Sec. 4952. The author, inventor, designer, or proprietor of any book, map chart, dramatic, or musical composition, engraving, cut, print, or photograph, or negative thereof, or of a painting, drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, and of models or designs intended to be perfected as works of the fine arts, and the executors, administrators, or assigns of any such person shall, upon complying with the provisions of this chapter, have the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, completing, copying, executing, finishing, and vending the same; and, in the the case of dramatic composition, of publicly performing or representing it or causing it to be performed or represented by others; and authors or their assigns shall have the exclusive right to dramatize and translate any of their works for which copyright shall have been obtained under the laws of the United States.

Books rest safely under copyright which show only ordinary skill and diligence in their preparation. The courts will not undertake to assume the functions of critics or to measure carefully the degree of originality or literary training involved.4

4 Henderson vs. Tompkins, 60 Fed. Rep., 758.

There can be no precise rule laid down as a test of originality; a book may be original in the eye of the law when it is not in the eye of the critic.5

A copyright may be taken out in the name of a trustee,6 a corporation,7 or in the name or style under which a person is carrying on business.8

An abridgement of another book,9 an article forming part of an encyclopaedia,10 or a single page complete in itself 11 are all proper subjects of copyright. So, also is a photograph of such a character as to be considered as a product of the plaintiff's intellectual invention.12

Legal blanks may be copyrighted,13 and also those parts of annotated state statutes which are the work of the author.14

Some things which have been held incapable of copyright are the following:

An inchoate and intended publication.15

The labor done by judicial officers in the discharge or their judicial duties.16

The laws and public records of a state.17

A particular method of making maps,18 or a particular plan for gathering information.19

The title as distinct from the work which it is used to designate.20

5 Boucicault vs. Fox, 5 Blatcf.

(U. S.), 87. 6 Hanson vs. Jaccard Jeneby Co.,

32 Fed. Rep., 202.

7 Mutual Advertising Co. vs. Refo,

76 Fed. Rep., 961.

8 Scribner vs. Henry G. Allen Co.,

49 Fed. Rep., 854.

9 Story vs. Holcombe, 4 McLean,

306.

10 Black vs. Henry G. Allen Co.,

49 Fed. Rep., 618. 11 Scovilel vs. Toland, 6 West. L. J.,

84 Fed. Cas. No. 12,553. 12 Burrow-Giles Lith. Co. vs. Sarocy

I11 U. S., 53.

13 Brightley vs. Littleton, 37 Fed.

Rep., 103.

14 Howell vs. Miller, 91 Fed. Rep.,

129.

15 Centennial Catalogue Co. vs.

Porter, 3 Cent. L. J., 460, 5 Fed. Cas. No. 2,546. 16 Banks vs. Manchester, 128 U S., 244.

17 Davidson vs. Wheelock, 27 Fed.

Rep., 61.

18 Perris vs. Hexamer, 99 U. S., 674.

19 Burnell vs. Chawn, 69 Fed. Rep.,

993. 20 Donnelly vs. Ivers, 18 Fed. Rep., 592.