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
In the case of the White-Smith Music Pub. Co. _v._ Apollo Co., in which
the AEolian Co. was supposed to be the real complainant, the
representatives of the musical author were, in 1906, denied protection
against the mechanical music rolls made by the defendant, by the Circuit
Court of Appeals, where the judges considered themselves "constrained"
by the necessity of strict construction to decide that "a perforated
roll is not a copy in fact of complainant's staff notation," while
saying "that the rights sought to be protected belong to the same class
as those covered by the specific provisions of the copyright statutes."
It was presumed by many during the copyright campaign that the Supreme
Court would make a broad construction of the statute, but that court
held, February 24, 1908, in an opinion written by Justice Day, that the
considerations adduced "properly address themselves to the legislative
and not to the judicial branch of the Government" and that "as the act
of Congress now stands, we believe it does not include these records as
copies or publications of the copyright music involved in these cases."
Justice Holmes, while not dissenting, added a memorandum to the effect
that "the result is to give to copyright less scope than its rational
significance and the ground on which it is granted seems to me to
demand.... On principle, anything that mechanically reproduces that
collocation of sounds ought to be held a copy, or if the statute is too
narrow, ought to be made so by a further act, except so far as some
extraneous consideration of policy may oppose." While the judges thus
felt "constrained" to deny relief, their strong language in defense of
copyright control doubtless had its effect upon the legislative
authorities in the framing and the passage of the new code.
This decision was confirmatory of an earlier decision, in Stern _v._
Rosey in 1901, of Judge Shepard in the Court of Appeals in the District
of Columbia, that the mechanical reproduction of two copyrighted songs
could not be prevented under the existing law.
{Sidenote: Punishment of infringement}
Specific and elaborate provision is made for the punishment of
infringers under the mechanical music proviso (sec. 1, e) by sec. 25, e:
{Sidenote: Notice to proprietor of intention to use}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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