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    Chapter 11—Library Of Congress

    Copyright Records

    Under the Act of 1790, copyrights for books were obtained by, among other conditions, depositing a printed copy of such book “in the clerks office of the District Court where the author or proprietor shall reside.” It was not until the Act of 1870 that “all records and other things relating to copyrights—shall be under the control of the librarian of Congress and kept and preserved in the Library of Congress.” Therefore, any exact information in regard to copyrights from 1790 through 1869 could only be obtained by searching the records of the District Courts of the various states and/or territories, an obviously monumental project. Limited copyright records are available on micro-film at the Library of Congress which have been collected from the various District Courts of the states and territories between 1790 and 1869, and these are available for state-by-state, District Court-by-District Court searching to determine with a “fair” degree of certainty whether a particular item has been copyrighted between 1790 and 1869. A review of the microfilm records at the Library of Congress would constitute an overwhelming task, and since the results would be questionable such was not done (except for the territory of Michigan which surprisingly developed a copyright registration [No. 330] in the name of “Uriah Smith” for “Smith’s Adjustable Weekly Calender” [Feb. 14, 1863]).RRPCI 12.1

    A search was, however, conducted through the General Index at the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress between 1870 and 1897 which lists the works by title and/or author. The search was continued from 1898 through 1937 listing the works only by author or claimant. The search was directed toward essentially determining whether the earlier writings, and particularly those referenced by Walter Rea, were copyrighted or uncopyrighted, and the result of this investigation is as follows with the copyrighted and uncopyrighted works being simply listed hereinbelow under appropriate headings:RRPCI 12.2

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