# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 2/7th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 36

Chap. XXXVI.—An Act supplementary to an act, intituled “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the time therein mentioned,” and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.
Additional requisites prescribed for persons claiming to be authors or proprietors of maps, charts or books. 1790, ch. 15.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every person who shall, from and after the first day of January next, claim to be the author or proprietor of any maps, charts, book or books, and shall thereafter seek to obtain a copyright of the same agreeable to the rules prescribed by law, before he shall be entitled to the benefit of the act, intituled “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned,” he shall, in addition to the requisites enjoined in the third and fourth sections of said act, if a book or books, give information by causing the copy of the record, which, by said act he is required to publish in one or more of the newspapers, to be inserted at full length in the title-page or in the page immediately following the title of every such book or books; and if a map or chart, shall cause the following words to be impressed on the face thereof, viz: “Entered according to act of Congress, the day of 18 (here insert the date when the same was deposited in the office) by A. B. of the state of (here insert the author’s or proprietor’s name and the state in which he resides.)
Same rules prescribed with respect to persons who shall invent, and design, engrave, etch, or work historical or other prints.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That from and after the first day of January next, every person, being a citizen of the United States, or resident within the same, who shall invent and design, engrave, etch or work, or from his own works and inventions, shall cause to be designed and engraved, etched or worked, any historical or other print or prints, shall have the sole right and liberty of printing, re-printing, publishing and vending such print or prints, for the term of fourteen years from the recording of the title thereof in the clerk’s office, as prescribed by law for maps, charts, book or books: Provided, he shall perform all the requisites in relation to such print or prints, as are directed in relation to maps, charts, book or books, in the third and fourth sections of the act to which this is a supplement, and shall moreover cause the same entry to be truly engraved on such plate, with the name of the proprietor, and printed on every such print or prints as is herein before required to be made on maps or charts.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That if any print-seller or other person whatsoever, from and after the said first day of January next, ​Penalties for engraving, etching or working, or copying and selling a print or prints, without the consent of the owner or owners, in writing. 4 Wash. C. C. R.within the time limited by this act, shall engrave, etch or work, as aforesaid, or in any other manner copy or sell, or cause to be engraved, etched, copied or sold, in the whole or in part, by varying, adding to, or diminishing from the main design, or shall print, re-print, or import for sale, or cause to be printed, re-printed, or imported for sale, any such print or prints, or any parts thereof, without the consent of the proprietor or proprietors thereof, first had and obtained, in writing, signed by him or them respectively, in the presence of two or more credible witnesses; or knowing the same to be so printed or re-printed, without the consent of the proprietor or proprietors, shall publish, sell, or expose to sale or otherwise, or in any other manner dispose of any such print or prints, without such consent first had and obtained, as aforesaid, then such offender or offenders shall forfeit the plate or plates on which such print or prints are or shall be copied, and all and every sheet or sheets (being part of or whereon such print or prints are or shall be copied or printed) to the proprietor or proprietors of such original print or prints, who shall forthwith destroy the same; and further, that every such offender or offenders shall forfeit one dollar for every print which shall be found in his, her, or their custody;A moiety of the forfeiture to any one who shall sue for the same. either printed, published, or exposed to sale, or otherwise disposed of, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, the one moiety thereof to any person who shall sue for the same, and the other moiety thereof to and for the use of the United States, to be recovered in any court having competent jurisdiction thereof.
Penalties for publishing maps, charts, books or prints, but in the way prescribed by law.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That if any person or persons from and after the passing of this act, shall print or publish any map, chart, book or books, print or prints, who have not legally acquired the copyright of such map, chart, book or books, print or prints, who have not legally acquired the copyright of such map, chart, book or books, print or prints, and shall, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, insert therein or impress thereon that the same has been entered according to act of Congress, or words purporting the same, or purporting that the copyright thereof has been acquired; every person so offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars, one moiety thereof to the person who shall sue for the same, and the other moiety thereof to and for the use of the United States, to be recovered by action of debt in any court of record in the United States, having cognizance thereof. Provided always, that in every caseLimitation of action in cases of forfeiture. for forfeitures herein before given, the action be commenced within two years from the time the cause of action may have arisen.
Approved, April 29, 1802.