How easily a fraudulently disposed claimant will satisfy his conscience in stating that he claims as the author, when he might hesitate to declare that he is, in fact, the author; and how much more easily one who conceives that he has a shadow of right to ownership will make the like statement that he claims as the proprietor when he would hesitate to declare that in fact he is the proprietor, is obvious without comment. But it is certainly obvious that so vast and important a right as that conferred by the copyright statute should not be vested and given prima facie validity in anyone who has merely the effrontery to declare even that he is the owner or that he is the proprietor. Why should less be required of the claimant to copyright than is required of the claimant to patent right? The applicant for patent must make oath that he believes himself to be the first and original inventor, and his oath must also declare affirmatively the existence of all of the other conditions precedent to his right to obtain a patent. Why should not the author claiming copyright be subject to a similar requirement? The assignee of an inventor desiring a patent to issue to himself must file in the Patent Office an instrument in writing, signed by the inventor, conveying to the assignee the whole or such portion of the interest as it is desired to have appear in the name of the assignee upon the issue of the patent, and must in addition expressly request that the patent so issue to the assignee. Why should less proof be required of one claiming copyright as proprietor? It seems that no argument is necessary to enforce these suggestions. Under the present law and under the proposed bill any publisher obtaining possession of an author's manuscript under any color of right not involving him in larceny by reason of the possession may proceed to put the work in print and make application for copyright, not even averring that he is the proprietor, but stating that he claims as proprietor. The copyright certificate will issue, and his title to the copyright will be prima facie established by the proceedings which he takes pursuant to the statute and the action of the copyright office therein; and the author, who may be ignorant of the proceedings, who may have only entered upon negotiations with the publisher without any intention of accepting the offers which may have been made, finds himself in the position of being obliged to contest a prima facie right on the part of the publisher to the copyright in his work, with the alternative that if the publisher's title is not conceded to be good the author's right is lost by publication.