punctured in the paper by the act of
writing. For copying plans and drawings, engineers, architects, &c., use
a "blue print" process which depends on the action of light on certain
salts of iron (see SUN-COPYING and PHOTOGRAPHY).

COPYRIGHT, in law, the right, belonging exclusively to the author or his
assignees, of multiplying for sale copies of an original work or
composition, in literature or art. As a recognized form of property it
is, compared with others, of recent origin, being in fact, in the use of
literary works, mainly the result of the facility for multiplying copies
created by the discovery of printing. It is with copyright in literary
compositions that we are here primarily concerned, as it was established
first, the analogous right as regards works of plastic art, &c.,
following in its train.

1. Whether copyright was recognized at all by the common law of England
was long a much debated legal question. Blackstone thinks that "this
species of property, being grounded on labour and invention, is more
properly reducible to the head of occupancy than any other, since the
right of occupancy itself is supposed by Mr Locke and many others to be
founded on the personal labour of the occupant." But he speaks
doubtfully of its existence--merely mentioning the opposing views, "that
on the one hand it hath been thought no other man can have a right to
exhibit the author's work without his consent, and that it is urged on
the other hand that the right is of too subtle and unsubstantial a
nature to become the subject of property at the common law, and only
capable of being guarded by positive statutes and special provisions of
the magistrate." He notices that the Roman law adjudged that if one man
wrote anything on the paper or parchment of another, the writing should
belong to the owner of the blank materials, but as to any other property
in the works of the understanding the law is silent, and he adds that
"neither with us in England hath there been (till very lately) any final
determination upon the rights of authors at the common law." The common
law undoubtedly gives a right to restrain the publication of
_unpublished_ compositions; but when a work is once published, its
protection depends on the statutes regulating copyright. The leading
case on the subject of unpublished works is _Prince Albert_ v. _Strange_
(1849), 2 De G. & Sm. 652. Copies of etchings by Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert, which had bee