Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/148

 copyright in such work for a further term of twenty-eight years when application for such renewal and extension shall have been made to the copyright office and duly registered therein within one year prior to the expiration of the original term of copyright: And provided further, That in default of the registration of such application for renewal and extension, the copyright in any work shall determine at the expiration of twenty-eight years from first publication."

The extension of copyrights subsisting July 1, 1909, is provided for as follows (sec. 24): "That the copyright subsisting in any work at the time when this act goes into effect may, at the expiration of the term provided for under existing law, be renewed and extended by the author of such work if still living, or the widow, widower, or children of the author, if the author be not living, or if such author, widow, widower, or children be not living, then by the author's executors, or in the absence of a will, his next of kin, for a further period such that the entire term shall be equal to that secured by this Act, including the renewal period: Provided, however, That if the work be a composite work upon which copyright was originally secured by the proprietor thereof, then such proprietor shall be entitled to the privilege of renewal and extension granted under this section: Provided, That application for such renewal and extension shall be made to the copyright office and duly registered therein within one year prior to the expiration of the existing term."

In holding with the Attorney-General that an assignee cannot obtain renewal. Judge Brown in the U.S. Circuit Court in Rhode Island, in White Smith v. Goff, in 1910, raised but did not decide the "difficult" question whether, if an author sells his unpublished manuscript with right to publish and