Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/32

JOHNSON V. DONALDSON. ' 25 �V. Davis, 3 Story's Eep. 780. He says: "A man has a right to a copyright in a translation upon whieh he has bestowed his time and labor. To be sare, another man has an equal right to translate the original and publish his translation; but then it must be his own translation, by his own skill and labor, and not the mere use and publication of the transla- tion already made. " �So with charts, maps, and surveys. No one person can acquire an exclusive right to appropriate the information •which they contain ; but the one who first perfects his chart or map may insist that no other shall be permitted to appro- priate the resuit of his labors by copying the same chart or map. Sayre v. Moore, 1 East, 361 ; Blunt v. Patten, 2 Paine, C. C. Eep. 397. �In actions like the present the question to be decided always is whether the defendant has availed himself of the plaintiff's production. Frequently it is necessary to deter- mine -whether the defendant's work is the resuit of his own labor, skill, and use of materials common to ail, or an appro- priation of the plaintifî's work, with colorable alterations and departures, intended to disguise the piracy. He may work on the same original materials, but he cannot evasively use those already collected and embodied by the skill, industry, and expenditures of another. Longinan v. Winchester, 16 Ves. 269; Gray y. Russel, 1 Story's Eep. 11; Banks v. McDivitt, 13 Blatchf. 163. �This question was submitted to the jury and they found adversely to the plaintiff, and there was certainly sufScient testimony to sustain the finding. �The motion is denied. ����