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21/4/1903: Edison Wins in Court
Thomas Edison’s fortunes in the motion picture industry took a turn for the better on 21st April 1903, for it was on this date that Judge Joseph Buffington of the US Court of Appeals overturned the decision of Judge Dallas and found in favour of Edison’s method of copyrighting his motion pictures.
Buffington wrote:
‘The instantaneous and continuous operation of the camera is such that the difference between successive pictures is not distinguishable by the eye and is so slight that the casual observer will take a very considerable number of successive pictures of the series, and say they are identical . . . To require each of numerous undistinguishable pictures to be individually copyrighted, as suggested by the court, would in effect be to require copyright of many pictures to protect a single one.
'When Congress in recognition of the photographic art saw fit in 1865 to amend the Act of 1831 (13 Stat 540), and extend copyright protection to a photograph or negative, it is not to be presumed it thought such art could not progress and that no protection was to be afforded such progress. It must have recognized there would be change and advance in making photographs just as there have been in making books, printing chromos and other subjects of copyright protection.’
Howard Hayes, Edison’s lawyer for the case, quickly arranged for an organised procedure for the copyrighting of films, and the safe storage of such copyrights for immediate retrieval when required, to be put in place. Copyright files were subsequently filed at Edison’s labs in West Orange. [ADD]
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