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 France the general copyright act of 1793, as considered to cover
mechanical music, was interpreted or modified by the act of 1866, which
enacted that "the manufacture and sale of instruments serving to
reproduce mechanically musical airs which are still in the private
domain, does not constitute musical infringement." In the suit of Enoch
_v. Societe des phonographes et gramophones_, the Civil Court of the
Seine had decided in 1903 that phonographic instruments were excepted
from the protection of the law of 1793 by the "general immunities"
concerning the mechanical musical instruments in the act of 1866. But in
1905 the Court of Appeals of Paris reversed this decision, holding that
the law of 1866 applied solely to musical airs, that is, those involving
no words, on the ground that the law of 1793 was enunciatory of the
rights of authors, applying to all modes of publication and
distribution, and that the word "publication" should be understood
broadly "as jurisprudence has applied it to numerous modes of
publication discovered since the law of July 19 and 24, 1793, and the
Code of 1810, and as nothing prevents its extension, in consequence of
scientific progress"; and it therefore concluded that literary works
either by themselves or associated with music were practically under the
law of 1793 and not exempted by the law of 1866. A more recent case, in
the Court of Commerce of the Seine in 1905, resulted, however, in the
dismissal of a suit for infringement. France accepted the Berlin
convention, June 28, 1910; but its provision in article 13, that "the
limitations and conditions" as to mechanical music protection "shall be
determined by the domestic legislation of each country in its own case,"
makes uncertain whether protection becomes effective in the absence of
specific legislation.
{Sidenote: Belgian precedents}
In Belgium in 1904, in the suit of Massenet and Puccini _v. Compagnie
Generale des phonographes, et al._, it was held by the court of first
instance of Brussels that the introduction for sale of discs and
cylinders reproducing the musical compositions of the plaintiffs was
illegal and liable for damages and punishable as an infringement. This
decision was, however, overruled by the Court of Appeals of Brussels in
1905. Belgium accepted the Berlin convention, May 23, 1910, has since
protected mechanical reproduction, and was proclaimed as in reciprocal
relations with the United States, June 14, 1911.
{Sidenote: Italian precedents}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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