together in some way, as in a copying press. The resulting impression, being reversed, must be read from the back of the absorbent paper, which is thin enough to be transparent. Another process, by which a considerable number of copies can be made simultaneously, consists in interleaving a number of sheets of thin white paper with sheets of paper prepared with lampblack (“carbon paper”) and writing on the top sheet with a “style” or other sharp-pointed instrument. The hectograph may be taken as typical of manifolding processes analogous to lithography. In it the writing is in first instance done with aniline ink, and then a transfer is made to a plate of a gelatinous composition, from which a series of duplicates can be taken off. Another class of methods involves the preparation of what are essentially stencils. In the cyclostyle, paper of a special kind is stretched over a smooth metal plate, and the writing instrument consists of a holder having at the end a small wheel provided with a serrated edge on its periphery, which perforates the paper with lines of minute cuts and thus forms a stencil. When ink is passed over this stencil with a roller it goes through the perforations and leaves an impression on a piece of paper placed underneath. In the trypograph a similar result is attained by using a simple style for writing, but stretching the paper over a metal plate having its surface covered with fine sharp corrugations which pierce the paper as the style is moved over them. In the Edison electric pen the stencil is formed by the aid of a style containing a fine needle, which is rapidly moved up and down by a small electric motor mounted at the top of the pen, and thus a series of minute holes is punctured in the paper by the act of writing. For copying plans and drawings, engineers, architects, &c., use a “blue print” process which depends on the action of light on certain salts of iron (see Sun-Copying and Photography).
COPYRIGHT, in law, the right, belonging exclusively to
the author or his assignees, of multiplying for sale copies of an
original work or composition, in literature or art. As a recognized
form of property it is, compared with others, of recent origin,
being in fact, in the use of literary works, mainly the result of the
facility for multiplying copies created by the discovery of printing.
It is with copyright in literary compositions that we are here
primarily concerned, as it was established first, the analogous
right as regards works of plastic art, &c., following in its train.
1. Whether copyright was recognized at all by the common law of England was long a much debated legal question. Blackstone thinks that “this species of property, being grounded on labour and invention, is more properly reducible to the head of occupancy than any other, since the right of occupancy itself is supposed by Mr Locke and many others to be founded on the personal labour of the occupant.” But he speaks doubtfully of its existence—merely mentioning the opposing views, “that on the one hand it hath been thought no other man can have a right to exhibit the author’s work without his consent, and that it is urged on the other hand that the right is of too subtle and unsubstantial a nature to become the subject of property at the common law, and only capable of being guarded by positive statutes and special provisions of the magistrate.” He notices that the Roman law adjudged that if one man wrote anything on the paper or parchment of another, the writing should belong to the owner of the blank materials, but as to any other property in the works of the understanding the law is silent, and he adds that “neither with us in England hath there been (till very lately) any final determination upon the rights of authors at the common law.” The common law undoubtedly gives a right to restrain the publication of unpublished compositions; but when a work is once published, its protection depends on the statutes regulating copyright. The leading case on the subject of unpublished works is Prince Albert v. Strange (1849), 2 De G. & Sm. 652. Copies of etchings by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, which had been lithographed for private circulation, fell into the hands of the defendant, a London publisher, who proposed to exhibit them, and issued a catalogue entitled A Descriptive Catalogue of the Royal Victoria and Albert Gallery of Etchings. The court of chancery restrained the publication of the catalogue, holding that property in mechanical works, or works of art, does certainly subsist, and is invaded, before publication, not only by copying but by description or catalogue. This protection includes news (Exchange Telegraph Co. v. Central News,, 1897).
As a matter of principle, the nature of copyright itself, and the reasons why it should be recognized in law, have, as already stated, been the subject of bitter dispute. It was attacked as constituting a monopoly, and it has been Nature of right. argued that copyright should be looked upon as a doubtful exception to the general law regulating trade, and should be strictly limited in point of duration. On the other hand, it is claimed that copyright, being in the nature of personal property, should be perpetual. A man’s own work, in this view, is as much his as his house or his money, and should be protected by the state. Historically, and in legal definition, there would appear to be no doubt that copyright, as regulated by statute, is strictly a monopoly. The parliamentary protection of works of art for the period of fourteen years by an act of 1709 and later statutes appears, as Blackstone points out, to have been suggested by the exception in the Statute of Monopolies 1623. The object of that statute was to suppress the royal grants of exclusive right to trade in certain articles, and to reassert in relation to all such monopolies the common law of the land. Certain exceptions were made on grounds of public policy, and among others it was allowed that a royal patent of privilege might be granted for fourteen years “to any inventor of a new manufacture for the sole working or making of the same.” Copyright, like patent right, would be covered by the legal definition of a monopoly. It is a mere right to prevent other people from manufacturing certain articles. But objections to monopolies in general do not apply to this particular class of cases, in which the author of a new work in literature or art has the right of preventing others from manufacturing copies thereof and selling them to the public. The rights of persons licensed to sell spirits, to hold theatrical exhibitions, &c., are also of the nature of monopolies, and may be defended on special grounds of public policy. The monopoly of authors and inventors rests on the general sentiment underlying all civilized law, that a man should be protected in the enjoyment of the fruits of his own labour.
Literary Copyright
2. United Kingdom.—On the invention of printing (see Press Laws) the crown, or other sovereign powers, granted patents or licences with the object of restricting the right of multiplying copies of literary works, and this supervision Historical account. of publication still has certain historical results. A special kind of what amounts to perpetual copyright in various publications has for various reasons been recognized by the laws (1) in the crown, and (2) in the universities and colleges. The various copyright acts, referred to below, except from their provisions the copyrights vested in the two English and the four Scottish universities, Trinity College, Dublin, and the colleges of Eton, Westminster and Winchester. Crown copyrights are saved by the general principle which exempts crown rights from the operation of statutes unless they are expressly mentioned. Among the books in which the crown has claimed copyright are the English translation of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, statutes, orders of privy council, proclamations, almanacs, Lilly’s Latin Grammar, year books and law reports. The copyright in the Bible is rested by some on the king’s position as head of the church; Lord Lyndhurst rested it on his duties as the chief executive officer of the state charged with the publication of authorized manuals of religion. The right of printing the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer is vested in the king’s printer and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. These copyrights do not extend to prohibit independent translations from the original. The obsolete copyright of the crown in Lilly’s Latin Grammar was founded on the fact of its having been drawn up at the king’s expense. The universities have a joint right (with the crown’s patentees) of printing acts of parliament. Law reports were decided to be the property of the crown in the reign of Charles II.; by act of parliament they were forbidden
