McLoughlin v. Raphael Tuck Co.
Headline: False U.S. copyright notices on imported picture books are not punished when affixed abroad before 1897; Court affirmed lower courts and blocked penalties for those pre-amendment sales.
Holding: The Court affirmed that the pre-1897 penalty statute does not reach false U.S. copyright notices affixed abroad, and books imported before the 1897 amendment fall under the amendment’s proviso and are not penalized.
- Prevents penalties for books falsely stamped abroad but imported before March 3, 1897.
- Protects importers and sellers of those pre-amendment books from fines under the 1897 law.
- Clarifies that the 1897 amendment applies to acts or importations after its passage.
Summary
Background
A plaintiff brought suit to collect statutory $100 penalties for eighty-three picture books that bore false notices claiming United States copyright. The defendant admitted the books carried untrue U.S. copyright statements that had been affixed in a foreign country at the defendant’s request. It was also shown without dispute that those books were imported into the United States before Congress amended the law on March 3, 1897. Some of the books were sold after that amendment, and the trial court directed a verdict for the defendant; the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Reasoning
The central question was whether the penal law as it stood before the 1897 amendment could reach a false copyright notice that had been placed on an article abroad. The Court explained that the earlier statute had no extraterritorial reach and therefore could not punish an act performed entirely in a foreign country. The 1897 amendment did add prohibitions on importation and sale of falsely stamped articles, but it included a proviso that excluded goods brought into the United States before the amendment’s passage. Applying those rules, the Court concluded the lower courts correctly found no penalty liability in this case, and it affirmed the verdict for the defendant.
Real world impact
People or companies that had foreign-printed books falsely labeled as copyrighted in the United States and that were imported before March 3, 1897, were not subject to the pre-1897 penalty or to the 1897 amendment’s prohibition. The decision leaves unresolved narrow questions about foreign acts that are merely initial steps toward later unlawful conduct in the United States, which the Court declined to decide.
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