“ The legal principles usually applicable to property, personal rights, or monopolies are not always appropriate for copyright. The primary purpose of copyright is to stimulate the creation and dissemination of intellectual works, thus advancing the progress of science and useful arts. The grant of exclusive rights to authors is a means of achieving this end, and of compensating authors for their labors and their contributions to society. Within limits, the author's interests coincide with those of the public. Where they conflict, the public interest must prevail. ”

“ COPYRIGHT AS A MONOPOLY Copyright has sometimes been said to be a monopoly. This is true in the sense that the copyright owner is given exclusive control over the market for his work. And if his control were unlimited, it could become an undue restraint on the dissemination of the work. On the other hand, any one work will ordinarily be competing in the market with many others. And copyright, by preventing mere duplication, tends to encourage the independent creation of competitive works. ”

“ Assignability of copyright On the theory that copyright is essentially a personal right of the author, there is a tendency in some countries to declare that only the author or his heirs can own the copyright, and that they cannot assign it. Nevertheless, they may give exclusive licenses to use the work, and the practical result is substantially the same as an assignment of the particular right covered by the license. The assignability of copyrights has always been a fundamental feature of the law in the United States. ”

“ Our laws dealing with various forms of property other than copyright--chattels, shares of stock, contractual rights, and especially patents--apply generally to the property of citizens and aliens alike. Even in the realm of copyrightable works, our common law now protects the unpublished works of all foreign and domestic authors indiscriminately. ”

“ Conclusions We believe that there is no justification for denying copyright protection, or cutting it off after 5 years, for failure to manufacture an edition in the United States. The effect on authors is severe. They lose not only the right to reproduce their works in printed form, but also the other rights, often more remunerative, to use their works in motion pictures, broadcasts, plays, etc. Moreover, withholding or cutting off copyright from works printed abroad has proved to be of little or no benefit to the printing industry. ”

“ OWNERS The present statute is silent as to the rights of co-owners among themselves and in relation to third persons. The courts have dealt with these questions by adapting the established rules pertaining to the co-ownership of other forms of property by tenants in common. Under the court decisions, any one of the several co-owners of a copyright may use the work or license a third person to use it without the consent of the other owners, but he must share the profits with them. One co-owner can, of course, assign his interest to a third person who would then become a co-owner in his stead. ”

“ The copyright in an architectural drawing protects it against the unauthorized making and distribution of copies of the drawing. When an architectural structure, such as a monument, is itself a work of art, copyrighted drawings of the structure are protected against their execution by erecting the structure. This is merely an application of the provision in section 1 (b) protecting a model or design for a work of art against its execution. ”

“ Scholarly use of the manuscripts in a library is often handicapped by the uncertainty as to whether they are still subject to the authors' common law rights, and by the impracticality of seeking permission from numerous authors or heirs. Authors who place their manuscripts in the possession of other persons take the risk that those persons even when not authorized to disclose the manuscripts, may in fact do so. When the holder of manuscripts has made them accessible to the public in a library they are no longer private in fact. ”

“ THE PURPOSE AND NATURE OF PERFORMING RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS In the United States, as in virtually every other major country, copyright owners have found it necessary as a practical matter to place their musical works in a pool for the licensing of public performances. Musical performances are given so widely that no one copyright owner could police all performances of his music or collect the royalties due him. ”

“ Much of the new music available remains unrecorded, and no one can foretell whether a recording of a particular composition will strike the public fancy. Author and publisher groups have urged strenuously that, since the compulsory license is no longer justified as an antimonopoly measure, it should now be eliminated. They argue that the fundamental principle of copyright--that the author is to have the exclusive right to control the commercial exploitation of his work--should apply to the recording of music, as it is applied to all other kinds of works and to other means of exploiting music. ”

“ On the contrary, we believe that our recognition of copyright in works emanating from newly established and other underdeveloped countries is more likely to encourage their adoption of copyright laws and their adherence to the Universal Copyright Convention. France and one or two other countries have extended the protection of their copyright laws to all foreign works without regard to reciprocity. ”

“ The only purpose of awarding damages for an innocent infringement is to compensate the copyright owner. The other purpose of statutory damages--to deter infringement--is not present as to infringements committed innocently. Statutory damages may still be appropriate in many cases to compensate the copyright owner adequately, but a mandatory minimum of $ 250 might be excessive in some instances. ”

“ There remains the question of protection to be given to a copyrighted work of art that is utilized as a design in the manufacture of useful articles. We believe that, where the copyrighted work is used as a design or decoration of a useful article, it should continue, as under the present law, to be protected by copyright if the owner wishes. In this situation the copyright owner should be given the option of securing protection under the design patent law or under special design legislation; but, if he does not do so, his copyright protection should remain unaffected. ”

