Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/69

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HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES
37

The re-
vised act of
1870
when a general act took the place of all, including "paintings, drawings, chromos, statues, statuary, and "sed act ofmodels or designs intended to be perfected as works of the fine arts." This did away with the local District Court system of registry, and made the Librarian of Congress the copyright officer, with whom printed title must be filed before, and two copies deposited within ten days after, publication. In 1873-4 the copyright act was included in the Revised Statutes as sections 4948 to 4971 (also see sees. 629 and 699), and in 1874 an amendatory act made legal 1874-1882 a short form of record, "Copyright, 18 — , by A. B.," and relegated labels to the Patent Office. In 1879 the Post Office appropriation bill contained a proviso against the transmission of any publication which violates copyright; in 1882 an amendment dealt with the position of the copyright notice on moulded, decorative articles, etc.

Interna-
tional copy-
right legis-
lation, 1891
In 1891 there was passed, after a long campaign, the sd-called international copyright act, extending copyright to the citizens of other nations in case of reciprocal grants by such nations, and providing that the copyright on books and certain other articles should be conditioned on manufacture in the United States. In 1893 an amendatory act gave the same effect to copies deposited "on or before publication." In 1895 the public documents bill provided that no government publication should be copyrighted, and another bill imposed penalties in the case of infringement of photographs and of original works of art. In 1897 an act provided that unauthorized representation, wilful and for profit, of any dramatic or musical composition is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment; another act provided for the appointment of a Register of Copyrights under the direction and supervision of the Librarian of Congress; and a