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
That an illustration of a person, incident or scene in a copyright work
is not an infringement of its copyright, was indicated in 1909 in Harper
_v._ Kalem Co., in the opinion of the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
New York, through Judge Ward, who said: "As pictures only represent the
artist's idea of what the author has expressed in words, they do not
infringe a copyrighted book or drama and should not be enjoined." That
illustrations may be protected as part of a book without reference to
the engravings act, was held in Marshall _v._ Bull, in 1901, in the
English Court of Appeal, which held also that though electrotype blocks
had been legally sold, unauthorized reproduction from such blocks
constituted infringement.
{Sidenote: Description of artistic work}
Likewise, a description in words of a copyrighted work of art is
probably permissible without infringement of copyright, when the work is
published or publicly exhibited. But this does not hold good in the case
of an unpublished or privately exhibited work, as was held in 1849 in
the case of Prince Albert _v._ Strange, where a descriptive catalogue of
unpublished etchings by Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort was
enjoined, as well as the exhibition of prints therefrom unlawfully
obtained.
{Sidenote: Portraits}
In the case of portraits, whether by painting, sculpture or photography,
an important question as to ownership arises. A portrait paid for by the
subject or a person other than the artist is the property, for copyright
as well as other purposes, exclusively of that person; but if an artist
produces a portrait at his own expense, even if by the suggestion of
another person, the right to copyright remains with the artist. The
general principle was best stated by Judge Wheeler in 1894, in the U. S.
Circuit Court in New York, in Press Pub. Co. _v._ Falk, where the
_World_ was held to have infringed the copyright in the photograph of an
actress, copyrighted by the photographer and not paid for by her, though
a complimentary copy, given to the actress, had been sent by her to the
newspaper. "When a person has a negative taken and photograph made, for
pay, in the usual course, the work is done for the person so procuring
it to be done, and the negative, so far as it is a picture or capable of
producing pictures of that person, and all photographs made from it,
belong to that person; and neither the artist nor any one else has any
right to make pictures from the negative or copy the photographs, if not
otherwise published, for any one else. But when a person submits himself
or herself as a public character to a photographer for the taking of a
negative, and the making of photographs therefrom for the photographer,
the negative and the right to make photographs from it belong to him. He
is the author and proprietor of the photograph, and may perfect the
exclusive right to make copies by copyright." The same principle was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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