song of any melody in an orchestral work. On the other hand, variations, transcriptions and so forth of a copyrighted work, made under authorization from the copyright proprietor, may be separately copyrighted as to that extent original works.
Copyright
Office
definitionsThe Copyright Office Rules and Regulations say specifically: "(lo) 'Adaptations' and 'arrangements' may be registered as ' new works ' under the provisions of section 6. Mere transpositions into different keys are not expressly provided for in the copyright act; but if published with copyright notice and copies are deposited with application, registration will be made."
Transposi-
tionIn Hein v. Harris in 1910, the U. S. Circuit Court awarded damages where the chorus of a song proved on transposition into the key of the copyright song to be practically a copy of the melody.
Works in
the public
domainIt is specifically provided (sec. 6) that "adaptations, arrangements, dramatizations ... or other versions of works in the public domain, ... shall be regarded as new works subject to copyright," and in the case of such versions copyright inheres in the dramatizer, adaptor or maker of a version, as in the case of a translator of a book, in the public domain. Thus a dramatic or musical work in the public domain may be dramatized or adapted freely and any individual dramatization or adaptation may be copyrighted by the dramatizer or adaptor, but he cannot prevent other dramatization or adaptation of the same work.
Dramatiza-
tion right
protected
by courtsThe American courts have fully upheld the control over dramatization under the right "to dramatize" specifically given in the law of 1891 and preserved under the new code. In 1895 in Harper v, Ranous, Judge Lacombe, in the U. S. Circuit Court in New York, enjoined a play, "Trilby," on the ground that the drama "presents characters, plot, incidents,
