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
As to the right to copy, this word in the broad sense as interpreted by
the courts, covers the duplicating or multiplying of copies within the
stated scope of the statute. It was argued in the mechanical music cases
that the word copy extends to any form or method of duplication by which
the thought of the author can be recorded or conveyed, but, as more
fully stated in the chapter on mechanical music, the U. S. Supreme Court
in White-Smith _v._ Apollo Co. in 1908 upheld the decision below that a
perforated roll is not a _copy_ in fact of staff notation, and thus
limited the statutory use of the word to duplication by similar or
corresponding process. It was for this reason that such specific phrases
as "to make any other version," "to convert," "to arrange or adapt," "to
make transcription or record" were included in the new code, although
these would be included in the broader sense of the right "to copy."
{Sidenote: Vending}
The right to vend covers by a comprehensive word those general rights of
sale through which only can the author obtain remuneration for his work.
The most important question which has arisen in respect to the
application of this word, which is used both in the previous laws and in
the present code, has been as to the use of this exclusive right to
limit the conditions of sale after the original sale from the author or
proprietor as vendor to the immediate vendee. The courts have in general
held that the copyright and patent laws, while creating a legal monopoly
for the author or original proprietor, do not authorize any continuing
control, and have indeed gone so far as to indicate that a sale is
absolute and complete unless limited by special contract within the
principles of common or statutory law of contracts. In the leading case
of Keeler v. Standard Folding Bed Co., the U. S. Supreme Court in 1895,
through Justice Shiras, said:
{Sidenote: Control of sale}
"Upon the doctrine of these cases we think it follows that one who buys
patented articles of manufacture from one authorized to sell them
becomes possessed of an absolute property in such articles, unrestricted
in time or place. Whether a patentee may protect himself and his
assignees by special contracts brought home to the purchaser is not a
question before us and upon which we express no opinion. It is, however,
obvious that such a question would arise as a question of contract, and
not as one under the inherent meaning and effect of the patent laws."
{Sidenote: Specific relation to copyrights: the Macy cases}
This question in specific relation to copyrights again came before the
U. S. Supreme Court in a series of cases, known as the Macy cases,
between Isidor and Nathan Straus doing business as R. H. Macy & Co., on
the one side, and the Bobbs-Merrill Co. and Charles Scribner's Sons as
the respective defendants.
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