Copyright: Its History and Its Law Part 20

{Sidenote: Direct sound-writing}

"The earliest _writing_ which remains to us is in the a.s.syrian wedge-shaped inscriptions, made by pressing the end of a squared stick into a soft clay cylinder; the phonograph point inscribes its record in exactly the same manner upon the 'wax' or composition of the cylinder or disc, for the mechanism only revolves the roll, and the point is actuated by the sound vibrations. The words 'phonograph,' 'graphophone'

and 'gramophone' literally mean 'sound-writing,' for the Greek form _graph-_, the Latin form _scrib-_, and the Saxon form _write_, equally parts of our language, denote exactly the same meaning. It is even probable that a future development of phonograph impressions (the third dimension being translated into breadth of stroke as can be mechanically done) will give ultimately a visual phonograph alphabet even more natural and logical than Professor Bell's remarkable system of 'visible speech,' which, of course, like all alphabets, can be read only when the reader has mastered the significance of the symbols. Mr. Edison has himself made some experiments in this direction, though the confusion from the overtones, which give _quality_ of speech, has so far prevented result. A large share of literary productivity to-day is by voice-dictation recorded mechanically by a stenographer on the typewriter or directly on the phonograph disc, and I may instance from personal experience a further step. As one of the committee for the Edison birthday dinner, commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his invention of the incandescent lamp, I was asked to supply some original verse, and it occurred to me to put this in shape by help of Mr. Edison's inventions, without direct or indirect hand- or typewriting. Accordingly I completed the verses mentally without use of paper and voiced them into an Edison phonograph, verifying this through the telephone, and the lines were set in type by the printer from the sound-record, and thus printed on the _menu_ for the dinner. Thus my formulated ideas were recorded through the nerves and other mechanism of the vocal organs, instead of through the nerves and other mechanism of the hand, directly by the phonograph point on the phonograph cylinder; and it seems a common-sense inference that if I had caused copies of the phonograph cylinder, though not legible in the ordinary sense, to be published instead of the secondary copies in print, I should be as much ent.i.tled to copyright protection in the one case as in the other. The 'telegraphone' directly records on a steel tape the sounds of the human voice as sent through the telephone, and by an absolutely invisible re-arrangement of the magnetized particles of steel, makes a writing in which there is no possibility of visual legibility.

{Sidenote: Music transmissal}

"Moreover, invention is now developing a series of reproducing mechanisms such as Dr. Cahill's 'telharmonicon' or 'dynamophone,' in which musical compositions will be translated to the ear without the interposition even of a cylinder or disc sound-record; and it seems a common-sense inference that the musical composer should have as full rights in this as in other forms of copying or reproducing his thought.

Buda-Pesth is said to have not only a telephone 'newspaper,' but a system of reading novels and other works of literature to telephone subscribers, and if this should reach such proportions as substantially to reduce the sale of the printed copies of a new novel from which the author would receive benefit, it would also seem a common-sense inference that the same or an equivalent royalty should be paid him.

{Sidenote: Music notation}

"In music writing or notation there are two and only two essentials: relative vertical position, showing pitch, and relative horizontal position, showing duration of notes. The earliest form of our present music writing is the system of the 'large,' 'long,' 'breve' and 'semi-breve' notes, in which the pitch was shown by the vertical relations of the notes, and the length of the note by the length of the black mark, the 'large' mark being twice the length of the 'long' mark.

This corresponds closely to the perforated music roll of to-day, which could be read by a practiced eye with and probably without staff lines, to the extent that if every other form of reproduction were destroyed, the melody and harmony of a musical work could be reproduced into the ordinary notation of music writing. I speak from personal knowledge of these music rolls, having had a mechanical instrument for some years.

The different kinds of rolls differ in the relative s.p.a.cing and in distance from the edge of the roll, which gives the standard, but a foreshortened photograph of any, bringing them to the same scale, would pattern closely the early form of music writing above cited. The London postal telegraph system dispatches newspaper material from St. Martin's le Grand throughout the kingdom from continuous perforated ribbons made somewhat in the same way, visible and legible only to an expert, and reproductions by the medium of this device would certainly not vitiate copyright.

