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
Whether living pictures, _tableaux vivants_, infringe a work of art, is
a difficult question, determinable only by the circumstances of each
case. Moving pictures telling a dramatic story may infringe a dramatic
or even literary work, as well as possibly a work of art, as was decided
in the case of Harper _v._ Kalem Co. But the House of Lords, in 1894, in
the case of Hanfstaengl _v._ Baines, where the proprietor of the
copyright in paintings sued the proprietors of the _Graphic_ for
reproducing by sketches living pictures exhibited at a music hall,
patterned after the paintings, decided that the word "design" in the
English law did not cover the _tableaux_ at the music hall. It is
probable, however, that an exact reproduction, as nearly as may be, of a
painting at a public place, might be held an infringement. In 1903 the
Circuit Court of Appeals through Judge Buffington, in Edison _v._ Lubin,
overruled the defense that each picture making up a moving picture
series should be separately registered for copyright. But separable
parts of a composite design, when used separately, must bear separate
copyright notice, as was held in 1910 in De Jonge _v._ Breuker & Kessler
by Judge McPherson in the U. S. Circuit Court.
{Sidenote: Exclusions and inclusions construed}
A shadow-trick perforated card, giving an outline of the picture "Ecce
Homo" when held between a light and a screen, was held by
Vice-Chancellor Bacon, in Cable _v._ Marks, in 1882, not to be subject
of copyright. Playing cards have been included as prints by an English
decision.
{Sidenote: Architectural works}
Architectural works are not protected as such under the American code,
the decision of the Congressional Committees being adverse to this
proposal. They are specifically included in the new British code. It is
possible that they might be included under the general designation of
works of art, and drawings or models for buildings might be copyrighted
as "drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character."
The question, however, is one of much doubt. In 1903, in Wright _v._
Eisle, the Appellate Division of the N. Y. Supreme Court, through Judge
Woodward, held, where an architect had filed plans with the building
department which he claimed were copied in a house of the defendant,
which plans had not been copyrighted, that the filing of the plans in a
public office constituted publication and as there were no copyrighted
copies, there was no case at common or copyright law.
{Sidenote: Copy of a copy}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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