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11 Am. Law. 246 (1903)
Copyright Improvement

handle is hein.journals/amlyr11 and id is 251 raw text is: 246                  THE AMERICAN LAWYER.

leading men among them, the purest and loftiest character
their race has ever produced was unjustly put to death. Who
has not observed that hushed and mournful note, like the
soughing of the wind through pine tops, which this feeling has
caused to vibrate- among them? Tt could not be otherwise

with a race as finely strung as the finest stringed instrument,
as their literature and history show them to be. They feel
as did Renan, also a disbeliever in the divinity of Jesus, in
finishing his life of Jesus: There never was but one Jesus,
and there never will be another.

Copyright Improvement.

In the last American Law Review is printed an address,
before the Maine State 'Bar Association, by Mr. Samuel J.
Elder, of Boston, on what he styles Our Archaic Copyright
Laws. Mr. Elder points out many directions in which he
believes our present copyright statutes should be amended.
The substitution of a single term of protection for the present
double term would do away with the requirement of a second
registration of title and deposit of copies, and with the re-
sulting opportunities for unnecessary, and delicate complica-
tions between the author and his assignee. A longer period
of protection, -also, is favored. Mr. Edward Everett Hale has
already outlived the copyright of some of his earlier works.
James Russell Lowell's first copyrights expired during his
lifetime. The English method, Mr. Elder thinks, is prefera-
ble-namely, to grant protection during the life of the author
and for seven years beyond, or for forty-two years from first
publication-whichever is the longer term.
A simplification of registration and deposit in the cace
of newspapers is advocated, and the protection, which should
be secured by the fact of publication alone, ought to be tem-
porarily extended beyond the mere language in which 'hc
news is stated. As great expense is incurred by the press
associations and individual papers in procuring news, the
news itself, the facts stated, should be protected, and f A
merely the literary vehicle in which it is conveyed; but only
for a brief period of time. Improved legislation. taking into
account the natural differentiation between books anI plays
is advocated; and the penal clauses for unlawful representa-
tion are deprecated and ascribed to the influence of the the-
atrical trust. The general lack of harmony in the pro risicn.,
of the statutes as to infringement and the penalties imposed
are dwelt upon, and it is Insisted that the whole system, and
in 'the light of its interpretation by the courts, calls for re
vision.
Mr. Elder has concerned himself mainly, however. u ith
the statutory formal'ties upon exact compliance with which
copyright protection rests. He traces the development of out
laws from the English act of Queen Anne (1709) through
the copyright legislation of the original States and the various
Federal enactments to date, showing how the formalltes ot
registration of title, deposit of copies, and printing of copy-
right notice have become conditions precedent to obtainlg
and maintaining the copyright; and he Inveighs agains, these
provisions as, so many traps for the feet of the unwary.
Notable examples are given of cases Involving the loss of ccpy-
right protection under the decisions of the courts, by reason
of failure to comply exactly with the statutes.
Thus, the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table lost copy-
right because it could not be proved that copies of the At-
lantic Monthly, in which it first appeared were duly de-
posited. The copies of Gottsberger's expensive edition of
Eber's Gallery (sold at about sixty dollars) were detained
in the express office until the express charge cou!d be col-

lected, and hence not delivered at the Library of Congress
within the statutory time, and this delay led to the loss of the
copyr'ght. The misprinting of the year date by a single
year in the notice of copyright has been held to invalidate
the right. The printing of Mrs. Stowb's The Minister's
Wooing, with a notice of copyright in the author's name
before the last chapters of the book appeared in a number of
the Atlantic Monthly bearing, notice of copyright in the
name of the publishers, was held to constitute a variance
which created a fatal defect. On the other hand, The Pro-
fessor at the Breakfast Table, having been brought to com-
pletion in the Atlantic Monthly, which contained a notice
of copyright in the name of the publishers, subsequent publi-
cation of the work with a notice of copyright in the name of
the author was held to be equally fatal. In effect, an author
may be entirely at the mercy of a mailing clerk in some
publisher's office, while the failure of a shipping clerk to see
that the copies of the book go seasonably forward to Wash-
ington may destroy a publishing right of great value. It
is absurd and wicked, Mr. Elder exclaims, that a slip
of a clerk' or binder, or a mistake of the author, publisher, or
printer should utterly destroy all copyright protection!
The additional prerequisite that books copyrighted must
be printed from type set within the limits of the United
States, or from plates made therefrom, was inserted in the
International Copyright bill because it could not be passed
without this proviso. The agitation for international copy-
right had continued fifty years without success, and it was
thought best by nearly all friends of the cause to yield the
point rather than lose the measure. Mr. Elder acknowledges
that much severe criticism has been visited upon this part
of the act. He states,,for example, that a recent publication
which had been set up and printed in England entailed an
expense of upwards of $40,000 for resetting and electrotyping
in this country. The American market, however, Is so vast
and so profitable that the expense is not prohibitive, and it
is now, at all events, Mr. Elder concludes, too late to con-
sider any change in that branch of the statute.
His conclusions may be thus summarized: That there is
need of revision and simplification of the law of literary and
artistic property; that as it is the securing of an existing
right, and not the creating of a new one, for which the
law makes provision, it should liberally protect and not fetter,
hamper, or by possibility defeat the right. The basis on
which our copyright provisions rest is erroneous. It being
true that the author's right of property results from his labor,
genius, and Ingenuity, and that protection was intended to be
secured to him because of his dedication of his work to the
public, there Is no reason why the security itself should be
imperilled by a varidty of technicalities, or why the value of
the work should be frittered away in litigation or questions
which have nothing to do with the real work of ownership.
Finally, Mr. Elder contends that the law requires adaptation
to modern conditions. It is no longer possible to summarize
it in a few sections, covering everything copyialghtable. It
should be revised so that protection to the honest literary
worker, artist, or designer shall be simple and certain.-
New York Post.

THE AMERICAN LAWYER.

.246

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