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
In 1879 the Post Office appropriation bill
contained a proviso against the transmission of any publication which
violates copyright; in 1882 an amendment dealt with the position of the
copyright notice on moulded, decorative articles, etc.
{Sidenote: International copyright legislation, 1891}
In 1891 there was passed, after a long campaign, the so-called
international copyright act, extending copyright to the citizens of
other nations in case of reciprocal grants by such nations, and
providing that the copyright on books and certain other articles should
be conditioned on manufacture in the United States. In 1893 an
amendatory act gave the same effect to copies deposited "on or before
publication." In 1895 the public documents bill provided that no
government publication should be copyrighted, and another bill imposed
penalties in the case of infringement of photographs and of original
works of art. In 1897 an act provided that unauthorized representation,
wilful and for profit, of any dramatic or musical composition is a
misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment; another act provided for the
appointment of a Register of Copyrights under the direction and
supervision of the Librarian of Congress; and a third act provided
penalty for printing false claim of copyright and prohibited the
importation of articles bearing a false claim of copyright. In 1904
provision was made for protection to exhibitors of foreign literary,
artistic or musical works at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. A bill
of 1905 permitted _ad interim_ copyright for one year of books published
abroad if registered here within thirty days publication and bearing
notice of reservation.
{Sidenote: Private copyright acts}
A curious incident in American copyright legislation has been the
passage of private copyright acts, nine in all, of which the earliest in
1828, as amended in 1830 and 1843, continued the copyright of John
Rowlett "in a useful book, called Rowlett's Tables of discount and
interest" from its original publication in 1802 till 1858,--curiously
the present period of fifty-six years. In 1849 the copyright of Levi H.
Corson in a perpetual calendar or almanac was renewed by special act. In
1854 an appropriation of $10,000 was made to Thomas H. Sumner for his
new method of ascertaining a ship's position and the copyright was
extinguished. In 1859 a special act gave to "Mistress Henry R.
Schoolcraft" and her heirs for fourteen years the right to republish her
husband's work on the Indian tribes originally published by order of
Congress and to make any abridgement thereof, and a similar special
copyright was voted in 1866 for Herndon's "Exploration of the Amazon"
for his widow. An act of 1874 authorized the validation of William Tod
Helmuth's work on surgery which had been imperfectly entered for
copyright two years before, and a ninth private act in 1898 validated
for like reason the copyright of Judson Jones in a work on orthoepy.
{Sidenote: American possessions}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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