Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/247

 solely for the protection of authors' rights to the fullest extent, and it asserts that a musical composer is as fully entitled as is the author of any other creative work to the exclusive and full benefits of his compositions, in whatever manner reproduced. The opponents of the bill base their objections largely on a restrictive definition of the word 'writings,' and criticise the bill because this word 'writings' is interpreted throughout the bill by the word 'works,' although this accurately reflects the understanding of Congress and the interpretation of the courts. They would, in fact, confine copyright protection specifically, it may be said, to e-y-e-deas, that is, visible records, and exclude as not visible or legible by the eye, copies of musical compositions mechanically made and interpreted.

"The earliest writing which remains to us is in the Assyrian wedge-shaped inscriptions, made by pressing the end of a squared stick into a soft clay cylinder; the phonograph point inscribes its record in exactly the same manner upon the ' wax ' or composition of the cylinder or disc, for the mechanism only revolves the roll, and the point is actuated by the sound vibrations. The words 'phonograph,' 'graphophone' and 'gramophone' literally mean 'soundwriting,' for the Greek form graph-, the Latin form scrib-, and the Saxon form write, equally parts of our language, denote exactly the same meaning. It is even probable that a future development of phonograph impressions (the third dimension being translated into breadth of stroke as can be mechanically done) will give ultimately a visual phonograph alphabet even more natural and logical than Professor Bell's remarkable system of 'visible speech,' which, of course, like all alphabets, can be read only when the reader has mastered the significance of the