Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-26
Wednesday Morning, July 26, 1882.
\ PLAY AS PROPERTY,

There are people with such geod memories that they can attend 8 representation of a play and carry away enough of what they see l and hear to enable them to write more or less correct version of it. And there are un- | scrupulous managers who are willing to avail l themselves of the labors of such persons in order to make money out of what does not | belong to them. And there have been judges l who have said that whoever buys ticket | buys the right to see and hear the play and to remember what he can and if his mem- | ory is so good that he remember the l whole so much the better for him and so
 much the worse for those to whom the play belongs.
 1 This doctrine is naturally not pleasing to
 those who own plays which they do not want stolen, and therefore it is now and then pro-
 tested against. While that popular play
 ''The World" was running at Wallack's s Theatre in New York two persons attended night after night until they became familiar enough with it to prepare version which 1 they sold to Boston manager. He, proba- 1 ply relying on former decisions in such cases l began performing it. But the real owners 1 of the play brought him into court and the Supreme Court of Massachusetts has just declared that plays cannot be stolen in this manner. The decision points out that play has two uses, or val ues, quite distinct It may be printed and sold as a book to be read, or it may be rep- resented ca the stage. It's use as 8 printed book is protected by the copyright law. If, however, the author does not copyright and publish, but only represents it, this is not giving it to the public. Whoever buys 8 ticket has the right to attend, to see and hear, ,and to remember for any fair and prop. CT purpose. He may remember for his own pleasure, Or to repeat to his friends, or to re- view and criticise But when he uses his ! recollection in preparing rival performance he exceeds his right and in effect appropriates unfairly the authors property. The pur- pose for which he reconstructs what he hears, | not ths means by which he does so, is the test. Dickens readings were mentioned. If
 he had written and read story without bav- ing published and copyrighted it, the aud ! fence would not have been at liberty to piece
 out their recollections into complete copy and sell the tale to the magazines Their right was only to hear and enjoy, and to re- l call for purposes of conversation or criticism,
 not for competition. So of the lectures of a professor in a school of law or medicine.
 The tickets which he sells entitle his pupils
 to attend. isten remember and even to take
 notes In aid of memory. They may recon
 struct the lectures for their personal use.
 They are entitled to all the instruction they
 can preserve by either memory or notes,
 so long as their purpose is to increase
 personal qualifications for practice and they
 may combine the information with that de-
 rived from other sources in discourses more
 or less formal of their own. But they caanoi
 repeat in public or print and publish the lec
 lures themselves. The right to do this is moi
 involved in the privilege implied in selling g
 ticket. So of play.
 This decision is obviously just, and it is
 surprising that the matter has ever been de
 clded differently. It should not be lawful tc
 steal play any more than it is to stea money.