Ferris v. Frohman

Citations

• 223 U.S. 424
• 32 S. Ct. 263
• 56 L. Ed. 492
• 1912 U.S. LEXIS 2244

Syllabus

<p>Although complainant may assert his own common-law copyright to his play, if he alleges that defendant has obtained a copyright for the play sought to. be enjoined, and the defendant stands upon the copyright and is enjoined, a Federal right is set up and denied, and this court has jurisdiction to review the judgment, under § 709, Rev. Stat.</p> <p>Under the kw as it existed in 1894, after a play had been performed in England, ti. i rights of the owner to protection against the unauthorized production in England is only that given by the statutes; but the deprivation of common-law rights by force of the statutes was limited by territorial bounds within which the statute was operative.</p> <p>Public representation in this, or in another, country of a dramatic composition, not printed and published, does not deprive the owner . of his common-law right save by operation of statute.</p> <p>At common law the public performance of a play is not an abandonment to public use.</p> <p>The purpose and effect of the copyright law is not to render fruits of piracy secure; and a copyright does not protect one producing a play which is substantially a copy of an unprinted and unpublished play, the common-law property right whereof is in another.</p>