The law of motion pictures (1918)

PUBLICATION 509 more than a month before registration in the United States there was nothing to prevent anybody in any part of Europe from buying, using and seeing this photoplay. How publication could be plainer I do not perceive. . . . Because there was a publication in Europe before registration in the United States this bill must be dismissed.” In Ferris v. Frohman 36 a play called “The Fatal Card” was first publicly performed in England. At the time of such performance a statute was in force in England under which the first public presentation of a dramatic composition was declared to be in the construction of the act equivalent to the first publication of a book. Complainants’ play was never in fact published, but on the contrary was kept in manuscript form. The complainant Frohman was granted an exclusive license to perform the play in the United States for a specified period. The play was not copyrighted in this country, although produced on the stage. Thereafter the defendant made an adaptation of the English play for which he secured American copyright. This action was brought in the state court to protect complainants’ common-law rights in their unpublished manuscript. Defendants contended that the presentation upon the stage of the play in England having been a publication thereof under the English Statute in force at the time, complainants had lost their common-law rights in such play; and since the play had not been copyrighted in this country there was a dedication to the public. 36 Ferris v. Frohman (1912), 223 (1909), 238 111. 430; 87 N. E. U. S. 424; 32 Sap. Ct. 263; aff’g 327.