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COPYRIGHT

Works subject to copyright

Blank books, etc., not copyrightable

copyright can not be maintained in court until the provi- sions with respect to the deposit of copies and registration of such work shall have been complied with.

A certificate of registration is issued to the applicant and duplicates thereof may be obtained on payment of the stat- utory fee of 50 cents.

SUBJECT-MATTER OF COPYRIGHT

4. The act provides that no copyright shall subsist in the original text of any work published prior to July i, 1909, which has not been already copyrighted in the United States (sec. 7).

Section 5 of the act divides the works for which copy- right may be secured into eleven classes, as follows:

(a) Books. — This term includes all printed literary works (except dramatic compositions) whether published in the ordinary shape of a book or pamphlet, or printed as a leaflet, card, or single page. The term "book" as used in the law includes tabulated forms of information, fre- quently called charts; tables of figures shoiving the results of mathematical computations, such as logarithmic tables, interest, cost, and wage tables, etc. ; single poems, and the words of a song when printed and published without music; librettos; descriptions of moving pictures or spectacles; encyclopaedias; catalogues; directories; gazetteers and sim- ilar compilations; circulars or folders containing informa- tion in the form of reading matter other than mere lists of articles, names and addresses, and literary contributions to periodicals or newspapers.

5. The term "book" can not be applied to —

Blank books for use in business or in carrying out any system of transacting affairs, such as record books, account books, memorandum books, diaries or journals, bank depo- sit and check books; forms of contracts or leases which do not contain original copyrightable matter ; coupons ; forms for use in commercial, legal, or financial transactions, which are wholly or partly blank and whose value lies in their usefulness and not in their merit as literary compositions.

Directions on scales, or dials, or mathematical or other