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
"But even if phonograph and perforated records should not be considered,
as is sculpture, to be 'writings,' the arguments of the opponents of
this bill do not fit the case. The Constitution explicitly provides that
authors shall have _exclusive rights_ to their writings. This cannot
mean exclusive rights to their written manuscripts, for these are
protected by common law and no constitutional provision was necessary.
It meant and means evidently that authors shall have exclusive rights to
the benefits of their writings, the usufruct of the property they have
created, and that means practically a monopoly control over all copies
or reproductions from such writings, whether the copies are in
handwriting, printing, or any other form. A musical score is definitely
a writing, for it is even more than a literary manuscript, originally in
the personal handwriting of the composer himself, without the
intervention of a stenographer or a typewriting machine. Therefore, if
the narrowest meaning of the word 'writings' should be interpreted into
the Constitution such as would exclude sculptures and other works which
are admittedly proper and legal subjects of copyright, it would still
specifically include musical and dramatic as well as literary
manuscripts. There is no specification in the Constitution confining the
exclusive rights over writings to copies in handwriting or print or any
other stated process of reproduction; in fact, the Constitution does not
use the word 'copyright' or in any way limit by specification the
comprehensiveness of the exclusive rights Congress is thus authorized to
secure. Indeed, Congress in the copyright laws has interpreted the
Constitution to cover the several artistic or reproductive processes
from time to time developed or invented; thus in the law of 1865 the
provisions of the copyright laws were extended to include 'photographs,'
which did not exist at the time of the adoption of the Constitution--which
word specifically means 'light-writings' as phonograph records
specifically mean 'sound-writings.'
{Sidenote: Protection of the inventor}
{Sidenote: The counter argument}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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