For copyrights, the act codified the right of authors to make dramatizations and translations of literary works; copyright had previously been denied to translations by the holding in
Stowe v. Thomas (1853), in which
Harriet Beecher Stowe unsuccessfully sued for infringement over a translation of ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin'' into German. It also established a
legal deposit requirement for copyrighted works; two copies of each work were to be submitted to the Library of Congress.
Copyright amendments The act was amended several times for various purposes. • In 1873, Congress gave jurisdiction of copyright cases to federal courts. • Also in 1874, copyrights for prints and labels in manufactured goods were put under the jurisdiction of the
Patent Office. • In 1879, the Post Office Appropriations Act arguably made it illegal to mail copyright infringing works. • In 1882, copyright notices for designs on useful articles were allowed to be placed on the back or bottom of those articles. • In 1891, the
International Copyright Act of 1891 passed. • In 1893, Congress granted amnesty to late deposits of books for copyright and allowed all to send in their works for protection by March 1. The Act passed on March 3. • In 1895, the
Printing Act of 1895 codified the
Wheaton v. Peters decision and stated explicitly that "no Government publications shall be copyrighted." • Also in 1895, the penalties for infringing the copyright of photographs were limited at the request of newspapers. • In 1897, Congress allowed the restriction of public performances of musical compositions and added criminal penalties if the illicit performance was for profit. • Also in 1897, Congress established the
Register of Copyrights.
Thorvald Solberg entered office later that year. • A third amendment in 1897 extended a $100 penalty for affixing a
false copyright notice to a product to anyone who knowingly created, sold, or imported works with false notices. This included new copies of copyrighted works without the required notice and issuing the work under someone else's name. • In 1904, in response to foreign countries threatening to boycott the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Congress passed an amendment that provided
ad interim copyrights to foreign works that lasted for two years. They did not have to follow the manufacturing or notice requirements, but they were entitled to a full 42 years of restriction if they did. • In 1905, another
ad interim copyright law amended the law to satisfy
France and
Germany in response to threats to repeal copyright treaties. • Although it was not implemented with legislation, the United States entered the
Mexico City Convention in 1908. ==Patents==