Mr. Bonynge said: "Would you prevent the man who sang into your phonograph, or talked into it, from singing or talking into any other?" Certainly not. It is not an original production. It is not the work of an author or composer or artist. There is nothing intellectual about it, except that it is scientific, and the scientific part of it is protected by his patent. The reason I am so emphatic about that is that when you endeavor to put in the ideas of patents and the protection of inventions into this law you dislocate it and disarrange it.
Senator LATTIMER. The musician may memorize that music, and may entertain an audience with it, but he can not sing it into a phonograph; is that it? According to your position, as I understand it, the singer may take the music of Mr. Sousa, commit it to memory, and may stand before an audience and entertain the audience with Mr. Sousa's music and reproduce it to the audience, but he can not reproduce it in a phonograph?
Mr. FULLER. If he has paid Mr. Sousa for the privilege of that public performance. But he can not, at the same time, under the payment for the privilege of a one-night stand, sing it into a phonograph and give it to a million people all over the country.
Mr. BONYNGE. And he can not give that public performance unless he has paid Mr. Sousa his royalty?
Mr. MCGAVIN. Would not the copyrighting of this phonograph record give the musician, say Mr. Sousa, double protection? He already has the protection of the copyright on his sheet music, has he not?
Mr. MCGAVIN. And he would have the further protection of the copyright of the music as it goes into the phonograph, would he not?
Mr. FULLER. No; it is the talking-machine people who want a copyright on that, and to hold it against the original composer.
Mr. CHANEY. I did not understand Mr. Pettit that way.
Mr. FULLER. Mr. Sousa is entitled to it, whether he prints his music on a sheet of paper or whether he prints it on a disk; but the man that prints it on the disk is not entitled to it. That is all.
Mr. BONYNGE. He has not originated anything.
Mr. BONYNGE. Except that the disk is a patentable thing, and on that he has a patent.
Mr. FULLER. Yes. The bill is a compromise, and one which every lawyer here and every lawyer who was at the conference thinks he can better; but it is the best that could be had to protect and satisfy all the interests. It has been stated that perhaps none of the interests are entirely satisfied. If that is true, it is the best kind of a bill. There are only two kinds: The bill that is perfect, the one that satisfies everybody--and there is none such; and the one that satisfies nobody, because nobody has had injustice done.