LAW OF COPYRIGHT. ANY person or persons, being a citizen or citizens of the United States, or resident therein, who shall be the author or authors of any book or books, map, chart, or musical composition, which may be now made or composed and not printed and published. or shall hereafter be made or composed, or who shall invent, design, etch, engrave, work, or cause to be engraved, etched, or worked, from his own design, any print or engraving, and the executors, administrators, or legal assigns of such person or persons, shall have the sole right and liberty of printing, re-printing. publishing, and vending, such book or books, map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, or engraving, in whole or in part, for the term of twenty-eight years from the time of recording the title thereof, in the manner hereinafter directed. No person shall be entitled to the benefit of this act, unless he shall, before publication, deposite a printed copy of the title of such book, or books, map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, or engraving, in the clerk's office of the district court of the district wherein the author or proprietor shall reside; and no person shall be entitled to the benefit of this act, unless he shall give information of copyright being secured, by causing to be inserted, in the several copies of each and every edition published during the term. secured on the title-page, or the page immediately fol- ' lowing, if it be a book, or, if a map, chart, musical composition. print, cut, or engraving, by causing to be impressed on the face thereof, or if a volume of maps, charts, music or engravings, upon the title or frontispiece thereof, the following words, viz.: "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year - by A. B, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of (naming the district in which it was entered). There is a fine of one hundred dollars for putting on a false copyright notice. If any person from and after the récording the title of any book, shall print, publish, or import, or cause to be printed, published, or imported, any copy of such book, without the consent of the person legally entitled to the copyright thereof, first had and obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or more credible witnesses, or shall, knowing the same to be so printed or imported, publish, sell, or expose to sale, or cause to be published, sold, or exposed to sale, any copy of such book without such consent in writing; then such offender shall forfeit every copy of such book to the person legally, at the time, entitled to the copyright thereof; and shall also forfeit and pay fifty cents for every such sheet which may be found in his possession, either printed, or printing, published, imported, or exposed to sale, contrary to the intent of this Act, the one moiety thereof to such legal owner of the copyright as aforesaid, and the other to the use of the United States, to be recovered by action of debt in any court having competent jurisdiction thereof. The penalty for violating the copyright on engravings, maps, &c., by copying either on the whole, or by varying, adding to, or diminishing the main design with intent to evade the law, or by printing, importing, or selling, or causing either to be done, is forfeiture of the plates or engraving, with all the sheets copied or printed, besides a forfeit of one dollar for every sheet of such map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, or engraving, which may be found printed, published, or exposed for sale, one half to the proprietor, and the other half to the United States. An action must be brought within two years after the cause of action shall arise. A copyright can be renewed for fourteen years by re-entering it six months before the expiration of the first term, but the renewal must be published four weeks in one or more newspapers printed in the United States, within two months from the date of the renewal. The fee for entering a copyright is fifty cents, and a like sum for a certified copy of the record. A copy of the book, or whatever is copyrighted, must be deposited in the clerk's office where it has been entered, within three months from the publication of the same, and also a copy delivered to the librarian of the Smithsonian Institution and another copy to the Librarian of the Congress library, at Washingtor. An assignment of copyright, to be good against a subsequent purchaser, must be acknowledged and recorded in the office where the original copyright was taken out, within sixty days after its execution. From the Hon. Judge KENT, of New York. NEW YORK, March 6, 1851. DEAR SIR: * I have looked over your work and like it exceedngly. It seems to me an admirab'e compend, and of great use to men of Yours, faithfully, W. KENT. business. From the Hon. Judge EDMONDS, Justice of the Supreme Court, N. York. CITY HALL, NEW YORK, April 13, 1851. DEAR SIR: I have examined with some care, the copy of your American Lawyer and Form-Book, which your publishers sent me, and it affords me pleasure to bear testimony to its general accuracy and value. It must be of great service to almost every man of business; and from the manner in which it has been prepared it may be fully relied upon. Truly, yours, J. W. EDMONDS. JEFFERSON F. JACKSON, Esq., U. S. District Attorney, Montgomery, Alabama, says: "Your book will be of great value to the profession." CHESTER HARDING, Esq., Attorney, &c., St. Louis, Mo., says: "It will be a very great convenience to our profession, as well as to business men." N. J. EMMONS, Esq., Counsellor, &c., Milwaukee, Wis., writes: "Your work promises to be a useful and valuable one-judging of its scope from the pages shown me-both to the profession and business-men generally." "The highly practical character of the information comprised in this volume, its great scope, and undoubted accuracy, adapt it alike to the convenience of the merchant and the professional man. The author is a young member of the bar, in excellent standing in his profession. From intimate knowledge we do not hesitate to commend his industry, precision, and sound judgment. In order to secure the highest degree of accuracy, the author is in correspondence with jurists of each state, submitting to them his labors, and obtaining the latest enactments on each subject. The Maps of each state. bound in the volume, showing the county boundaries, will often be found of great convenience for reference."--Journal of Commerce. "A form-book of some kind is almost indispensable to every man doing business, who dreads, as every man ought to dread, the lawyer's office. A thousand occasions occur in which it becomes necessary to observe legal accuracy in the drawing of instruments and papers, and yet are not of sufficient moment to justify seeking legal advice. This work steps in at this point to assist. The proper forms and directions for the transaction of all kinds of business, when straightforward and free from intricacy, are given in a systematic manner. Besides, the laws of the various States on questions apt to come up in practical business, are digested so as to prevent mistakes. A great variety of tables, such as tariff of postage, interest tables, equation of time, mensuration rules, value of coin, weights and measures, are added, of great utility. A map of each State of the Union accompanies the description of the laws and usages of the State. The book shows research, comprehensiveness, and practical tact; and possesses that brevity and clearness of style, and explicitness of directions, which the business man desires. We should suppose that merchants, tradesmen, and householders generally, would be apt to find great saving and benefit in the use of it."-New York Evangelist. "A useful volume this, not attempting to make every man his own lawyer and give him a fool for his client, but presenting a great variety of forms for legal and business instruments, with the laws of the different states on exemptions, deeds, mechanics' lien, debts, interest, wills, and other topics of every-day importance. With the large amount of information, which is condensed within a narrow compass, this work must prove a highly valuable manual for reference to all classes of business-men."-N. Y. Tribune. "This is one of the most useful aids that a business-man can employ, containing as it does, besides other instructions, correct forms of all legal instruments in use, from a due-bill to a full-covenant deed. We believe it to be highly deserving the confidence and patronage of the business community, and that every man belonging to the same should possess a copy."-Orleans Democrat. "A book for everybody-truly a comprehensive work."-Philad. American Courier |