Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Smith v. Hitchcock — Opinion of the Court
“ As books are not turned into periodicals by number and sequence, the magazines are not brought into the third class by having a considerable number of pages stitched together. Without attempting a definition, we may say that generally a printed publication is a book when its contents are complete in themselves, deal with a single subject, betray no need of continuation, and, perhaps, have an appreciable size. ”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Smith v. Hitchcock — Opinion of the Court
“ It hardly would be an exception if, where the object is information and the subject-matter is a changing one, a publication periodically issued, giving information for the time, should be held to fall into the second class. From this point of view the Tip Top Weekly and Work and Win are books. They are large enough to raise no doubt on that score; each volume is complete in itself and betrays no inward need of more, notwithstanding that, as in the highwayman stories of an earlier generation, further adventures to follow are promised at the end. ”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Smith v. Hitchcock — Opinion of the Court
“ It was suggested, to be sure, that the distinction was between reprints of well-known works and new matter, but we can see nothing in that; neither do we find much weight in the identity of authorship, the retention of the name of the hero through successive tales, or the ever-renewed promise of further wonders in the next. ”
