designs, engravings, and etchings." In 1831, musical compositions were included, and the copyright term extended from fourteen to twenty-eight years, with a right of renewal for fourteen years to the author, or to his widow or children, which is the present term. In 1856, dramatists were secured in the performance of their plays. In 1870, all existing legislation was repealed and consolidated into one general act, by which, among other provisions, the librarian of congress was made the copyright officer of the government. A more recent act (March 3, 1891), though of high importance, cannot be said to constitute a new statute, but to be rather in the nature of amendments to the general copyright act which has been in force since 1870. The most important changes wrought in the law of copyright by this act, called the International Copyright Act, are stated in subsequent pages." By a still more recent act it is provided that no government publication shall be copyrighted, and directs the public printer to sell, to any person applying therefor, additional or duplicate stereotype or electrotype plates from which any government publication is printed, at a price not exceeding the cost of composition, the metal, and the making to the government, with ten per cent. added." The latest act provided for the appointment of a register of copyrights, to whom since July 1, 1897, under the direction and supervision of the librarian of congress, has been delegated all the duties relating to copyrights." In England, the law of copyright is to be found partly in the provisions of fourteen acts of parliament, passed at different times between 1735 and 1875, and partly in commonlaw principles, nowhere stated in definite or authoritative form, but implied in a considerable number of reported cases in the law reports. As early as the statute 8 Geo. II, provision was made for copyrighting engravings, etchings, and prints, but it is a singular fact that it was not until the 25 & 26 Vict. (called the Fine Arts Copyright Act of 1862) 22 Act April 29, 1802. 23 See subtitles Conditions Governing Copyright, What May Be Copyrighted, infra. 24 Act Jan. 12, 1895. that like provision was made for paintings, drawings, and photographs. The duration of copyright was first fixed by the statute 8 Anne, in 1710, at fourteen years, and, if the author be then alive, for fourteen years more. In 1814, by the statute 54 Geo. III, the term was extended to twentyeight years absolutely, and for the life of the author if he were then living. By the statute 5 & 6 Vict., passed in 1842, the present term of copyright was fixed, namely, for the life of the author and seven years longer, or for forty-two years, whichever term last expires. The copyright law at present in force in England is in substance the act of 1842, and extends, territorially, to every part of the British dominions, within, as well as without, the United Kingdom. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 6. International copyright is an international arrangement by which the right of an author residing in one country may be protected by copyright in such others as are parties to the arrangement." In order to be valuable, copyright requires the intervention of municipal law, and the law of nations has not taken notice of it, as it has of some other rights of property. "Therefore, all copyright is the result of some municipal regulation, and exists only in the limits of the country by whose legislation it is established. The international copyright which is established in consequence of a convention between any two countries is not an exception to this principle, because the municipal authority of each nation making such convention either speaks directly to its own subjects through the treaty itself, or is exerted in its own limits by some enactment made in pursuance of the international engagement." The Berne convention, of 1887 was the first definitive organization of European states into an international copyright union, by the provisions of which authors may now 26 Cent. Dict. 27 Bouv. Law Dict. at once, upon fulfilling the requirements of their domestic copyright laws, secure, without further condition or formality, copyright for their productions in all the states belonging to the international union. The states comprising this union at the present time are Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and their colonies, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Morocco, Tunis, Luxembourg, Norway, Japan, and Hayti. The United States is not a member of the union, but by the act of March 3, 1891, has conditionally provided concerning foreign copyright, as follows: "This act shall only apply to a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation, when such foreign state or nation permits to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to its own citizens; or when such foreign state or nation is a party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United States may at its pleasure become a party to such agreement. The existence of either of the conditions aforesaid shall be determined by the president of the United States by proclamation made from time to time as the purposes of this act may require." In 1896, a diplomatic conference on infernational copyright was held in Paris to discuss a revision of the Berne convention, which framed what is called the Additional Act of May 4, 1896, and a declaration explanatory of certain terms of the convention."" By presidential proclamations, since the passage of the act of 1891 down to November 20, 1899, the citizens or subjects of the following foreign countries have been admitted to the full enjoyment of the copyright laws of the United States, viz., Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Netherlands (Holland), and possessions. In the countries named, the benefits of copyright are available for the productions of citizens of the United States, but only as they are available to the citizens of such countries. 28 Birrell Copyr. p. 32. 7. A copyright obtained in any one of the countries bound by the international copyright union is good in all others. Authors and publishers in the United States are in the habit of complying with the laws of Great Britain to obtain a copyright which will bind in all other countries of the international union. To obtain copyright protection in Great Britain for works intended to be published also in the United States, simultaneous publication in both countries is essential. Registration in the United States should precede such day of publication, and in England should follow it. Under the international copyright law, a copyright may be obtained for books, pamphlets, and all other writings; dramatic or dramatico-musical works, musical compositions with or without words; works of design, paintings, sculpture, and engravings; lithographs, illustrations, geographical charts; plans, sketches, and plastic works relative to geography, topography, architecture, or science in general; in fact, every production published by any mode of impression or reproduction. The Canadian government, though a dependency of Great Britain, has held to the view that it is not bound by the copyright laws of the home government, but that copyright and patent right are matters which belong properly to its own parliament. When, therefore, Great Britain, in 1887, accepted the provisions of the Berne convention on behalf both of itself and of its colonies, the Canadian government reserved the right to withdraw after a year's notice, and such notice was subsequently given. In 1889, the parliament passed an act, by the provisions of which copyright on works of literature or of art was given for a term of twenty-eight years to residents of the dominion or of any portion of the British Empire, subject to certain conditions, and which required the work so copyrighted to be printed or produced within the Dominion of Canada within one month after the date of its production in the country of origin, upon peril of having the work reproduced by any Canadian resident who might obtain a license for that purpose from the minister of agriculture. Such license was to carry no exclusive rights to the work, and was not to prevent the importation of any other authorized editions of the work. This act aroused the bitter dissent of British authors, and, in 1895, was finally withdrawn. In 1896 an act was passed, with the approval of the British government, by the terms of which the work securing the Canadian copyright must be printed in the dominion, but the importation of the plates is permitted. The term of copyright is forty-two years from the date of publication. Any English or foreign author has the option either of producing the Canadian edition himself, or of leaving the production to a Canadian publisher. If no Canadian edition be printed, any work which has been copyrighted in Great Britain, or which has secured British copyright under the Berne convention, or under the United States act of 1891, will be entitled to copyright protection within the dominion, though the right to secure a license for a Canadian edition will, nevertheless, remain. 8. WHAT MAY BE COPYRIGHTED The intellectual productions to which the law, in its largest significance, extends protection by copyright are of three principal classes: (1) Writings or drawings which are susceptible of multiplication by printing or engraving, to which class belong books, maps, charts, music, prints, and engravings; (2) designs of form or configuration susceptible of reproduction upon the surface of bodies, or in the shape of bodies, to which class belong statuary, bas-relief, and ornamental designs; and, (3) inventions in the useful arts, such as machinery, tools, manufactures, composition of matter, and processes or methods in the arts. In England and in the United States, however, the term copyright is generally confined to the first class of intellectual productions stated above, while the second and third classes are usually covered by letters patent." Definition of Book. - The word book means and includes every volume, part or division of a volume, 9. 29 Bouv. 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