Page:Howell v. Miller.pdf/9

Rh in law, have any ground for complaint because the state officers have that manuscript in their possession, he may nevertheless invoke the aid of a court of equity to restrain the defendants from printing or publishing such manuscript, if the printing or publication thereof would infringe his rights under the laws of the United States. If the plaintiff has a valid copyright, he is entitled, under the constitution and laws of the United States, to the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, and vending the books copyrighted by him. Rev. St. U. S. § 4952. And the circuit courts, and district courts of the United States having the jurisdiction of circuit courts, are given “power, upon bill in equity, filed by any party aggrieved, to grant injunctions to prevent the violation of any right secured by the laws respecting copyrights, according to the course and principles of courts of equity, on such terms as the court may deem reasonable.” Id. § 4970. The jurisdiction thus conferred by statute is in harmony with the principles of equity jurisprudence as recognized at the time of the adoption of the constitution, and it may be exercised for the protection of an individual against any injury to his rights under the copyright statutes by officers of the state. Those officers cannot interpose their official character, or the orders of the state, against such relief as may properly be granted.

It may here be observed that if, before the caisson gate in question in Schild’s Case had been constructed, the patentee had applied for the relief necessary to prevent such construction, a different case would have been presented to the supreme court. In the present case, it is alleged, the defendants have printed, and are about to have bound and distributed, part of Miller’s compilation, and are about to print, publish, bind, and distribute the balance of the manuscript of such compilation. It would be extraordinary if a court of equity could not stay the hands of the defendants, if what they are about to do will be in violation of the plaintiff’s rights as secured by the laws of the United States, and has no other sanction than a legislative enactment which must yield to the legislation of congress enacted under the authority of the constitution of the United States. It cannot be admitted that the law is otherwise in this country, however it may be in countries whose governments are not based upon a written constitution, and whose legislative power is paramount.

We are, then, to inquire whether it appears from the record before us that the plaintiff has rights, under the laws of the United States, which the defendants, acting under legislative sanction, will violate, unless restrained by injunction. It was suggested in argument that no one can obtain the exclusive right to publish the laws of a state in a book prepared by him. This general proposition cannot be doubted. And it may also be said that any person desiring to publish the statutes of a state may use any copy of such statutes to be found in any printed book, whether such book be the property of the state or the property of an individual. If Miller had cut from Howell’s books, delivered to him by the state, the general laws of Michigan as therein printed, and the pages so cut out had been used when his compilation was printed,—if this had been done, and nothing more,—there would have been no ground of complaint. But it is said that he did more