Page:Howell v. Miller.pdf/4

132 furnished by the board of state auditors, and bound by the state binders. The act further provided that the compilation should be known as the “Compiled Laws Michigan, 1897,” and required an edition of 20,000 copies to be printed and bound by the state printer and binder, and delivered to the secretary of state for distribution, as the public acts were distributed, and, in addition, one copy to be delivered to each senator and representative of the legislature of 1895, and one copy each to the compiler and the two commissioners. The secretary of state was directed by the same act to sell, from time to time, any number of the copies remaining after such distribution, except such number as was held for future distribution, at such price per copy, not less than the actual cost thereof, as the board of state auditors should determine. That act gave the compiler, for services under it, an additional compensation of $2,500. Sess. Laws 1897, Act No. 26. The defendants are all connected with the execution of the acts of 1895 and 1897,—Miller, as stated, being compiler, under appointment of the legislature; Gardner, secretary of state; Steel, state treasurer; French, commissioner of the state land office (the last three officers constituting the board of state auditors, referred to in the act of 1897); the Robert Smith Printing Company, state printer; and Smith, Thorpe, and Stephenson, officers of the printing company. They all denied any connection with the proposed printing, binding, distribution, or sale of the Miller compilation, except as directed by the above acts of the legislature. Twenty thousand copies of the first volume of the Miller compilation having been printed, but not bound, the present suit was brought by Howell. The relief asked by him was: That the defendants be restrained perpetually from distributing or causing to be distributed, and from selling or offering for sale, either the whole or any part of the above compilation of the statutes of Michigan prepared by Miller, and printed by the Robert Smith Printing Company, and from delivering or causing to be delivered to any person, firm, or corporation the manuscript or any printed matter, or any part of the same, forming or intended to form the whole or any part of such compilation as prepared and compiled by Miller; and, further, from distributing or causing to be distributed, selling or offering for sale, the whole or any portion of the matter prepared or printed, intended as “Compiled Laws Michigan, 1897,” “2,” and “Index,” or any part of the same. That it be adjudged that the compilation of the statutes of Michigan prepared by Miller, printed in part and in process of being printed by the Robert Smith Printing Company, constitutes and is a piracy upon Howell’s Annotated Statutes of Michigan, and an infringement upon the rights and the property of the plaintiff arising under the acts of congress of the United States respecting copyrights. And that a preliminary writ of injunction be issued, restraining the defendants from parting with, transferring, or delivering to any individual, corporation, or officer the whole or any part of the manuscript prepared by or under the direction of Miller, or the whole or any part of the printed matter of what is to constitute the said “Compiled Laws Michigan, 1897,” or any part of such matter, whether in manuscript, printed, or printed and