What is the nature of the protection secured? Copy-right, _i. e._, the
right of copy--the right to make copies. According to the words of our
own statute, the author of a book "shall have the _sole_ liberty of
printing, reprinting, publishing, completing, copying, executing,
finishing and vending the same." The _exclusive_ liberty of reproducing
his work, and the restriction of the liberty of every one except the
author to multiply copies constitute the literary property. It is a
much-discussed question whether the author's privilege of copyright is a
natural right or was created by legislation. Granting the production a
proper one, it would seem that the author of a literary creation has a
natural right to the unrestricted use and enjoyment of it. As Professor
Langdell recently put it: "he has the right of use and enjoyment,
because he can exercise such right without committing any wrong against
any other person, and because no other person can prevent his exercising
such right without committing a wrong against him." The author's
creation is his own, and he has a natural right to the use of it without
interference. The state does not create this right, but recognizes it
and protects it. Protection is secured by restricting the liberty of
other people in the use of the author's creation. Just how far this
restriction should go is still a moot question. The law says, however,
that you may not reproduce in whole or in part an author's book without
his written consent, signed in the presence of two witnesses. It does
not say that you may not read the book, nor are you forbidden to read it
in public, even for profit, although in the case of musical and dramatic
compositions public performance or representation for profit without the
author's special--not implied--consent is not only directly prohibited,
but is punishable by imprisonment. The International Publishers'
Congress, which met in Paris in June, 1896, passed a resolution to the
effect that the reproduction of a literary work by means of public
readings, in case such readings were held for purposes of profit, ought
not to be permitted without the consent of the copyright proprietor. By
the Act of March 3, 1891, the exclusive right to translate or dramatize
his book is reserved to the author. In this unrestricted and unlimited
exclusive right of translation and dramatization our law has exceeded
the usual trend of legislation in regard to the author's control over
his work in these directions. Foreign legislation usually only reserves
to the author the exclusive right to translate or dramatize for a
limited fixed period of time, and if he has not himself produced a
translation or dramatization within that period, another person may.
It has occasionally been intimated that the efforts made by the public
libraries to secure the constant circulation of the same book is a
trespass upon the rights of the author, as he is presumably thus
subjected to the loss of readers who would otherwise also become
purchasers of his book. A case has just been decided to test an author's
right to object to having copies of his own copyright editions of his
books sold in a manner not indicated by himself as volumes of a
so-called collected edition of his works. The decision, on first
hearing, was adverse to the author's contention.
It is the _literary expression_ of the author's thoughts and ideas which
is the subject-matter of the protection, and not primarily the thoughts
and ideas themselves. These last may or may not be original with the
author, but once he has made public a thought or an idea he has given it
away; he cannot control its use or application. The author of a
translation of a book--the original work being in the public domain--may
obtain a copyright upon his own translation, but doing so will not debar
another from producing an original translation of his own of the same
work and obtaining copyright registration for the same.
Copyright does not give to any one monopoly in the use of the _title_ of
a book, nor can a title _per se_ be subject-matter of copyright. It is
the book itself, the literary substance which is protected, the title
being recorded for the identification of the work.