The Law of Dramatic Copyright

Literary Property at Common Law.--There have been few legal questions so generally and so fully discussed-as that relating to the property of authors in their. writings. Up to 1769, it was generally conceded that authors enjoyed, by virtue of the common law, a perpetual copyright, and copyrights were sold and made the basis of family settlements. In 1769, the great case of Millar v. Taylor, was decided. An action had been brought in 1766 to recover ior the piracy of "Thomson's Seasons," and it was held by a majority of the judges, Lord Mansfield, Mr. Justice Aston and Mr. Justice Willes, Mr. Justice Yates dissenting, that perpetual copyright existed at common law, that the common law right existed after publication, and was not taken away or limited by the statute.

A writ of error was afterwards brought, but the plaintiff in error, after assigning errors, suffered himself to be nolprossed, and the Lords Commissioners, at the Trinity term, 1770, granted an injunction. The case of Donaldson v. Beckel, came before the House of Lords upon an appeal from a decree of the Court of Chancery, founded upon the judgment in Millar v. Taylor.