Copyright

Defined in 7 dictionaries — Case Law, Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Black's (1910), Kinney (1893), Black's (1891), Burrill (1850)

Definitions from Case Law

From 210 U.S. 339 - Bobbs-Merrill Company v. Isidor Straus R H · 1908Most cited · 441 citing opinions

The copyright is an exclusive right to the multiplication of the copies, for the benefit of the author or his assigns, disconnected from the plate, or any other physical existence. It is an incorporeal right to print and publish the map; or, as said by Lord Mansfield in Millar v. Taylor, 4 Burr. 2396, 'a property in notion, and has no corporeal, tangible substance.

Show all 4 Supreme Court definitions and how they changed over time 1852–1939

The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary

Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922

The exclusive privilege, secured according to certain legal forms, of printing, publishing, and vending copies of writings or drawings. 14 How. (U. S.) 530. Literally the word "copyright" means the right to copy a work or the right to the copy. 238 111. 442.

Ballentine's Law Dictionary

James A. Ballentine · 1916

An exclusive right or privilege of publishing one’s literary or artistic works. See 99 U. S. 67,4, 25 L. Ed. 308.

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

The right of literary property as recognized and sanctioned by positive law. A right granted by statute to the author or originator of certain literary or artistic productions, whereby he is invested, for a llmited period, with the sole and exclusive privilege of mnitiplying copies of the same and publishing and selling them. In re Rider, 16 R. I. 271, 15 Atl. 72; Mott Iron Works v. Clow, 83 Fed. 316, 27 C. a A. 250; Palmer v. De Witt, 47 N. Y. 536, 7 Am. Rep. 480; Keene v. Wheatley, 14 Fed. Cas. 185. An incorporeal right, being the exclusive privilege of printing, reprinting, selling, and publishing his own original work, which the law allows an author. Wharton. Copyright is the exclusive right of the owner of an. intellectual production to multiply and dispose of copies; the sole right to the copy, or to copy it The word is used indifferently to signify the statutory and the common-law right; or one right is sometimes called "copyright" after publication, or statutory copyright; the other copyright before publication, or common-law copyright. The word is also used synonymously with "literary property;" thus, the exclusive right of the owner publicly to read or exhibit a work is often called "copyright" This ls not strictly correct Drone, Copyr. 100. International copyright is the right of a subject of one country to protection against the republication in another country of a work which he originally published in his own country. Sweet.

A Law Dictionary and Glossary

George C. Kinney · 1893

The exclusive right of printing, publishing and selling a w^ritten composition during a certain period of time. The right extends to maps, charts, prints and musical compositions.

A Dictionary of Law

Henry Campbell Black · 1891

The right of literary property as recognized and sanctioned by positive law. A right granted by statute to the author or originator of certain literary or artistic productions, whereby he is invested, for a limited period, with the sole and exclusive privilege of multiplying copies of the same and publishing and selling them. An incorporeal right, being the exclusive privilege of printing, reprinting, selling, and publishing his own original work, which the law allows an author. Wharton. Copyright is the exclusive right of the owner of an intellectual production to multiply and dispose of copies; the sole right to the copy, or to copy it. The word is used indifferently to signify the statutory and the common-law right; or one right is publication, or common-law copyright. The word is also used synonymously with "literary property;" thus, the exclusive right of the owner publicly to read or exhibit a work is often called "copyright." This is not strictly correct. Drone, Copyr. 100. International copyright is the right of a subject of one country to protection against the republication in another country of a work which he originally published in his own country. Sweet.

A New Law Dictionary and Glossary

Alexander M. Burrill · 1850

formerly termed COPY. The exclusive right which the law allows an author (or a person purchasing from an author) of printing, publishing and selling a written composition during a certain period of time. 2 Chitty's Bl. Com. 406-408, and notes. 2 Steph. Com. 94-99. 2 Kent's Com. 373-384. Curtis on Copyright, ch. 1. Called by Mr. Stephen "an incorporeal chattel." 2 Steph. Com. 72, 94. Lord Mansfield, in Millar v. Taylor, defined "copy" to be "an incorporeal right to the sole printing and publishing of somewhat intellectual communicated by letters," and observed that this was the technical sense in which the term had been used for ages. 4 Burr. 2303, 2396. A copyright may be had in maps, charts, prints, cuts, engravings and musical compositions, as well as in books. 2 Kent's Com. 373. See Curtis on Copyright. U. S. Digest, Copyright.