Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/75

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SCOPE
43

or record thereof by or from which, in whole or in part, it may in any manner or by any method be exhibited, performed, represented, produced, or reproduced: and to exhibit, perform, represent, produce, or reproduce it in any manner or by any method whatsoever;

Music"(e) To perform the copyrighted work publicly for profit if it be a musical composition and for the purpose of public performance for profit ; and for the purposes set forth in subsection (a) hereof, to make any arrangement or setting of it or of the melody of it in any system of notation or any form of record in which the thought of an author may be recorded and from which it may be read or reproduced" — which last clause is, however, limited by an elaborate proviso requiring the licensing of mechanical musical reproductions in case the copyright proprietor permits any reproduction by that means, which proviso is given in full in the chapter on mechanical music.

Previous
American
law
The American law previously defined the scope of copyright (Rev. Stat. sec. 4952), as "the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, completing, copying, executing, finishing, and vending the same; and, in the case of a dramatic composition, of publicly performing or representing it, or causing it to be performed or represented by others. And authors may reserve the right to dramatize or to translate their own works." The new code is both broader and more definite.

Unpublished
works
The new American code is specific in preserving to Unpublished an author previous to the publication of his work all common law rights in the comprehensive language (sec. 2): " That nothing in this Act shall be construed to annul or limit the right of the author or proprietor of an unpublished work, at common law or in equity, to prevent the copying, publication, or use of such