“ The for profit limitation.--In the case of nondramatic literary and musical works the present law limits the copyright owner's performance right to public performances for profit. The phrase for profit has been construed in a number of court decisions, and now has a fairly well-defined meaning. A public performance may be for profit, even though no admission fee is charged, if it is given in furtherance of a commercial enterprise. Thus, the playing of music in a hotel or restaurant has been held for profit since its purpose is to attract patronage. ”

“ Generally Some commentators, particularly in European countries, have characterized copyright as a personal right of the author, or as a combination of personal and property rights. It is true that an author's intellectual creation has the stamp of his personality and is identified with him. ”

“ In some countries the moral rights survive the author's death and may be enforced by his heirs or representatives. In the United States the moral rights of authors have never been treated as aspects of copyright. But authors have been given much the same protection of personal rights under general principles of the common law such as those relating to implied contracts, unfair competition, misrepresentation, and defamation. ”

“ It seems equally clear, at the other extreme, that a functional structure having no artistic features is not an appropriate subject for copyright protection, even though it embodies original ideas as to technical methods of construction. The more difficult question is whether copyright protection should extend to structures that are functional in purpose but also display nonfunctional features of artistic design. ”

“ When a published copy in a library's collections is not available for loan, which is very often the case, the researcher's need can be met by a photocopy. On the other hand, the supplying of photocopies of any work to a substantial number of researchers may diminish the copyright owner's market for the work. Publishers of scientific, technical, and scholarly [26] works have pointed out that their market is small; and they have expressed the fear that if many of their potential subscribers or purchasers were furnished with photocopies, they might be forced to discontinue publication. ”

“ IN REGARD TO ADVANTAGES OF STATUTORY COPYRIGHT Although statutory copyright is subject to time and other limitations, it also affords to the author certain advantages over common law protection: (1) registration under the statute provides prima facie proof of the facts stated in the registration certificate, and (2) the statute affords better and more precise remedies for infringement. We see no reason why these advantages should not be accorded to all works when they are publicly disseminated. ”

“ That the foreign country is a party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United States may, at its pleasure, become a party thereto. The first of the three conditions specified in section 9 (b) is for national treatment--that the foreign country treats U.S. citizens on the same basis as its own citizens. The second is for reciprocal treatment--that the foreign country gives U.S. citizens protection equal to that given by the United States to citizens of that country. ”

“ The general principles of equity followed by the courts in granting or denying injunctions are applicable to copyright infringements. An injunction, by preventing future injury to the plaintiff, is often the most effective remedy, particularly because the damages caused by an infringement may be incapable of accurate assessment. In some situations, however, an injunction may be futile, as where the only injury contemplated has already occurred. In other cases an injunction may be too harsh on the defendant. ”

“ Advocates of eliminating our notice provision argue that, as a matter of principle, all authors are entitled to have copyright in all their works without any requirement that they assert their desire for copyright protection. They urge that it is unjust to deprive an author of copyright because of his failure to comply with a technical notice requirement. ”

“ We believe that in some situations there is considerable merit in the argument that an employee-author should share in any commercial value his work may have beyond its use in the employer's business. But we see many practical difficulties in the proposal to divide the rights between employers and employees by a statutory formula: - Controversial issues would frequently arise as to the scope of the employer's business, and as to the degree of competition between his business and particular uses of the work. ”

“ In the case of a work made for hire, the employer is deemed to be the author (sec. 26) . Under the common law, the author has literary property rights in his work upon its creation. He may assign his common law rights to another person or, if he dies owning them, they will pass on to his legatees or heirs. The owner of the common law rights is the person entitled to secure copyright under the statute. ”

“ It is noteworthy that French works are protected in at least as many countries as the works of any other nation. Aside from the matter of securing protection abroad for U.S. authors, we believe that the extension of copyright protection to foreign works generally, without requiring reciprocity, would serve our best interests. U.S. distributors of intellectual works--publishers, motion picture producers, etc.--often need exclusive rights in a work to warrant their investment in its reproduction and distribution. ”

“ The jukebox industry is now among the largest commercial users of music, with an annual gross revenue of over a half-billion dollars. Jukebox operators are the only users of music for profit who are not obliged to pay royalties, and there is no special reason for their exemption. No such exemption is made in any other country, except that in Canada the playing of music on jukeboxes comes within a general exemption of performances by means of a gramophone. A Canadian commission appointed to review its copyright law recently declared that the exemption of jukeboxes is not warranted ”

“ It seems unnecessary to dwell at length upon the changes in technology during the last half century that have affected the operation of the copyright law. Commercial radio and television were unknown in 1909. Motion pictures and sound recordings were in a rudimentary stage. New techniques for reproducing printed matter and recorded sounds have since come into use. These and other technical advances have brought in new industries and new methods for the reproduction and dissemination of the literary, musical, pictorial, and artistic works that comprise the subject matter of copyright. ”