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
did not constitute a defense. In Dr. Gaunsaulus's book, "The Man of
Galilee," well-known pictures were altered substantially and
artistically, as by the omission of a spinning wheel from a picture of
the Nativity. Copies made from these illustrations were enjoined, though
the original pictures were non-copyrighted, in Monarch Book Co. _v._
Neil, in 1900, by Judge Grosscup in the U. S. Circuit Court in Illinois.
But a slight alteration, by the addition on the negative of a cane, thus
put into the hands of a person in a photograph not copyrighted in its
original form, was held not to justify copyright, in Snow _v._ Laird, in
1900, by Judge Woods in the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the N. Y.
Supreme Court, in the common law case of Dodge _v._ Allied Arts Co., in
1903, where the plaintiff had painted four historical scenes on
commission which the defendants proposed to have altered, an injunction
pending suit was granted by Judge McCall, thus upholding the common law
or equity right of an artist to be protected against such misuse of his
work.
{Sidenote: Remedies}
For the infringement of a work of art the copyright proprietor is
entitled (sec. 25) to an injunction, the forfeiture of infringing copies
and to damages "as well as all the profits ... or in lieu of actual
damages and profits such damages as to the court shall appear to be
just," not less than $250 nor more than $5000, except that "in the case
of a newspaper reproduction of a copyrighted photograph such damages
shall not exceed $200 nor be less than $50." These damages, within the
limits stated, may be assessed by the court in the case of painting,
statue or sculpture at ten dollars, and in the case of any other works
at one dollar, "for every infringing copy made or sold by or found in
the possession of the infringer or his agents or employees." Under the
old law, damages were confined to copies found in possession, and the
courts were constrained to apply this literally though in several
recorded cases with evident injustice.
{Sidenote: Artistic copyright term}
Copyright in artistic works in the United States has always been covered
under the general copyright acts, including the code of 1909 providing
for copyright for twenty-eight and renewal for a second twenty-eight
years, and this is true also in Canada and Newfoundland, where the term
is for twenty-eight with renewal for fourteen years. The Australian code
of 1905 covers artistic copyright specifically in part IV of the act,
which provides for the general term of forty-two years from "the making
of the work" or life and seven years, whichever the longer, but confines
it to artistic work "which is made in Australia."
{Sidenote: British practice}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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