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 participant 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."

The acceptance by most countries within the Inter- Complete national Copyright Union of the Berlin convention, protection 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.

Threefold

works

XIII

ARTISTIC COPYRIGHT

THE artist-author, by the labor of his brain and hand, value in art produces three classes 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 assures 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 manuscript 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.

The copyright of works of the fine arts and cognate American works is specifically provided for in the code of 1909 provisions 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 illustrations." 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. I, 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."

The new Coypright Office Rules and Regulations, Copyright promulgated 1910, define these classifications in the Office classifollowing 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, glassware, 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

fication defi

nitions

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 illustrating 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. This "16. (k) Prints and pictorial illustrations. — term comprises all printed pictures not included in the various other classes 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, buttons, 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 illustrations' 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 illustrations.' Trademarks cannot be copyrighted nor registered in the Copyright Office."

The question The new law does not specifically make clear the of exhibition relation between the exhibition of works of art and publication, or define whether or not exhibition may constitute 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 circumstances 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 constitute a dedication and thus prevent later copyright.

work

In providing however (sec. II) specifically "that Protection of copyright may also be had of the works of an author unpublished 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.

It is not made absolutely clear in the new law Copyright whether the copyright notice must be attached to the notice 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