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bill as to alleged contributory infringement by inducing dealers to sell in violation of agreement, on which the lower courts held that complainants had not proved an agreement based upon their printed notice, the Supreme Court declined to review the question of fact.
English underselling caseIn the English case of Larby v. Love, in 1910, however, Justice Bucknill in the King's Bench held the defendant liable for damages for the sale of certain maps to undersellers in disregard of prohibitions specified in the bill of sale.
Suits under state lawThe Macy cases included suits in the New York State courts by Straus v. American Publishers' Association et al., claiming that the action of the publishers in endeavoring to maintain rates constituted a conspiracy in restraint of trade contrary to the statutes. The N. Y. Court of Appeals held, through Chief Judge Parker, that the agreements would have been free from legal objections if confined solely to copyright publications, but were contrary to the statute in affecting the right of a dealer to sell books not copyrighted at the price he chooses. The copyright side of the question was again pressed in the lower courts and reached the Court of Appeals a second time in 1908, when it was passed upon by a divided court, four to three, Judge Gray for the court declining to review its previous action. The dissenting judges, through Judge Bartlett, held that the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court in the Bobbs-Merrill case did apply in the current case and that the State Court of Appeals should therefore conform its decision to the finding of the federal Supreme Court. The question has been brought into the federal courts in a new series of suits, and it has yet to be finally settled by the U. S. Supreme Court, whether the legal monopoly conferred by the copyright statute safe-