the law by permitting an assignee to acquire rights which the non-qualified author could not secure. The evident construction of the word "proprietor" in this clause is as proprietor of an impersonal work and not an assignee proprietor. The Rules and Regulations of the Copyright Office, construing the code of 1909, say specifically (2): "If the author of the work should be a person who could not himself claim the benefit of the copyright act, the proprietor cannot claim it."
Foreign
ownershipBut it seems that a foreigner may enter copyright in the work of a citizen or resident author — it being foreign authorship, not ownership, which the law refuses to protect, though this point has not been judicially determined. Under the provision (sec. 62) of the new American code giving copyright to an employer as author "in the case of works made for hire," it would seem that a person entitled to make copyright entry might, as an employer, obtain copyright on the work of an alien employee not domiciled here and not otherwise entitled to enter copyright; but it is probable that this construction would not extend
to a separate or separable work, as this would be contrary to the principles adjudicated as above cited.
The complicated question of the ownership and the right to secure copyright in translations from foreign works or into foreign languages, under this international copyright provision, is covered under translation in the preceding chapter on subject-matter of copyright.
Proclaimed
countriesUnder the provisions of the international copyright clause of 1 89 1 Presidential proclamations have designated as countries with which the United States has copyright relations (July 1, 1891) Belgium, France, Great Britain and her possessions, Switzerland; (April 15, 1892) Germany; (Octobers 32, 1892) Italy; (May 8, 1893) Denmark; (July 20, 1893) Portugal;
