Purpose: To Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting Copyrights
Date: November 22, 1924
(Original document available here)
WHEREAS, it is provided by the Act of Congress approved March 4, 1909, entitled “An Act to Amend and Consolidate the Acts Respecting, Copyright”, that the copyright secured by the Act, except the benefits under Section 1 (e) thereof as to which special conditions are imposed, shall extend to the work of an author or proprietor who is a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation, only upon certain conditions set forth in Section 8 of the said Act, to wit :
(a) When an alien author or proprietor shall be domiciled within the United States at the time of the first publication of his work; or
(b) When the foreign state or nation of which such author or proprietor is a citizen or subject grants, either by treaty, convention, agreement, or law, to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to its own citizens, or copyright protection substantially equal to the protection secured to such foreign author under this Act or by treaty; or when such foreign state or nation is a party to an international agreement which provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright, by the terms of which agreement the United States may, at its pleasure, become a party thereto:
AND WHEREAS, it is provided by Section 1 (e) of the said Act of Congress, approved March 4, 1909, that the provisions of the Act “so far as they secure copyright controlling the parts of instruments serving to reproduce mechanically the musical work, shall include only compositions published and copyrighted after this Act goes into effect, and shall not include the works of a foreign author or composer unless the foreign state or nation of which such author or composer is a citizen or subject grants, either by treaty, convention, agreement or law, to citizens of the United States similar rights”;
AND WHEREAS, the President is authorized by the said Section 8 to determine by proclamation made from time to time the existence of the reciprocal conditions aforesaid, as the purposes of the Act may require:
AND WHEREAS, satisfactory official assurances have been received that the Swiss Federal Council has issued a decree dated September 26, 1924, declaring that citizens of the United States may obtain and since July 1, 1923, have been entitled to obtain copyright for their works in Switzerland which is substantially equal to the protection afforded by the copyright laws of the United States, including rights similar to those provided by Section 1 (e) of the Copyright Act of the United States, approved March 4, 1909.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States of America, do declare and proclaim
That on and after July 1, 1923, the conditions specified in Sections 8 (b) and 1 (e) of the Act of March 4, 1909, existed and were fulfilled in respect to the citizens of Switzerland and that citizens of Switzerland are and since July 1, 1923, have been entitled to all the benefits of the Act of March 4, 1909, including Section 1 (e) thereof and the Acts amendatory of the said Act.
PROVIDED that the enjoyment by any work of the rights and benefits conferred by the Act of March 4, 1909, and the Acts amendatory thereof, shall be conditioned upon compliance with the requirements and formalities prescribed with respect to such works by the copyright laws of the United States.
AND PROVIDED FURTHER that the provisions of Section 1 (e) of the Act of March 4, 1909, in so far as they secure copyright controlling the parts of instruments serving to reproduce mechanically musical works shall apply only to compositions published after July 1, 1909, and registered for copyright in the United States which have not been reproduced within the United States prior to November 22, 1924, on any contrivance by means of which the work may be mechanically performed.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
DONE at the city of Washington this twenty-second day of November in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-ninth.
Citation: The Statutes at Large of the United States of America from December, 1923 to March, 1925
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Robert Manchester, who prepared this document for digital publication.