Unfortunately, the precedent of our copyright act English of 1891 has since been followed in England in the patent proviso patent and designs act of 1907, which provides (sec. 27) that a patent may be revoked after four years "on the ground that the patented article or process is manufactured or carried on exclusively or mainly outside the United Kingdom." Such a provision had been a feature of the patent laws of Germany, Canada and other countries, but it is new in British law and has evoked strong protest from American patentees, notwithstanding that it is parallel with our manufacturing provision with respect to copyrights. and com XI DRAMATIC AND MUSICAL COPYRIGHT, INCLUDING PLAYRIGHT Dramatists' THE dramatic author and the musical composer receive recompense for their creative labor not so much posers' rights from publication of their works in the printed form of a book as through their performance or representation, when protected as playright or performing right, as the artist receives remuneration not only for the reproduction and sale of copies, but also from the exhibition as well as sale of his original work. Dramatic and musical copyright, in the wide sense, therefore, covers copyright in the specific sense and playright, as to which latter common law rights especially need statutory protection. American provisions Copyright definitions In the protection of dramatic and musical compositions the new American code specifically provides not only for copyright, but for playright or right of performance. Under subject-matter of copyright (sec. 5) such works are classified as "(d) Dramatic or dramatico-musical compositions; (e) Musical compositions"; and the Copyright Office Rules and Regulations further define these classes as follows: "8. (d) Dramatic and dramatico-musical composi tions, such as dramas, comedies, operas, operettas and similar works. "The designation 'dramatic composition' does not include the following: Dances, ballets, or other choregraphic works; tableaux and moving picture shows; stage settings or mechanical devices by which dramatic effects are produced, or 'stage business'; animal shows, sleight-of-hand performances, acrobatic or circus tricks of any kind; descriptions of moving pictures or of settings for the production of moving pictures. (These, however, when printed and published, are registrable as 'books.') "9. Dramatico-musical compositions include principally operas, operettas, and musical comedies, or similar productions which are to be acted as well as sung. "Ordinary songs, even when intended to be sung from the stage in a dramatic manner, or separately published songs from operas and operettas, should be registered as musical compositions, not dramaticomusical compositions. "10. (e) Musical compositions, including other vocal and all instrumental compositions, with or without words. "But when the text is printed alone it should be registered as a 'book,' not as a 'musical composition."" To dramatic and musical authors are given (sec. 1) Rights in addition to the general right, granted in subsec- assured tion "(a) To print, reprint, publish, copy and vend the copyrighted work," the specific exclusive rights: “(b) . . . to dramatize it if it be a non-dramatic work; to convert it into a novel or other non-dramatic work if it be a drama; to arrange or adapt it if it be a musical work; . . "(d) To perform or represent the copyrighted Dramatic work publicly if it be a drama or, if it be a dramatic rights work and not reproduced in copies for sale, to vend any manuscript or any record whatsoever thereof; to make or to procure the making of any transcription or record thereof by or from which, in whole or in part, it may in any manner or by any method be exhibited, performed, represented, produced, or reproduced; and to exhibit, perform, represent, produce, Musical rights or reproduce it in any manner or by any method whatsoever; "(e) To perform the copyrighted work publicly for profit if it be a musical composition and for the purpose of public performance for profit; and for the purposes set forth in subsection (a) hereof, to make any arrangement or setting of it or of the melody of it in any system of notation or any form of record in which the thought of an author may be recorded and from which it may be read or reproduced"; - to which provision of subsection (e), in respect to copyright control of mechanical records, are added provisos that such control shall not extend to compositions published and copyrighted before July 1, 1909, and works of foreigners whose state does not grant similar right to American citizens, and shall be subject to compulsory license arrangements, requiring that if the author permits any mechanical reproduction, he shall license any manufacturer under conditions stated in detail in the act, all of which exceptions and conditions are fully stated in the chapter on mechanical music provisions. Excepted An exception to these exclusive rights is, however, performance made in the proviso (sec. 28) "Provided, however: That nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to prevent the performance of religious or secular works, such as oratorios, cantatas, masses, or octavo choruses by public schools, church choirs, or vocal societies, rented, borrowed, or obtained from some public library, public school, church choir, school choir, or vocal society, provided the performance is given for charitable or educational purposes and not for profit." This proviso is singularly defective in phraseology, as the phrase "octavo choruses" has no musical significance and uses a music-trade term to designate choruses usually but not necessarily published in octavo form; and the duplication of the words "public school," etc., is probably a verbal error in the bill which mistakenly became part of the law. The proviso is doubtless intended and would fairly be construed to permit gratuitous unauthorized performance of religious or secular works such as oratorios, cantatas, masses, and choruses by public schools, church choirs, school choirs or vocal societies, from copies rented, borrowed, or obtained from some public library, provided the performance is given for charitable or educational purposes and not for profit. Curiously the letter of the proviso would seem to provide that the beneficiary organization cannot perform from a purchased copy, but only from copies rented, borrowed or "obtained from" some public source; but this also is an evident error. It should be noted that the omission from subsec- Performance tion (d) as to drama and the inclusion in subsection "for profit" (e) as to music, of the words "for profit," - doubtless with the intent of assuring to the individual purchaser of music the right to perform it privately, have significance here, and serve, it would seem, to give the dramatic author absolute control even over gratuitous performances and to limit the control of the musical author to performances which are not gratuitous, a negative provision covering, and giving much wider latitude than, the proviso (sec. 28) above cited. But as dramatico-musical compositions are classified (sec. 5, d) with dramatic compositions, and an oratorio and possibly a cantata might be considered as a dramatico-musical composition, the proviso (sec. 28) may have a specific effect as to this kind of dramatico-musical compositions. The law is unfortunately defective and confusing by reason of this proviso and will be so difficult of judicial construc |