{Sidenote: The law prior to 1909}

"It may be observed that the existing law gives to the author or proprietor of a musical composition the sole liberty not only of printing, but of publis.h.i.+ng, copying, vending, performing, or representing a musical composition; that the statute does not restrict 'copying' either to a copy of 'staff notation' or from or in any particular form, but prohibits in general any copy of a musical composition; that there is no suggestion in the statute that the copy must be one to be read, _e. g._, a copy of a sculpture; that any sound-record is in the wide sense as truly a copy of a musical composition as a printed sheet, which is not a copy, in fact, of the author's ma.n.u.script writing; and that as the roll has for its sole purpose the performing by the aid of a mechanism useless without it, of a musical composition, just as a printed sheet of music has the sole purpose of the performing by the aid of the voice, the piano, or the orchestra, of a musical composition, the maker and vendor of the roll is in exactly the same position as the maker or vendor of a printed sheet of music.

{Sidenote: Ma.n.u.script and copies}

"But even if phonograph and perforated records should not be considered, as is sculpture, to be 'writings,' the arguments of the opponents of this bill do not fit the case. The Const.i.tution explicitly provides that authors shall have _exclusive rights_ to their writings. This cannot mean exclusive rights to their written ma.n.u.scripts, for these are protected by common law and no const.i.tutional provision was necessary.

It meant and means evidently that authors shall have exclusive rights to the benefits of their writings, the usufruct of the property they have created, and that means practically a monopoly control over all copies or reproductions from such writings, whether the copies are in handwriting, printing, or any other form. A musical score is definitely a writing, for it is even more than a literary ma.n.u.script, originally in the personal handwriting of the composer himself, without the intervention of a stenographer or a typewriting machine. Therefore, if the narrowest meaning of the word 'writings' should be interpreted into the Const.i.tution such as would exclude sculptures and other works which are admittedly proper and legal subjects of copyright, it would still specifically include musical and dramatic as well as literary ma.n.u.scripts. There is no specification in the Const.i.tution confining the exclusive rights over writings to copies in handwriting or print or any other stated process of reproduction; in fact, the Const.i.tution does not use the word 'copyright' or in any way limit by specification the comprehensiveness of the exclusive rights Congress is thus authorized to secure. Indeed, Congress in the copyright laws has interpreted the Const.i.tution to cover the several artistic or reproductive processes from time to time developed or invented; thus in the law of 1865 the provisions of the copyright laws were extended to include 'photographs,'

which did not exist at the time of the adoption of the Const.i.tution--which word specifically means 'light-writings' as phonograph records specifically mean 'sound-writings.'

{Sidenote: Protection of the inventor}

{Sidenote: The counter argument}

"The position taken by the American Copyright League is that an author is literally ent.i.tled to the exclusive right, that is, the exclusive _benefit_, in his writings, in whatever form the writings, that is, his recorded thoughts, can be reproduced for sale or gain. If Mark Twain writes a book or Bronson Howard a play or Sousa or Victor Herbert a musical composition or Millet makes a painting or French a statue, each is equally ent.i.tled to whatever benefit inures from his creative genius.

