Copyright: Its History and Its LawBowker, R. R. (Richard Rogers)
History
Copyright: Its History and Its Law
Bowker, R. R. (Richard Rogers)
Copyright -- History; Copyright -- United States -- History
Provision is specifically made against false notice of copyright by the
enactment (sec. 29): "That any person who, with fraudulent intent, shall
insert or impress any notice of copyright required by this Act, or words
of the same purport, in or upon any uncopyrighted article, or with
fraudulent intent shall remove or alter the copyright notice upon any
article duly copyrighted shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by
a fine of not less than one hundred dollars and not more than one
thousand dollars. Any person who shall knowingly issue or sell any
article bearing a notice of United States copyright which has not been
copyrighted in this country, or who shall knowingly import any article
bearing such notice or words of the same purport, which has not been
copyrighted in this country, shall be liable to a fine of one hundred
dollars," and the importation of any article bearing a notice of
copyright when no American copyright exists is absolutely prohibited
(sec. 30).
{Sidenote: Ad interim protection}
It should be noted that the copyright notice is not required on books
published abroad in the English language before publication in this
country, entered for _ad interim_ copyright, and therefore that within
sixty days after the publication abroad of a book in the English
language, such book may be protected by American registration, though
containing no notice of copyright; and within this period inquiry at the
Copyright Office is necessary to determine the status of the book.
{Sidenote: Substitution of name}
It is provided (sec. 46): "That when an assignment of the copyright in a
specified book or other work has been recorded the assignee may
substitute his name for that of the assignor in the statutory notice of
copyright prescribed by this Act." This applies only where the entire
copyright has been assigned and the assignment duly recorded in the
Copyright Office as provided by law, and does not permit a change of
name in the copyright notice under any other circumstances, as partial
assignment. Substitution without authority of law voids copyright, as
was held in Record & Guide Co. _v._ Bromley in 1910, where another trade
name of the copyright claimant was substituted for the original trade
name.
{Sidenote: Registration}
The method of registration, or rather of application therefor, is not
specified in the law, for the reason that under the code of 1909 deposit
succeeding publication is made the act completing the securing of
copyright, and registration is incidental thereto instead of the first
requisite. Under the old law it was decided in the U. S. Circuit Court
through Judge Colt, in Gottsberger _v._ Estes, that publication before
deposit of copies voided the copyright.
{Sidenote: Rules and regulations}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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