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
_Ad interim_ protection seems to be confined exclusively to a book as
such, and therefore does not apply to articles in periodicals.
{Sidenote: American authors not thus protected}
It should be noted that an American author publishing his work abroad is
not benefited by either of these provisions respecting foreign works.
The provision regarding works in other languages is specifically
confined to a work of foreign origin, that is, not by an American
author; and he gains nothing, if his work is in English, from _ad
interim_ protection. Thus an American author publishing his work first
in German in Berlin, must copyright and deposit an American-made edition
of his German text in this country to obtain American protection,
without which his work in German could be imported into this country
without his consent, and an independent translation of his text into
English and its publication in America could not be prevented.
{Sidenote: Exact conformity required in formalities}
In view of the exact prescription of the method of securing copyright,
unless the statute is precisely complied with the copyright is not
valid. Said Judge Sawyer, in 1875, in Parkinson _v._ Laselle: "There is
no possible room for construction here. The statute says no right shall
attach until these acts have been performed; and the court cannot say,
in the face of this express negative provision, that a right shall
attach unless they are performed. Until the performance as prescribed,
there is no right acquired under the statute that can be violated." And
in the case of the play "Shaughraun," Boucicault _v._ Hart, in 1875,
Justice Hunt held, as regards copyrights in general: "Two acts are by
the statute made necessary to be performed, and we can no more take it
upon ourselves to say that the latter is not an indispensable requisite
to a copyright than we can say it of the former." The Supreme Court laid
down this general doctrine in Wheaton _v._ Peters, in reference to the
statutes of 1790 and 1802, and the later statutes are most explicit on
this point. In the same case of Wheaton _v_. Peters, Justice McLean, in
delivering the judgment of the Supreme Court, held that while the right
"accrues," so that it may be protected in chancery, on compliance with
the first requirement of the prescribed process, it must be perfected by
complying with the other requisites before a suit at law for violation
of copyright can be maintained.
{Sidenote: Expunging from registry}
A false or unjustifiable entry of copyright may be expunged from the
registry by court order, as was done in the English case _Re_ Share
Certificate Book in 1908.
{Sidenote: British formalities}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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