patent on an
old machine, namely, the automatically played piano, and all other
musical instruments played by perforated paper roll.
I assure you, gentlemen, that this bill must in the nature of the case
have that operation. So that the moment that the Congress passes that
bill, if it were to be enforced by the courts afterwards, Congress
would be giving to the Æolian Company, of Meriden, Conn., a permanent
patent on that great industry, without those people ever having
invented a solitary part of the origin of the business, and without
ever having composed a single piece of music played in their machines.
The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Walker, had you intended to speak specifically about
the provisions of this bill?
Mr. WALKER. I had, but I have been interrupted so much that I have not
been able to do so up to this point. Now I am going to devote myself
entirely to that.
The CHAIRMAN. You have only twenty-five minutes.
Mr. WALKER. I realize that.
Mr. CHANEY. You were going to speak of the constitutionality of the
bill, also.
Mr. WALKER. That is what I am going to take up now.
The Constitution provides that copyrights may be granted on writings.
This bill provides that copyrights may be granted on works. The fourth
section of this bill reads as follows:
That the works for which copyright may be secured under this act
shall include all the works of an author.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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