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
There can be no copyright in an immoral book, and Lord Eldon, in Southey
_v._ Sherwood, carried this doctrine so far as to deny the common law
right of an author in a non-innocent manuscript, because there could be
no right to hold what there was no right to sell. His opinion, resulting
in the wide sale of a book which the author desired to suppress, has
been severely criticised by later authorities. In the American case of
Broder _v._ Zeno Mauvais Music Co., Judge Morrow, in the U. S. Circuit
Court in California, in 1898, held that as a song which the plaintiff
sought to protect contained indecent words, it was not entitled to
protection under the copyright law. There can be no copyright in
blasphemous, seditious, or libelous books; but though this rule was very
strictly enforced by English judges a century ago, the later courts
hesitate to rule strictly on this point, lest the rule be perverted to
sectarianism or despotism. There can be no copyright in books involving
fraud, as those which spuriously obtain salable value by being
represented to be the work of writers who did not write them, or to
contain matter which they do not contain; but this rule does not extend
to books under assumed names or innocently pretending to be what they
are not, as when Horace Walpole's "Castle of Otranto" was put forward as
a translation from the Italian.
{Sidenote: Periodicals}
In addition to the inclusion of "composite works," the new American law
specifically covers (sec. 5, b) "periodicals, including newspapers," and
by other provisions of the law above cited, this covers "all
copyrightable component parts." It is further provided (sec. 3) that
"the copyright upon composite works or periodicals shall give to the
proprietor thereof all the rights in respect thereto which he would have
if each part were individually copyrighted under this Act." While the
American code does not specifically provide as to the separate rights of
authors in articles in periodicals or composite works, which must
therefore be a matter of contract, or of practice or precedent implying
contract, provision for separate copyright is implied in a clause (sec.
12) requiring the deposit of only one copy instead of two in the case of
"a contribution to a periodical, for which contribution special
registration is requested"--although the specific article is fully
protected, as indicated above, by the general copyright.
{Sidenote: Definition of periodicals}
The new Rules and Regulations of the Copyright Office define periodicals
as follows:
"(6) This term includes newspapers, magazines, reviews, and serial
publications appearing oftener than once a year; bulletins or
proceedings of societies, etc., which appear regularly at intervals of
less than a year; and, generally, periodical publications which would be
registered as second class matter at the post office."
{Sidenote: Periodicals under manufacturing clause}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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