PRIMARY SOURCES

ON COPYRIGHT

(1450-1900)

Copyright Act Amendment, Washington D.C. (1856)

Source: Library of Congress: 11 Stat. 138

Citation:
Copyright Act Amendment, Washington D.C. (1856), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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Record-ID: us_1856

Permanent link: https://copyrighthistory.org/cam/tools/request/showRecord.php?id=record_us_1856

Full title:
An Act supplemental to an Act entitled An Act to amend the several acts respecting Copyright, approved February third, eighteen hundred and thirty - one

Full title original language:
N/A

Abstract:
An amendment to the Copyright Act that added for the first time in America a public performance entitlement in dramatic works. The commentary describes the origins of the agitation by playwrights for an exclusive public performance right in plays, the early lobbying efforts, and the campaign that led to the 1856 amendment. It concludes by briefly discussing how the new entitlement contributed to the general shift of copyright's intellectual framework from a limited textual reprint right to a general protection of an intellectual work.

1 Commentary:
commentary_us_1856

Bibliography:
  • McConachie, Bruce A. Melodramatic Formations: American Theater and Society, 1820-1870. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1992.

  • Foust, Clement E. The Life and Dramatic Works of Robert Montgomery Bird. New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1919.

  • Bradley, Edward Sculley. George Henry Boker, Poet and Patriot. London: Oxford University Press, 1927.


Related documents in this database:
1833: Dramatic Literary Property Act
1831: Copyright Act
1841: S. 227 (Dramatic Works Public Performance Bill)
1844: H.R. 9 (Ingersoll Bill)
1870: Committee Report on S.703
1885: Carte v. Duff
1897: Copyright Act (Public Performance of Musical Compositions)

Author: N/A

Publisher: N/A

Year: 1856

Location: Washington D.C.

Language: English

Source: Library of Congress: 11 Stat. 138

Persons referred to:
N/A

Places referred to:
N/A

Cases referred to:
N/A

Institutions referred to:
U.S. Congress
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Senate

Legislation:
U.S. Copyright Act 1831, 21st Cong., 2d Sess., 4 Stat. 436
U.S. Copyright Amendment Act 1856, 11 Stat. 138

Keywords:
dramatic works, protected subject matter
penalties, paid to author(s)
public performance
remedies

Responsible editor: Oren Bracha


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