Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-10
A NEW DECISION.

Under decision of Judge Shipman, Of
New York, literary piracy is compelled to
call a halt. 1t is held that inasmuch as
certain articles in a foreign encyclopedia
where written by Americans and copy
righted here by them and then trans
ferred to the foreign publication, American
pirates cannot lawfully reproduce them.
1t follows that the foreign encyclopedia
can no longer be issued by literary pirates
without leaving out the American copy
righted papers. The decision accords
with the principles Of progressive copy
right reform and is abreast with fair play
and common justice. The foreign authors
can, under this decision, protect their
property from piracy by including in their
works matter of American authorship pro-
tected by copyright, which they have pur-
| chased.
The particular case upon which Judge
Shipman passed is thus stated by the New
York Herald: "The Henry G.. Allen
Company, of New York, published a pi-
rated edition of the costly Encyclopedia
Britannica, ninth edition, issued by Messrs.
Adam and Charles Black. of Edinburgh,
the reproductions being made By photo
graphic process. John Wanamaker, of
Philadelphia, the Postmaster General, and
Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls of this city, Of
fered such pirated edition for sale.
Among the numerous contributors for
whose wo-k Messrs. Black paid were GER
tain Americans, notably General Francis
A. Walker. President of the Massachusetts,
Institute of Technology, Boston, and the
late Professor Alexander Johnston, of
Princeton College, who secured American
| copyrights of the monographs which they
prepared for the encyclopedia, assigning
these copyrights to the Messrs. Black for
| that purpose, but reserving the right to
separate publication in this country. Their
work is the basis of these suits. General
Walker contributed the article entitled
United States Part III.-Political Ge-
| ography and Statistics Professor John
ston wrote United States Part History
and Constitution The lines on the title
page Of each article of the Black edition,
Copyright, 1885, by Francis A. Walker
Copyright, 1888, by Alexander Johnston
were omitted In the pirated edition"
The Messrs Black brought two suits
against the Allen Company, and Charles
Scribner's Sons brought another, based on
the publication in the Allen edition of the
encyclopedia of certain maps copyrighted
by the Scribners, who granted the Messrs.
Black the right to use them. The Court
in deciding the cases on demurrer said:
Does the, tact that the proprietor of book,
| copyrighted IN this country, has permitted an
\ alien publisher of AZ encyclopedia to publish
| his book as part of such encyclopedia enable
another person. withou; authority, to publish
| IN this country the copyrighted article as part
| der OF which is publici juris
1t VIII not probably be seriously denied that
acitizen Of the United States, who is the owner
| OF copyright, can assign the whole of such
| eigner is not within our copyright law but he
| may take and hold by assignment copyright
| granted to one of our own citizens"
| 1T cannot be contended that the defendant
would nave right to reprint Walkers or John
stons treatises in separate volumes without the
| consent OF the respective proprietors. If the
author has valid copyright it is valid against
any unpernitted reprint of his book, and the
TACT that his book is bound up in volume with
| fifty other books, each of which is open to the
\ public, is immaterial."