“ As to architecture and artistic crafts the Conference recommended (resolution 9) that “an original work of art should not lose the protection of artistic copyright solely because it consists of, or is embodied in, a work of architecture or craftsmanship; but it should be clearly understood that such protection is confined to its artistic form and does not extend to the processes or methods of reproduction, or to an industrial design capable of registration under the law relating to designs and destined to be multiplied by way of manufacture or trade.” ”

“ It has been argued that, as the two properties are so distinct, the owner of the copyright ought to have the right of access to the picture for the purpose of exercising his right to reproduce it. But it is easy to see that it would destroy the value of art property if proprietors knew that at any moment they might be forced to surrender their work for the purpose of reproduction, though for a time only. ”

“ The artist who paints a picture signs it, and there is no difficulty in knowing who is the author of a painting and in whom the term of copyright is vested. In a very large number of cases a photograph is taken by an employee, who is here to-day and gone to-morrow, and even his employer knows nothing of his existence. Of course, it may suit an employer to be able to maintain secrecy as to the authorship of his negative, inasmuch as it enables him to go on claiming copyright fees indefinitely ”

“ And where the sale is arranged directly between the artist and his client, the difficulty experienced by the artist in raising the question as to whom the copyright shall belong to is so great, owing to the dread lest the mere mention of the signing of a document should cause the selling of the picture to fall through, that in numerous such cases the copyright lapses and becomes public property. ”

“ A man’s own work, in this view, is as much his as his house or his money, and should be protected by the state. Historically, and in legal definition, there would appear to be no doubt that copyright, as regulated by statute, is strictly a monopoly. The parliamentary protection of works of art for the period of fourteen years by an act of 1709 and later statutes appears, as Blackstone points out, to have been suggested by the exception in the Statute of Monopolies 1623. ”

“ If American working-men cannot secure a living in competition with labourers on the other side of the Atlantic, their needs should be cared for under the provisions of the protective tariff. It is, however, the belief of a large number of those who are engaged in the manufacturing of books that, with his advanced methods of work, the skilled American labourer has no reason to dread the competition of European craftsmen. With this manufacturing condition out of the way, there would be nothing to prevent the United States from becoming a party to the Bern Convention. ”

“ The first definite statute, or Copyright Act, in England was passed in 1709. The preamble states that printers, booksellers and other persons were frequently in the habit of printing, reprinting, and publishing “books and other writings without the consent of the authors or proprietors of such books and writings, to their very great detriment, and too often to the ruin of them and their families.” ”

“ It is a condition of copyright with the sculptor that the author must put his name with the date upon every work before putting it forth or publishing it. A curious and interesting point in the interpretation of this act is, that according to the opinion of eminent jurists it is necessary to an infringement of the copyright of a piece of sculpture that the copy of it must take the form of another piece of sculpture; that a photograph, drawing, or engraving of a piece of sculpture is not to be considered a reproduction of it, and is therefore not an infringement of the sculptor’s copyright. ”

“ Some artists make a practice, when they send a picture away to exhibition, to fill up one of these forms, reserving the copyright by their entry to themselves, in the belief that, if accompanied by the fee required by the Hall, its entry will reserve the copyright to them, oblivious of the fact that the only thing which can reserve the copyright to them is the possession of a document assigning the copyright to them by the purchaser of the picture. ”

“ False entries shall be punished as misdemeanours. The entry is to record the title of the book, the time of its publication, and the name and place of abode of the publisher and proprietor of copyright. Without making such entry no proprietor can bring an action for infringement of his copyright, but the entry is not otherwise to affect the copyright itself. Any person deeming himself aggrieved by an entry in the registry may complain to one of the superior courts, which will order it to be expunged or varied if necessary. ”

“ The advisability of any such advance on the principle now asserted must depend rather on experience of actual business and the working of the clause; but even under the procedure provided by the bill of 1910 it would equally be imperative for a publisher who owned a deceased author’s copyright to show that he had given or was giving the public valuable consideration for his monopoly, in order to uphold it against any one willing, on payment of a reasonable royalty, to serve the public better. ”

“ There is no copyright existing in the work for any one. It has passed into the public domain, and any one who can get access to the work may reproduce it. Now, as most purchases are made from the walls of exhibitions, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the copyright is absolutely lost. ”

“ Photographers are not affected by this clause, because they do not as a rule sell the negatives they produce, and with them the copyright lies in the negative. They carry on their trade in prints without the question of the negative arising. The picture-dealer, also, who buys a picture and copyright is not subjected to the same disability as the painter. The picture-dealer can sell a picture without saying a word to his client as to the copyright, which he, nevertheless, retains intact ”

“ The act gives the copyright of every work executed on commission to the person by whom it is commissioned. It makes it compulsory upon every owner of a copyright that he should register it at Stationers’ Hall before he can take any action at law to protect it. The copyright does not lapse if unregistered, but so long as it remains unregistered no action at law can be taken on account of any infringement. A copyright can be registered at any time, even after an infringement, but the owner of the copyright cannot recover for any infringement before registration. ”

