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
The omission of the requirement of date in the copyright notice in the
case of a work of art is significant and important, although it has the
disadvantage that knowledge of the expiration of the term of copyright
can be had only by specific inquiry from the Copyright Office. It has
been the mistaken practice of more than one artist, under the old law,
to enter copyright on his original sketch or on his original work under
date of its beginning, again on the finished original under date of its
completion, and possibly again on reproductions under the date of the
first publication of copies; and when also the artist changed the name
of his work under these progressions, confusion became worse confounded.
From this superfluous zeal and mistaken carefulness, serious results
have come, as in Caliga _v. Inter-Ocean_ Newspaper Co., decided in 1909
by the U. S. Supreme Court through Justice Day, wherein an artist failed
to protect himself against an infringing reproduction, because he
brought suit under a second copyright which he had entered on finishing
his picture, instead of under the original and lawful copyright, under
which he had originally entered his work. The fact that by this second
copyrighting he laid claim to a longer term than the law allowed, made
the second copyright void and a suit under it of no avail. Under the new
law the author of a work of art is not only given specifically the
exclusive right "to complete, execute, and finish it if it be a model or
design for a work of art" as in the previous law, so that an artistic
work is protected by one copyright from design to completion and
reproduction; but he may also protect his original work during its
progress or exhibition before publication and thus safeguard his future
right to control and benefit from the multiplication of copies.
{Sidenote: Exhibition right transfer}
In case of the sale of the original work of art, the right to exhibit,
of course, passes with the original, although the right to copyright and
reproduce copies is expressly reserved to the artist. In view of the
uncertainty whether the unrestricted public exhibition of a work of art
constitutes dedication and prevents copyright thereof, the carelessness
of the purchaser of the original might raise question as to the validity
of later copyright of reproductions by the artist. It is therefore
unwise for an artist to sell the original of a work of art without
affixing to it the required copyright notice and depositing one copy of
an identifying photograph or print.
{Sidenote: Early English decision}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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