Part 36 (1/2)

THE aeOLIAN COMPANY, _New York, May 5, 1902_.

The CHICAGO MUSIC COMPANY, _Music Publishers, Chicago, Ill_.

DEAR SIRS: Pursuant to the provision of the agreement granting us the exclusive right under your United States copyrights for all perforated music sheets intended for use in controlling automatic musical instruments and machines for playing musical instruments, we hereby notify you that a number of copyright owners satisfactory to us have made with us agreements similar to our agreement with you. From this date, therefore, our agreement goes into effect.

Looking forward to profitable and pleasant business relations, we remain,

Yours, truly,

THE aeOLIAN COMPANY, E. R. PERKINS, _General Manager_.

I now ask you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, to turn to section 15 of the bill, found at page 11 of the House bill, which would seem to me to be rather ambiguous. It provides that the owner of the copyright may commence proceedings and so forth within thirty days, but that he has a whole year within which to complete his copyright. Now, that means that he does not have to put his mark on it, I suppose, and perhaps an independent manufacturer may go ahead for a year, or, rather, for three hundred and sixty-four days, believing that he has the right to do so, and then, on the three hundred and sixty-fifth day the owner of the copyright completes his record, and he is promptly sued for all that he has done for the past year. True, the act says that in such case no action shall be brought for infringement of the copyright until the requirements have been fully complied with; but that merely says that he can not commence the action until he has complied with the act. It does not say that after he has finally complied he can not recover for the infringement during the full year within which he practically permitted his copyright to lapse.

Mr. PUTNAM. Do you understand that he is not obliged to give notice during the intervening period?

Mr. O'CONNELL. I am speaking of the one-year provision.

Mr. PUTNAM. The works that are issued carry a notice, do they not? You did not understand that it was supposed that the works issued were to be exempt from the notice upon them of copyright, did you?

Mr. O'CONNELL. I would like to know what is the reason for the provision in question, then. If there is no reason for it, it should not be there.

Mr. CHANEY. Then you would strike out all of section 15?

Mr. O'CONNELL. Why not leave the act as it is, and provide that everything must be done before publication, instead of giving them a year in which they might possibly deceive the public?

Mr. PUTNAM. Mr. O'Connell has asked what is the reason for this section. I will ask you, Mr. O'Connell, if you have observed that the section reads, this section 15, that ”if, by reason of any error or omission the requirements prescribed above in section 11 have not been complied with,” etc. Now, notice that section 11 does not refer to the requirement of notice upon the published works, but of the requirement of deposit and registration in the copyright office.

Mr. O'CONNELL. In answer to that I will say that the Patent Committees of both Houses are probably aware of the fact that there have been means found and adopted for many, many years to keep applications for patents pending in the Patent Office and still not have them outlawed.

It would be the easiest thing in the world for an applicant for a copyright to commit irregularities for that very purpose.

Another point: In section 18, subdivision C, there may be a copyright obtained under an a.s.sumed name. I confess that I do not see the reason for that.

Mr. CHANEY. Mark Twain, for instance, instead of Samuel L. Clemens? Is there objection to that?

Mr. O'CONNELL. I do not see the reason for it, while it might be all right in the particular instance which you suggest. Of course if it is limited to giving a copyright to a man under his pen name, that might be all right.

Mr. CHANEY. Is not that the purpose of it?

Mr. O'CONNELL. It may be the particular purpose of it, but I think the section is so broad that it might include almost anything from Genesis to Revelations.

Mr. PUTNAM. Where is that in section 18, that you may copyright under an a.s.sumed name? Will you state where you find that in that section?

Mr. O'CONNELL. On page 15:

The copyright in a work published anonymously or under an a.s.sumed name shall subsist for the same period as if the work had been produced bearing the author's true name.

It is at the end of section 18. That would seem to me to give the right to copyright under an a.s.sumed name.

Mr. PUTNAM. Oh, yes.