Chapter XXXV: Section 45: might be profitably augmented by including the

privilege of allowing an author who writes under a pen name to
print the notice of copyright also under the same pen name. This
would be a considerable privilege, since at present he must go
through the complicated process of assigning his copyright to
another if he does not wish his real name to appear. In his claim
for copyright he could state both his real name and his pen name
in which he wished the copyright to appear. This would work
injustice to no one and would be a great convenience to authors
whose real names are of an uninspiring nature.

This section 45 might also contain a provision allowing an author
to change the title of an unpublished work without deposit for
further copies, provided he paid a fee, since almost every
unpublished play is renamed. The duplication of copies of the same
work under different titles is of no service to the copyright
office and is frequently an expense to authors. The production of
a play under any other than its copyrighted title should
invalidate the copyright.

The requirement of section 60, raising the copyright fee from 50
cents to $1, will work a real hardship to many writers,
particularly those who write short plays for vaudeville and have a
hard time to make a living, to those who write many plays without
ever securing any returns, and to the writers of words of songs,
whose work is apt to be stolen unless copyrighted and who receive
a very small compensation in any event, as a rule. We would
strongly recommend that for unpublished works and short articles
in periodicals especially copyrighted and for photographs the fee
be held at 50 cents, or even reduced to 25 cents.

Upon the enactment of the new law the copyright office will
receive from the dramatic writers a great many more works than are
at present offered, owing to the unsatisfactory condition of the
existing law. The number of dramatic compositions offered will
also be greatly increased by the favorable fact of the omission on
the notice of copyright of the year. At present the author of an
unpublished play must state the year of his copyright on his
title-page, and as it is often ten years or more after a play is
written before it secures a production, this telltale date proves
a great drawback in submitting the play to managers, and therefore
many authors prefer to run the risk of losing their plays rather
than to affix this hall-mark of antiquity. The prospect of this
increased revenue should be sufficient to induce the makers of the
law to reduce the copyright fee on unpublished works.

I should recommend also that a specific clause be added making it
a misdemeanor to copy from an unpublished manuscript any portion
without authority, or to be found in the possession of an
unpublished copyrighted manuscript or parts thereof without
authority. This would correct two grave abuses, one, the stealing
of an author's ideas and dialogue by a manager to whom the play
might be submitted, and the second, the stealing of manuscripts
after a play is produced. One bureau openly advertises and
continually sells for a few dollars manuscripts of produced plays,
and the sale of such manuscripts enables infringers to deprive
authors of great sums in royalties. The adoption of such a section
as this will, of course, be sharply contested, but there is
absolutely nothing inequitable in it for any person not intending
fraud.

It might also be well to deny the privilege of copyright to
authors who allow their plays to be publicly performed without
first securing a copyright.

I trust that none of these suggestions will be taken as a
criticism of the proposed law, which will confer great benefits
upon and will greatly stimulate native art, but I am confident
that the importance of some of the proposed additions and the
convenience of others will at once be seen.

Allow me to thank you for your courtesy in sending us the copy of
the proposed law, and to request the favor of any further matter
which the copyright office may have to issue upon the subject.

Yours, respectfully,

THE PLAYWRIGHTS LEAGUE CLUB,
By EDWIN HOPKINS, _President_.

BRIESEN & KNAUTH, COUNSELORS AT LAW,
_New York, June 8, 1906_.

REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS,
_Library of Congress, Washington, D.C._

SIR: On behalf of a number of clients, who are interested in the
new copyright bill, we respectfully beg to suggest that in order
fully to carry out the broad purpose of the framers of the bill,
the bill should be amended substantially as shown in the
accompanying draft amendment.

The bill as it now stands does not provide for the registration,
by means of one entry, of a great many works of literature or art
which from necessity are printed on detached sheets.