Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-02
PUBLISHERS LOSE IN
COPYRIGHT DECISIONS
BOOKSELLERS HAVE RIGHT TO
CUT PRICES
Supreme Court Decides Republication
of Map by Boston Globe Was
Not Piracy-Acts on
Three Gases
By Associated Press.

BY Associated PreSS.
WASHINGTON. June 1.-The su-
preme court of the United States to-
day decided three important copyright
cases. the opinions being handed down
by Justice Day.
The first decision was in the case OF
the Bobbs- Merrill company VS.. r. H
Macy & Co. and Isadore H. Strauss,
the decision being in favor of Macy
G. Co.
In this case the court dealt with the
question whether the sale by retail
dealer of a copyrighted book below the
price fixed by the publishers is an in
fringement of copyright.
The Bobbs- Merrill company published
a novel and stipulated in a printed
notice that it should not be sold for
less than 81 copy.
The house of Macy sold the work
for SO cents and suit was brought ac-
cordingly in the circuit court of the
United States for the southern district
of New York. but the bill was DTS
missed
A like result followed when the case
was appealed to the circuit court of
appeals and todays decision was in the
same line. The suit was based on
the theory that the right to dispose Sf
a copyrighted work gives the owner
the right to place restrictions on its
sale.
The right of publishers to regulate
the price at which their books may
be sold by retailers and jobbers also
was involved in the two cases of
Charles Scribner & Sons versus Isa-
dore and Nathan Strauss, doing busi-
ness as r. H. Macy & Co., all of
New York, which was against the for
mer concern.
The suits were brought by the Scrib-
70 Two NJ i
can Publishers association and they
sought in the first of them to enjoin
the defendants from selling their copy
righted books at prices below those
fixed by the association and from buy
ing any such publications from any
one who is not member of the asso-
citation on the ground that such a
course is an infringement of copy
right.
In the second case the allegation was
that Macy & Co. had sought to in
duce other dealers to violate their con-
tracts with the publishers. The fact
was brought out that the Publishers
association insist firms dealing in their
copyrighted books enter into con-
tract to maintain fixed prices for a
year and not to sell to anyone who
would cut prices. The circuit court of
appeals decided against the publishers
in both cases, holding that the sellers
had not agreed not to cut prices, and
there was no evidence of an effort to
influence others.
That the republication of a map
printed in an official publication is not
always piracy under the copyright law
was held today by the supreme court
of the United States in deciding the
case of the Globe Newspaper company
of Boston versus George H. Walker
& Co.. in which case the decision was
favorable to the newspaper. The case
was important because of the fact
that the Globe reprinted a map of
the electric railways of Massachusetts
which was compiled by Walker and
published as a part of a state report
in 1899. Walker brought suit for dam
ages on the charge of infringement of
copyright and the circuit court of the
district of Massachusetts awarded him
$3.50, but the supreme court reversed
the decision of the lower court.