6. What conditions and formalities are required to be complied with in order to secure copyright;
7. The functions of the Copyright Office; and
8. Possible copyright law amendment.
1. What is copyrighted?
The copyright statutes enumerate the articles or classes of articles subject-matter of copyright, and first in the list stands "book." The first consideration is, therefore, What is to be understood by the term "book" as thus used? or, in other words, What is a "book," as that designation is employed in the copyright law?
The answer is indicated in the provision of the federal constitution upon which our copyright legislation is founded. This paragraph of the constitution (section 8 of article 1) grants to Congress—"in order to promote the progress of science and useful arts"—the right to enact laws to secure "to authors ... the exclusive right to their ... writings...." This provision is, of course, to be broadly interpreted, but, using the exact wording of the law, it is the writing of an author—his literary composition—the prose or poetical expression of his thought—which makes his "book," as the term is used in the copyright law. In order to be a "book," subject to protection under the copyright law, the author's production must have this literary characteristic. The quality of the literary ingredient is not tested, but its presence is requisite. Hence not everything which may ordinarily be called a book is fitly so nominated, in order to indicate the subject-matter of copyright; while some productions not ordinarily designated as "books" may properly be thus classified in order to be registered as a preliminary to copyright protection.
That an article possesses the corporeal characteristics of a book is of little consequence. The literary substance, not the material form, primarily determines the matter. An article contributed to a newspaper or a periodical—although but a few paragraphs in length—is a "book" under the copyright law, while a bookkeeper's ledger, to all outward appearance answering the description, is not a "book" so far as registering its title to secure copyright is concerned. A calendar whose main features are literary may doubtless be properly registered as a "book," but a pack of playing cards with pictures on the backs, even though each card may be furnished with a linen guard and all bound up, with a plausible title-page, so as to resemble a book, is not a "book" in the meaning of the copyright law.
Orderly arranged information produced in a form which would commonly be termed a chart cannot be registered under that designation which in the copyright law is applicable only to a chartographical work, but may properly be called a "book"; while a so-called book of coupons, or railway tickets, or of blank forms, cannot be thus entitled.
In brief, it should be a book in the ordinary understanding of a work of literature or art, and may not include a production whose main feature is some original idea, however ingenious or fanciful its form may be, or is of the character of something invented. Invention must look for protection to the patent law.
2. The nature of the protection secured.