"Sec. 4967. Every person who shall print or publish any manuscript whatever without the consent of the author or proprietor first obtained, shall be liable to the author or proprietor for all damages occasioned by such injury."
Sec. 10. That section forty-nine hundred and seventy-one of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby repealed.
Sec. 11. That for the purpose of this Act each volume of a book in two or more volumes, when such volumes are published separately and the first one shall not have been issued before this Act shall take effect, and each number of a periodical shall be considered an independent publication, subject to the form of copyrighting as above.
Sec. 12. That this Act shall go into effect on the first day of July, anno domini eighteen hundred and ninety-one.
Sec. 13. That this Act shall only apply to a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation when such foreign state or nation permits to citizens of the United States of America the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as its own citizens; or when such foreign state or nation 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 of America may at its pleasure become a party to such agreement. The existence of either of the conditions aforesaid shall be determined by the President of the United States by proclamation made from time to time as the purposes of this Act may require.
ACT OF CONGRESS, March 3, 1893.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any author, inventor, designer, or proprietor of any book, or other article entitled to copyright, who has heretofore failed to deliver in the office of the Librarian of Congress, or in the mail addressed to the Librarian of Congress, two complete copies of such book, or description or photograph of such article within the time limited by Title 60, chapter 3, of the Revised Statutes relating to copyrights and the Acts in amendment [390] thereof, and has complied with all other provisions thereof, who has before March 1, 1893, delivered at the office of the Librarian of Congress or deposited in the mail addressed to the Librarian of Congress two complete printed copies of such book, or description or photograph of such article, shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges of said Title 60, chapter 3, of the Revised Statutes and Acts in amendment thereof.
ACT OF CONGRESS, March 2, 1895.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4965 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows:
Sec. 4965. If any person after the recording of the title of any map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, print, cut, engraving or photograph, or chromo, or of the description of any painting, drawing, statue, statuary, or model or design intended to be perfected and executed as a work of the fine arts, as provided by this Act, shall, within the term limited, contrary to the provisions of this Act and without the consent of the proprietor first obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or more witnesses, engrave, etch, work, copy, print, publish, dramatize, translate, or import, either in whole or in part, or by varying the main design, with intent to evade the law, or knowing the same to be so printed, published, dramatized, translated, or imported shall sell or expose to sale any copy of such map or other article as aforesaid, he shall forfeit to the proprietor all the plates on which the same shall be copied, and every sheet thereof either copied or printed, and shall further forfeit one dollar for every sheet of the same found in his possession, either printing, printed, copied, published, imported, or exposed for sale; and in case of a painting, statue, or statuary, he shall forfeit ten dollars for every copy of the same in his possession, or by him sold or exposed for sale: Provided, however, That in case of any such infringement of the copyright of a photograph made from any object not a work of fine arts, the sum to be recovered in any action brought under the provisions of this section shall be not less than 100 dollars, nor more than 5000 dollars, and: Provided further, That in case of any such infringement of the copyright of a painting, drawing, statue, engraving, etching, print, or model or design for a work of the fine arts or of a photograph of a work of the fine arts, the sum to be recovered in any action brought through the provisions of this section shall not be less than 250 dollars, and not more than 10,000 dollars. One-half of all the foregoing penalties shall go to the proprietors of the copyright and the other half to the use of the United States.
ACT OF CONGRESS, January 6, 1897.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4966 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows: [391]
Sec. 4966. Any person publicly performing or representing any dramatic or musical composition for which a copyright has been obtained, without the consent of the proprietor of said dramatic or musical composition or his heirs or assigns, shall be liable for damages therefor, such damages in all cases to be assessed at such sum not less than 100 dollars for the first and 50 dollars for every subsequent performance, as to the court shall appear to be just. If the unlawful performance and representation be wilful and for profit, such person or persons shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and, upon conviction, be imprisoned for a period not exceeding one year. Any injunction that may be granted upon hearing, after notice to the defendant by any circuit court of the United States, or by a judge thereof restraining and enjoining the performance or representation of any such dramatic or musical composition, may be served on the parties against whom such injunction may be granted anywhere in the United States, and shall be operative and may be enforced by proceedings to punish for contempt or otherwise by any other circuit court or judge in the United States; but the defendants in said action or any or either of them may make a motion in any other circuit in which he or they may be engaged in performing or representing said dramatic or musical composition, to dissolve or set aside the said injunction upon such reasonable notice to the plaintiff as the circuit court or the judge before whom said motion shall be made shall deem proper; service of said motion to be made on the plaintiff in person or on his attorneys in the action. The circuit courts or judges thereof shall have jurisdiction to enforce said injunction, and to hear and determine a motion to dissolve the same, as herein provided, as fully as if the action were pending or brought in the circuit in which said motion is made.
The clerk of the court or judge granting the injunction shall, when required so to do by the court hearing the application to dissolve or enforce said injunction, transmit without delay to said court a certified copy of all the papers on which the said injunction was granted that are on file in his office.
ACT OF CONGRESS, March 3, 1897.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4963 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows:
Sec. 4963. Every person who shall insert or impress such notice or words of the same purport, in or upon any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, print, cut, engraving or photograph, or other article, whether such article be subject to copyright or otherwise, for which he has not obtained a copyright in this country; or shall import any book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph or other article bearing such notice of copyright, or words of the same purport, which is not copyrighted in this country, shall be liable to a penalty of 100 dollars, recoverable one-half for the person who shall sue for such penalty, and one-half to the use of the United States; and the importation into the United States of any book, chromo, lithograph, or photograph, or other article bearing such notice of copyright, when there is no existing copyright thereon in the [392] United States, is prohibited: and the circuit courts of the United States sitting in equity are hereby authorised to enjoin the issuing, publishing, or selling of any article marked or imported in violation of the United States copyright laws, at the suit of any person complaining of such violation: Provided that this Act shall not apply to any importation of or sale of such goods or articles brought into the United States prior to the passage hereof.
Sec. 2. That all laws and parts of laws inconsistent with the foregoing provisions be and are hereby repealed.
ADDENDUM
MUSICAL (SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS) COPYRIGHT ACT, 1902.
2 Edw. VII. c. 15.
Since this work went to press the Musical Copyright Bill mentioned on page 231 has received the Royal Assent and become law. The Act will come into operation on October 1, 1902, and its application is limited to the United Kingdom. The Act gives the owner of copyright music power to seize pirated copies of his works from any person who may hawk, carry about, sell, or offer for sale the same. To exercise this power he may proceed in one of two ways. He may apply to a court of summary jurisdiction, and on primâ facie evidence the court will by order authorise a constable to seize the alleged pirated copies, or he may without applying to the court himself authorise a constable in writing to seize such copies. On the copies being seized by the constable they must be brought before the court, and on proof that they are pirated copies the court will order them to be destroyed or delivered to the owner of the copyright. If the owner authorises the seizure without an order from the court and fails to prove his case he might be liable in damages. If, therefore, the owner is not quite sure of his case he should first obtain the order of the court, which will relieve him from all responsibility, except costs, in the event of his failing. The Bill as originally brought into the House of Lords contained a clause empowering a court of summary jurisdiction to inflict a summary penalty on persons dealing with pirated music. It also proposed to give the court power to order a constable to search for pirated music on suspected premises. These remedies, however, were considered by the House of Commons to be too drastic and were omitted from the Act. [393]
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