Part 8 (1/2)

Mr. FULLER. My original role, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, was as one of the members of the Bar a.s.sociation of New York, and as chairman of the committee to express to you gentlemen all the efforts that had been made and the most extraordinary result that has been accomplished from conflicting interests in getting up the framework of this bill, and to say on behalf of a number of the conferees, we will call them--the American Publishers' Copyright League, the America Publishers'

a.s.sociation, the National Academy of Design, the Fine Arts Federation, the Music Publishers' a.s.sociation, the American Library a.s.sociation, the Print Publishers, the Engraving Copyright League, the United Typothetae, and the National Typographical Union--that they felt that a great achievement had been reached in getting the framework of this bill in its present condition. It is in such shape now that when anything is the matter with it we know where to apply the remedy. In the present chaotic condition of the copyright laws it would require an X ray to find where the mistake was and how to remedy it.

I did not intend to say more than a word, but the suggestions made by the last speaker, Mr. Pett.i.t, are of so vicious a character--not intentionally so, but they show precisely how a good bill can be made bad--that I am going to extend my remarks for the five or ten minutes required to point out why they should not be regarded at all.

For instance, take section 3. Our friend wants to alter that, and it is absolutely unalterable if justice and common sense are to prevail. All that section says is that the copyright shall extend to all the copyrightable component parts of the work copyrighted, any and all reproductions or copies thereof, in whatever form, style, or size, and all matter reproduced therein in which copyright is already subsisting.

If there is no copyright subsisting to keep a man from singing my song through a phonograph, there is no harm done. If it is subsisting, he must pay the penalty, and the courts will ultimately determine that.

The question is now before the courts. It seems to me strange that any court should hesitate to say that a man who not only copies my notation, but who actually reproduces the music, the sound, should not be required to pay me for that privilege. If a man engraves my music and sells it by the sheet, he is a counterfeiter, and I can get money from him and punish him, but if he does more than that--if he completes that counterfeit to the extent of the reproduction of the actual sound that the composer had in his brain when he put it there--they say he has not imitated. That question is before the courts. Do not touch it.

Do not touch it. This new law makes it certain for the future, but do not endeavor to touch the past. Let the courts decide what the present law is.

I say that the present law will protect these gentlemen from that piracy--because it is the ultimate form of piracy. It goes further than the reproduction of the composer's music sheet. It reproduces the sound. So that they have taken everything from the music man when they reproduce it on the disk. Therefore I say leave this provision in the bill: ”And all matter reproduced therein in which copyright is already subsisting.” Do not touch it.

In section 18 my friend (Mr. Pett.i.t) wants to have the disks copyrighted. Mr. Bonynge put his finger right on the point of that proposition, and perhaps it is unwise for me to say anything further.

That is a patentable device, and it has been patented, and there is nothing original on that disk--nothing original to the company that makes that disk. The company has borrowed it or bought it or stolen it from somebody else, and they want to copyright that. For heaven's sake, let the copyright stop somewhere.

Mr. Bonynge said: ”Would you prevent the man who sang into your phonograph, or talked into it, from singing or talking into any other?”

Certainly not. It is not an original production. It is not the work of an author or composer or artist. There is nothing intellectual about it, except that it is scientific, and the scientific part of it is protected by his patent. The reason I am so emphatic about that is that when you endeavor to put in the ideas of patents and the protection of inventions into this law you dislocate it and disarrange it.

Senator LATTIMER. The musician may memorize that music, and may entertain an audience with it, but he can not sing it into a phonograph; is that it? According to your position, as I understand it, the singer may take the music of Mr. Sousa, commit it to memory, and may stand before an audience and entertain the audience with Mr.

Sousa's music and reproduce it to the audience, but he can not reproduce it in a phonograph?

Mr. FULLER. If he has paid Mr. Sousa for the privilege of that public performance. But he can not, at the same time, under the payment for the privilege of a one-night stand, sing it into a phonograph and give it to a million people all over the country.

Mr. BONYNGE. And he can not give that public performance unless he has paid Mr. Sousa his royalty?

Mr. FULLER. No.

Mr. MCGAVIN. Would not the copyrighting of this phonograph record give the musician, say Mr. Sousa, double protection? He already has the protection of the copyright on his sheet music, has he not?

Mr. FULLER. Yes.

Mr. MCGAVIN. And he would have the further protection of the copyright of the music as it goes into the phonograph, would he not?

Mr. FULLER. No; it is the talking-machine people who want a copyright on that, and to hold it against the original composer.

Mr. CHANEY. I did not understand Mr. Pett.i.t that way.

Mr. FULLER. Mr. Sousa is ent.i.tled to it, whether he prints his music on a sheet of paper or whether he prints it on a disk; but the man that prints it on the disk is not ent.i.tled to it. That is all.

Mr. BONYNGE. He has not originated anything.

Mr. FULLER. No.

Mr. BONYNGE. Except that the disk is a patentable thing, and on that he has a patent.

Mr. FULLER. Yes. The bill is a compromise, and one which every lawyer here and every lawyer who was at the conference thinks he can better; but it is the best that could be had to protect and satisfy all the interests. It has been stated that perhaps none of the interests are entirely satisfied. If that is true, it is the best kind of a bill.

There are only two kinds: The bill that is perfect, the one that satisfies everybody--and there is none such; and the one that satisfies n.o.body, because n.o.body has had injustice done.