Palmer v. . De Witt’s Empirical Analysis
1872
Citation profile
11 federal appellate · 1 district · 42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 75 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2016 · most notably Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co. (1911), Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographing Co. (1903)
11 federal appellate · 1 district · 42 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““So far as is disclosed by the case, the drama remained in manuscript until printed by the defendant, and there is no claim that it has been published by the author or the plaintiff, or with their assent, except by its public performance on tbe stage; and if it has not, by that act, become publici juris, it still remains the private property of the author or his assignee, who alone have the exclusive right to it, and may prevent: its publication. When a literary work is exhibited for a particular purpose, or to a limited number of persons,' it will not bo construed as a general gift or authority for any purpose of profit or publication by others. An author retains his right in his manuscript until he relinquishes it by contract, or some unequivocal act indicating an intent to dedicate it to the public. An unqualified publication by printing and offering for sale is such a dedication. The rights of an author of a drama in his composition are twofold. He is entitled to the profit arising from- its performance, and also froth the sale of the manuscript, or the printing and publishing it. Lectures and plays are not, by their public delivery or performance, in the presence of all who choose to attend, so dedicated to the public that they can be printed and published without the author’s permission. It does not give to the hearer any title to the manuscript or a copy of it, or a right to the use of a copy. The manuscript and the right of the author therein are still within the prot”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““But if jurisdiction is, by the statute, conferred upon the federal courts in a case like this, the act does not purport to, and does not, make the jurisdiction exclusive, or deprive state courts of jurisdiction in actions, legal or equitable, touching the common-law rights of authors. At most, the statute gives parties within its provisions, and not claiming the benefits of a copyright under the laws of the "United States, a cumulative remedy, and a choice of tribunals. The jurisdiction of the state courts, in cases in which it had before been exercised, was not taken away, or in any respect impaired.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“protected by the same process, and (had) the benefit of all the remedies accorded to other property so far as applicable.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.