Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/151

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DURATION
119

ants, were still paid pensions; and that many others of our foremost authors had been, or under the present system would be, deprived of their created property within their lifetime. The term advocated provides for the author and his children's children during the probable minority of the grandchildren, a period to which the entail of realty is limited by our laws. But the final decision of the Congressional Committees was for the simpler, though in other respects less satisfactory, period of twenty-eight years, as heretofore, with a renewal period of a second twenty-eight years, under the limitations above cited. No other countries, except Canada and Newfoundland, following our example, have this double or renewal term.

Unpublished
works
As a lecture or other work intended for oral delivery or a dramatic or musical work or a work of art, an unpublished dramatic or musical work or a work of art not reproduced in copies for sale is copyrightable without reference to date of publication, it is not altogether certain whether the term extends from the date of registration or the date of first delivery, performance or exhibition, or whether the statutory law now protects such a work under common law as unpublished, pending publication and therefore for an indefinite period if not practically in perpetuity. The Copyright Office issues a certificate for twenty-eight years, but without reference to initial date, which would be presumably the date of the certificate. The Copyright Office will doubtless, under this precedent, issue renewal pertificate for the second term of twenty-eight years.

Publication
as date of
copyright
As the new copyright code makes publication with notice the basis of copyright instead of entry and deposit, as formerly, the term of copyright now dates from publication, and "the date of publication" is specifically defined (sec. 62) as "the earliest date