“ Any person domiciled in Canada, or in any part of the British possessions, or being a citizen of any country having an international copyright treaty with the United Kingdom, who is the author of any book, map, &c., &c., shall have the sole right and liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, &c., for the term of twenty-eight years. ”

“ Another test proposed is “whether you find on the part of the defendant an animus furandi—an intention to take for the purpose of saving himself labour.” No one, it has been said, has a right to take, whether with or without acknowledgment, a material and substantial portion of another’s work, his arguments, his illustrations, his authorities, for the purpose of making or improving a rival publication. When the materials are open to all, an author may acquire copyright in his selection or arrangement of them. ”

“ In most countries on the continent of Europe a photographer has the fixed term of five years’ copyright in an original photograph dating from its publication, which date, together with the name and address of the photographer, has to be stamped on every copy issued. ”

“ It, of course, does no such thing, and the copyright of any picture sold in these circumstances, without the necessary document from the purchaser, must be lost to the artist, and pass irrevocably into the public domain.
In a work of art the work itself and the copyright are two totally distinct properties, and may be held by different persons. The conditions differ materially from those of a work of literature, in which as a rule there is no value apart from publication. ”

“ The difficulty was evidently before the author of this act, and the artist’s term was made his life and seven years after his death without any alternative. This term applies equally to photographers. Perhaps no bill which ever passed through parliament ostensibly for the purpose of benefiting a certain set of people has failed so completely as has this bill to accomplish its end. It started by proposing to give copyright to authors of paintings, drawings and photographs, and it would seem that no difficulty ought to have arisen as to whom such copyright should rightly belong ”

“ Difficult and complicated as is the whole subject of artistic copyright, it is perhaps not to be wondered at that ignorance of the law on the subject is very widespread, even amongst those who are most interested in its action.Practical difficulties. One of the commonest beliefs amongst artists is, that all they have to do to secure copyright is to register a picture at Stationers’ Hall ”

“ The importation into the United States is forbidden of any piratical copies of a copyrighted book or of any copies Importation of copyright works.not produced in accordance with the manufacturing provisions of the act (although authorized by the author or proprietor) , but importation is allowed to any society or institution incorporated for educational, literary, philosophical, scientific or religious purposes, or for the encouragement of the fine arts, or to any State school, college, &c., or to free public libraries, when importation is for use and not for sale. ”

“ As writings they come within the general Copyright Act, and the unauthorized multiplication of Drama
and
music.copies is a piracy of the usual sort. This was decided to be so even in the case of musical compositions under the act of 1709. The Copyright Act of 1842 includes a “sheet of music” in its definition of a book. Separate from the copyright thus existing in dramatic or musical compositions is the stage-right or right of representing them on the stage; this was the right created by the Dramatic Copyright Act of 1833, in the case of dramatic pieces. ”

“ And this applies even when the sitter is not the actual purchaser of the negative (Boucas v. Cooke, 1903) . But in several cases the “celebrity” who has sat to a photographer at his request and without payment has not been allowed to distribute his photograph to newspapers for reproduction without the photographer’s consent. The fact that a sitter pays the photographer for prints, though he has not commissioned the sitting, would not vest the copyright in him. ”

“ The leading case about encyclopaedias is that of Lawrence and Bullen, decided by the House of Lords in 1904. Artistic Copyright
19. Literary authors had protection for their literary work much earlier than artists for their artistic productions. Pictures and illustrations, when included in books or newspapers, are protected by the law which applies to the latter, but that is a separate question. It was not until the reign of George II. that the legislature in England afforded any protection for the work of artists. ”

“ The act makes Transfer and assignment of copyright.a clear distinction between the property in the copyright and that in the material object representing the copyright, and enacts that the sale or conveyance of the material object shall not of itself constitute a transfer of the copyright. Transfer of copyright in the United States is to be effected by an instrument in writing signed by the proprietor of the copyright, or the copyright may be bequeathed by will. ”

“ The unauthorized editions had the further advantage in competition, that for the purpose of being manufactured more promptly and more economically, they could be and often were issued in an abbreviated and garbled form, an injury which to not a few writers seemed more grievous than the lack of pecuniary profit. ”

“ The bill for the first time brought British copyright entirely under statutory law and consolidated and amended all previous enactments; it adopted the suggestions of the Imperial Conference (attended by representatives of Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Newfoundland, other interests being covered by home representatives of the Foreign Office, India Office, Colonial Office and Board of Trade) as to providing for its extension by their declaration to the Dominions ”

“ Howe, 17 Ch.D. 708, overruling Cox, 1869) , that a newspaper is a book within the meaning of the act, and can claim all rights that a book has under the Copyright Act. Thus, leading articles, special articles, and even news items are protected (Walter v. Steinkopff, 1892, 3 Ch. 489; Exchange Telegraph Co. v. Gregory and Co., 1896, 1 Q.B. 147) . Current prices of stocks and shares, translations, the compilation of a directory, summaries of legal proceedings, and other similar literary work, so far as the literary form, the labour and money are concerned, are equally protected. ”