WHAT MAT BE THE SUBJECT OF COPYRIGHT. In order to make clear the claim of.a work to copy right. it is necessary that it should be original, but the originality can exist in the form or in the arrangement. as well as in the substance. Corrections and additions to an old work (itself not the property of the compiler) can also secure copyright. The copyright of private letters con stituting literary compositions is in the composer, not in the receiver. As to the right of property in lectures, whether written or oral, the Ameri can courts have followed the English precedents. The most important English decision on this point is that of Abernethy rs. Hutchinson (1801). In Putnam es. Meyer (1886), the New York Supreme Court held that certain tabular lists of anatomical name,, arranged in a pecu liar and arbitrary manner for the purpose if facilitating the work of memorizing, were enti tled to protection. Abridgments and abstracts which can be called genuine and just fire also entitled to copyright. There is no record in the United States of a case in which consideration has been given to the question of copyright in irreligious books.
It is to be borne in mind that what is thus protected by law, and thin erected into a specie of property, is not the ideas. sentiments, and conceptions of the author, artist, or designer, but the substantial form in which he has embodied them. There is no property in thoughts and feel ings, and there can therefore, in the legal sense of the term. be no theft or piracy of ideas. It is the literary or artistic creation, i.e. the form. which is protected, and not the substance. Hence ideas, whether expressed in conversation or in lectures or in copyrighted books. immediately become common property and may be employed by any one who will clothe them in a new and different form from that in which they were communicated to him. But the new form must be substantially different from that of the copy righted matter. It must not be merely a dis guised copy or reproduction of the original, for the law protects the arrangement of the matter as well as the language in which it is conveyed. On the other hand, as it is the financial and proprietary interest, and not the pride of the author, which the copyright law seeks to protect. it is no infringement of his rights to make a fair and reasonable use of a book by way of quota tion or otherwise, whether for purposes of criti cism or for the private use of the reader. it has been held that "extracts and quotation, fairly made, and not furnishing a substitute for the book itself. or operating to the injury of the author, are allowable." Furthermore, as the law is aimed at reproducing a work by printing.
publishing, dramatizing, or translating any copy thereof. it is coneeived that it is no infringement of the author's copyright to read in publie a printed poem or other literary production. though of course it cannot be reprinted in a newspaper or magazine, even as an item of news. without permission. It has, however. been held by the English Courts that the presentation. through reading or through singing. of a copy righted work to a public which makes payment for the privilege, eonstitutes an infringement.
It is not necessary that matter shall be liter ary or artistic in form, nor even that it shall be original in substance, to be entitled to copyright. A translation or dramatization of anotber's work may be so protected, and so may be an abstract or newspaper report of a speech, a judicial opin ion, or a debate. The law extends equally to compilations of the writings of others, to diction aries. gazetteers. road and guide books. directo ries, calendars. catalogues. mathematical tables, and the like, the arrangement of the material be ing protected even though the matter of which it is compoiied is common property.
There is in the United States no general princi ple of law conferring the copyright on all pub lished works, nor does it arise in favor of an author merely by virtue of his authorship. it is a peculiar privilege, which can be had for the asking, but which is not conferred on those who do not seek it. It is still possible fur an author or an artist to dedicate the productions of his genius to the public. Having once done this by publishing his work, he is precluded from setting up an exclusive title to it thereafter. In other words, the steps requisite to secure copyright of any work entitled thereto must be taken in ad vance of publication. The process of obtaining a copyright is very simple, consisting only in the deposit in the Library of Congress at Washing ton, not later than the day of its publication in this or any other country, of a copy of the title page and two collies of the book or other work to be copyrighted, and printing on the book or other work and on all reproductions there of a notice that the copyright has been secured, together with the date thereof. In Great Brit ain. on the other hand, copyright attaches, without previous application therefor. in favor of all books, etc., first published in the United Kingdom. The right does not exist and cannot be acquired in favor of works previously pub lished elsewhere. The English statute provides for registration at Stationers' hall, not as a prerequisite to the existence of copyright, but as a preliminary to a suit for its infringement.