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CHAPTER LXVIII 347 Committee tliat the manuscript photoplay be admitted to copyright; not that he feels that copyright protection should be needed, but be- cause so many have sought it. Each time the request has been re- fused, and probably will be refused by successive Congresses, if for no other reason tlaan that the uhpublished manuscript is as fully pro- tected by common law as is the published work by Copyright Law. 16. Most authors seem to think that if they could put "Copy- righted" on their scripts it would stop possible thieves. Some of them do announce their work as having been copyrighted vv^hen they know perfectly well that it is not copyrighted, thereby rendering themselves liable to punishment. 17. It is one of the kinks of the law tliat if you announced that your story was copyrighted and then went into court with a suit it would be thrown out under copyright law because it was not copy- righted and thrown out under common law because you said that it had been. 18. In any case all copyright means to you is that you can sue under a definite enactment instead of common law. 19. Unlike the Patent Office, the Copyright Office does not guaran- tee against the registration of an infringing claim. Two or more per- sons may register the same book, but since there can be but one legal registration, if you can prove that you are the original author the rights lie with you, only you must go to court and submit to the usual delays and adjournments if you would prove your case. 20. Under the most recent rulings the photoplay has a separate en- tity in the eyes of the Copyright Office, if it was registered subsequent to the act providing for the copyright of films, dated August 24, 1912. All fiction stories registered since that time are capable of being reg- istered both as dramatic plays and photoplays. Prior to the passage of the act above mentioned, which gave the photoplay a definite status in the Copyright Law, the photoplay rights are held to have passed with the dramatic rights. In other words you may now write a story and copyright it as a book. Under this original copyright you may sell to one person the right to make a dramatic version for the stage and to another the right to adapt the story for the screen, or you may do this work yourself. In each case the holder of such right must file with the Register of Copyright within three months his assign- ment of such copyright and must enter for copyright such stage or film version when it is ready to be given to the public. 21. If you wish to make an adaptation of the work of another, you must if that work has been copyrighted, obtain the permission of the holder of the copyright. This is more often the publisher than the author. On works published prior to the date given above, you mtist purchase the right from the holder of the dramatic rights, if there be such a person distinct from the holder of the general copy- right. 22. Copyright holds for twenty-eight years with a right to renew on the part of the holder of the copyright for an additional period of