Mr. Sousa has stated clearly that although Caruso has been paid $3000--and the fact widely advertised--for singing into a phonograph record, and his own band (not under his leaders.h.i.+p) has also been paid for playing his compositions and those of others into the phonograph horn, he has never received as a musical composer one cent for such use of his creations, though from twenty to a hundred of his compositions are to be found on the catalogues of the several manufacturers of mechanical instruments. Mr. J. Howlett Davis, who properly appeared as an inventor in defense of his own inventions in mechanical instruments, which he mistakenly believes would be rendered useless if the copyright protection were extended to sound-records, really asked that Congress should protect the thing which he had invented, and compel users to pay for it, but should permit him to use the thought which the musical composer had invented and expressed, without paying for it. His argument a.n.a.lyzed presents an even stronger argument for the proposed copyright bill than for the protection of patented inventions. When Mr. Sousa buys a patented cornet he has paid for the use of it, but Mr. Sousa makes no claim either to make another cornet like it or to play copyrighted musical compositions for profit without payment or permission. A piano, a pianola, a music roll or new form of mechanism, is patentable; a musical composition as played on a piano by hand or by mechanism, whether reproduced on a printed sheet or a mechanical roll, is copyrightable; but each should have like protection. I speak from specific knowledge as one who has taken out patents as well as copyrights and as the active head for some years of the Edison Illuminating Company of New York and a partic.i.p.ant in successfully defending the Edison lamp patents. Mr. Edison, both as an inventor and as a manufacturer of his own inventions, has profited much more than a million dollars from his patents, and would naturally be expected to be foremost in upholding the right of authors to payment for their brains."

{Sidenote: Complete protection}

The acceptance by most countries within the International Copyright Union of the Berlin convention, without reservation on this question of mechanical music, sets an example of complete protection of the musical composer which it is hoped may be ultimately adopted by the United States as well as by other countries.

XIII

ARTISTIC COPYRIGHT

{Sidenote: Threefold value in art works}

The artist-author, by the labor of his brain and hand, produces three cla.s.ses of property right or a threefold value: he receives recompense from the sale of the original work made by his hand, or from the exhibition of it, or from the reproduction and sale of copies. The new American code is perhaps in advance of legislation in any other country in the protection of the artist, for it a.s.sures to him separate values in the right to sell his work and the right to reproduce and sell copies, neither one of which rights is necessarily transferred with the other; it enables him to copyright his original work before the reproduction of copies, though it does not make absolutely clear whether the exhibition without restriction of an uncopyrighted work results in dedication; and it protects his right to control and profit from reproductions, with the simplest possible copyright notice, not including date, though as to lithographic and photo-engraving reproductions it requires manufacture in this country. The literary, dramatic or musical author produces no value in the original work itself, except as his fame may ultimately make his ma.n.u.script valuable as an autograph, and in this respect the artist-author has an advantage of practical importance in the general provision separating the copyright from the right in the material object. On the other hand, show-right or right of exhibition is not as specifically treated or as clearly defined and protected as is playright or right of performance in the case of drama or music.

{Sidenote: American provisions}

The copyright of works of the fine arts and cognate works is specifically provided for in the code of 1909 by including as subject-matter of copyright (sec. 5) the following divisions: "(f) Maps; (g) Works of art; models or designs for works of art; (h) Reproductions of a work of art; (i) Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character; (j) Photographs; (k) Prints and pictorial ill.u.s.trations." It is not intended to include under subsection (k) labels or prints of advertising or commercial character which may be registered as trade-marks under the Trade-Mark law in the Patent Office.

The proprietor of a work of art is given in addition to the general rights (sec. 1, a) the specific rights (sec. 1, b) "to complete, execute, and finish it if it be a model or design for a work of art."

{Sidenote: Copyright Office cla.s.sification definitions}

The new Copyright Office Rules and Regulations, promulgated 1910, define these cla.s.sifications in the following language:

"11. _(f) Maps._--This term includes all cartographical works, such as terrestrial maps, plats, marine charts, star maps, but not diagrams, astrological charts, landscapes, or drawings of imaginary regions which do not have a real existence.

"12. _(g) Works of art._--This term includes all works belonging fairly to the so-called fine arts. (Paintings, drawings, and sculpture.)

"Productions of the industrial arts utilitarian in purpose and character are not subject to copyright registration, even if artistically made or ornamented.

"No copyright exists in toys, games, dolls, advertising novelties, instruments or tools of any kind, gla.s.sware, embroideries, garments, laces, woven fabrics, or any similar articles.

