As the present law consists of but a group of statutes, and the proposed bill is systematic and organic in form, the changes which it introduces other than mere abrogations are not easily explained by mere reference to the existing statutes. Throughout attempt has been made to substitute general terms for particular specifications, to provide for a protection as broad as the Constitution contemplated, and to insure that no specification shall tend to limit unduly either subject-matter or the protection. Important respects in which the bill modifies or amplifies existing law are as follows:
_Nature and extent._--Section 1, like section 9, is fundamental. The existing law (Rev. Stat., sec. 4952) specifies as the exclusive right "the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, completing, copying, executing, finishing, and vending;" of public performance or representation; and of dramatization or translation. The bill omits the specifications "printing, reprinting, publishing, completing, executing, and finishing," but attempts others intended to be fully as broad. [Please see sec. 1.] It adds the right of oral delivery in the case of lectures, and the right to make, sell, distribute, or let for hire any device, etc., especially adapted to reproduce to the ear any musical work, and to reproduce it to the ear by means of such a device; but these latter are limited to works hereafter published and copyrighted.
The copyright is to protect "all the copyrightable component parts of the work copyrighted and any and all reproductions or copies thereof in whatever form, style, or size."
_Subject-matter of copyright._--A general statement that it is to include "all the works of an author," leaving the term "author" to be as broad as the Constitution intended. Certain specifications follow, but coupled with the proviso that they shall not be held to limit the subject-matter.
The specifications [sec. 5] substitute, so far as possible, general terms for particulars. They omit, for instance, the terms "engravings, cuts, lithographs, painting, chromo, statue, and statuary." They assume, however, that these will be included under the more general terms as "prints and pictorial illustrations," or "reproductions of a work of art," or "works of art," or "models or designs for works of art." The term "works of art" is deliberately intended as a broader specification than "works of the fine arts" in the present statute, with the idea that there is subject-matter (e.g., of applied design, yet not within the province of design patents) which may properly be entitled to protection under the copyright law.