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 courts are disposed to limit the definition of publication to insure
the fullest protection of an author's right. In Werckmeister _v._
Springer Lith. Co. it was further held by Judge Townsend that the
printing in an exhibition catalogue of a cut of a painting was for the
information of patrons and was not publication. In the same case the
defense contended that the sale of an earlier replica of the plaintiff's
painting constituted a publication and forfeited copyright, but the
court held that the replica was not a copy but was made beforehand to
assist in the preparation of the painting afterward copyrighted, and
that there was no publication.
In Falk _v._ Gast, in 1893, where the defense claimed that the copyright
notice was omitted from published copies, referring to a sample sheet of
miniature reproductions sent to dealers for their information and
convenience, the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, through Judge Shipman,
held that this issue of sample sheets did not constitute publication.
This doctrine of limitation had a curious application in Harper _v._
Shoppell, in 1886, in which Judge Wallace, in the U. S. District Court,
held, where an electrotyper had sold to a third party an unauthorized
electrotype of a copyrighted illustration, that the copyright law was
not violated because the illustration had not been printed or published.
{Sidenote: Danger of forfeiture}
The artist-author or the proprietor of an artistic copyright should be
most careful to comply with the statutory requirements as to notice and
other formalities, as otherwise copyright may be forfeited. Several
court decisions indicate that the copyright notice should be placed on
the original when exhibited, even if copies are not then reproduced for
sale; and as the question is not made quite clear in the new code, it is
wise to follow this indication. In the original trial in 1902 of the
Werckmeister case, Judge Thomas in the U. S. Circuit Court held that the
omission of copyright notice from the exhibited original waived the
copyright, but his decision of the case was reversed by the U. S.
Supreme Court on other grounds as previously stated, and this particular
point remains unsettled.
Copyright is not forfeited where a notice properly affixed has been
omitted in later use beyond the control of the copyright proprietor. "If
copied afterwards or put upon a new mount the complainant should not
suffer," said Judge Coxe in Falk _v._ Gast in reference to copies from
which the notice had been separated. In Bennett _v._ Carr, in 1899, the
U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, through Judge Thomas, non-suited the
complainant because he had not deposited a written description, in
addition to filing identifying copies, both formalities being required
under the old law.
{Sidenote: Limited use and license}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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