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
doubt as to ownership.
{Sidenote: Anonymous works}
There is no specific reference in the new American code as to anonymous
or pseudonymous works, except as to duration of copyright. In practice,
the Copyright Office assumes that the applicant for the entry of an
anonymous or pseudonymous work is the qualified and legal author or
proprietor, and any disputed question of fact would ultimately be
decided by the courts.
{Sidenote: Joint authorship}
There may be joint authorship in a work of common design, in which case
the joint authors will become owners in common of the undivided
property; but mere alterations or work on specific parts could not
justify claim to more than such alterations or parts. The copyright
would naturally be entered in both names, but as one copyright; it was
held in 1902, in Mifflin _v._ Dutton, by the U. S. Supreme Court, that
"there cannot be duplicate copyrights of the same book in different
names." If one of the joint authors and not the other should apply for
entry, the Copyright Office would in practice probably record the
copyright claim on the presumption that the author was acting in the
common interest; but if two joint authors applied simultaneously and
severally, the question of ownership would have to be settled by the
courts.
{Sidenote: Corporate bodies}
A corporate body, even though not incorporated under statute, is
considered an author in the case of its own proceedings or similar
publications, and in 1903 Justice Holmes rendered the decision of the U.
S. Supreme Court in the case of Bleistein _v._ Donaldson Lith. Co.,
though the court was divided on the subject, that a copyright taken in
the name of the Courier Lithographing Company, which was only the trade
name of the complainant, was valid.
{Sidenote: Posthumous works}
In the case of posthumous works, the person entitled to copyright would
be the executor, administrator, or the heirs of the author, and the
owner of an unpublished manuscript could probably enter and maintain
copyright in the absence of other legal claimant.
{Sidenote: The Peary cases}
{Sidenote: Opposing decisions}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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