"13. _(h) Reproductions of works of art._--This term refers to such reproductions (engravings, woodcuts, etchings, casts, etc.) as contain in themselves an artistic element distinct from that of the original work of art which has been reproduced.

"14. _(i) Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character._--This term includes diagrams or models ill.u.s.trating scientific or technical works, architects' plans, designs for engineering work, etc.

"15. _(j) Photographs._--This term covers all positive prints from photographic negatives, including those from moving picture films (the entire series being counted as a single photograph), but not photogravures, half tones, and other photo-engravings.

"16. _(k) Prints and pictorial ill.u.s.trations._--This term comprises all printed pictures not included in the various other cla.s.ses enumerated above.

"Articles of utilitarian purpose do not become capable of copyright registration because they consist in part of pictures which in themselves are copyrightable, e. g., puzzles, games, rebuses, badges, b.u.t.tons, buckles, pins, novelties of every description, or similar articles.

"Postal cards cannot be copyrighted as such. The pictures thereon may be registered as 'prints or pictorial ill.u.s.trations' or as 'photographs.'

Text matter on a postal card may be of such a character that it may be registered as a 'book.'

"Mere ornamental scrolls, combinations of lines and colors, decorative borders, and similar designs, or ornamental letters or forms of type are not included in the designation 'prints and pictorial ill.u.s.trations.'

Trademarks cannot be copyrighted nor registered in the Copyright Office."

{Sidenote: The question of exhibition}

The new law does not specifically make clear the relation between the exhibition of works of art and publication, or define whether or not exhibition may const.i.tute dedication to the public and thus prevent the protection of the copyright thereafter. But in making copyright a sequent to publication (sec. 9) and providing (sec. 2) "that nothing in this Act shall be construed to annul or limit the right of the author or proprietor of an unpublished work, at common law or in equity, to prevent the copying, publication, or use of such unpublished work," it makes it at least probable that the author of an artistic or cognate work who simply exhibits, does not surrender the right to copyright. The trend of the courts in recent decisions has been, as in the Werkmeister case, cited below, to protect exhibited works, at least where any reservation of rights could be construed into the circ.u.mstances of the exhibition; but it is still uncertain whether the exhibition of a work of art at a public museum where there is no regulation against copying or reservation by the artist, might not const.i.tute a dedication and thus prevent later copyright.

{Sidenote: Protection of unpublished work}

In providing however (sec. 11) specifically "that copyright may also be had of the works of an author of which copies are not reproduced for sale, by the deposit, with claim of copyright ... of a photographic print if the work be a photograph; or of a photograph or other identifying reproduction thereof if it be a work of art or a plastic work or drawing," it gives to the artist or the author of a cognate work an easy means of protecting his production beyond question; and he is not wise who neglects the simple precaution provided in the law.

{Sidenote: Copyright notice}

It is not made absolutely clear in the new law whether the copyright notice must be attached to the original of a work of art; but again the provision for protection is so simple that it is wise to take advantage of the method of the law, by placing the copyright notice on the original. The copyright notice may be in the form (sec. 18) "'Copyright' or the abbreviation 'Copr.' accompanied by the name of the copyright proprietor," the year of publication not being required in the case of an artistic work. It is further provided that "in the case of copies of works specified in subsections (f) to (k), inclusive, of section five of this Act, the notice may consist of the letter C inclosed within a circle, thus: , accompanied by the initials, monogram, mark, or symbol of the copyright proprietor: _Provided_, That on some accessible portion of such copies or of the margin, back, permanent base, or pedestal, or of the substance on which such copies shall be mounted, his name shall appear."

If the copyright notice is attached to the original, it is not made clear whether it should be on the face of the work and visible to the casual spectator; but again the wise artist will take an easy precaution.

{Sidenote: Deposit}

It is further required (sec. 12) that "if the work is not reproduced in copies for sale, there shall be deposited the copy, print, photograph, or other identifying reproduction" required as above stated, "accompanied in each case by a claim of copyright."