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
The negative provision in this section was inserted in the new copyright
law apparently to differentiate it from patent law with the intent of
preventing the proprietor of a copyrighted work from controlling the
conditions of sale after copies had left his possession. It is doubtful
what, if any, effect this provision may have, as the phrase "lawfully
obtained" would scarcely have the result of limiting and annulling
contractual conditions of sale. The innocent purchase of a stolen book
would not relieve the purchaser from the necessity of returning the
stolen property to its proper owner, although as far as intent,
knowledge, and payment are concerned, he would have "lawfully obtained"
it.
{Sidenote: Schemes not copyrightable}
The scope of copyright cannot be extended to cover a business or other
scheme described in a copyrighted book, as was held in 1906 in Burk _v_.
Johnson by the Circuit Court of Appeals in denying relief under
copyright protection to the originator of a mutual burial association
who copyrighted the articles of association.
{Sidenote: The new British code}
The new British measure defines copyright to mean "the sole right to
produce or reproduce the work or any substantial part thereof in any
material form whatsoever and in any language," thus assuring rights of
translation hitherto imperfect or doubtful; "to perform, or in the case
of a lecture to deliver, the work or any substantial part thereof in
public; if the work is unpublished, to publish the work"; and
specifically includes the sole right of dramatization (from an
"artistic," as well as other non-dramatic work), novelization, and
reproduction by mechanical means (though with compulsory license
provision as to reproduced music). A copyright may be assigned or
licensed "either wholly or partially, and either generally or subject to
limitations to any particular country, and either for the whole term of
the copyright or for any part thereof."
"Copyright or any similar right in any literary dramatic musical or
artistic work, whether published or unpublished," is expressly denied
"otherwise than under and in accordance with the provisions of this Act"
or other statutory enactment; and thus common law seems to be totally
abrogated. Hitherto common law property in an unpublished work has been
absolute and co-existed with statutory remedies up to publication, as
was strongly upheld in 1908 in Mansell _v_. Valley Printing Co. in the
English Court of Appeal. As to published works, the new code continues
the settled law reiterated as late as 1910 in Monckton _v_. The
Gramaphone Co., where Justice Joyce in the Chancery Division denied the
common law claim of the author of a song printed with prohibition of
mechanical production, on the ground that after publication there was no
copyright except as given by statute.
{Sidenote: Foreign statutes}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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