§ 370. To secure the exclusive right to print and sell any book, map, or chart, the author or proprietor is required to deposit a printed title thereof in the clerk's office of the district court of the district in which the author or proprietor resides. The clerk records the title in a book kept for that purpose, and gives to the author, under the seal of the court, a copy of the record; for which record the clerk is entitled to fifty cents, and the like sum for every copy, under seal, given to the author or proprietor, or his assigns. The clerk is required to transmit, every year, to the secretary of state of the United States, a list of all copy rights deposited in his office.

He

§371. The author or proprietor must, within three months after the publication of the book, map, or chart, deliver a copy of the same to the clerk of the district court. must also cause to be printed on the title page, or page im. mediately following, of every copy of the said book, if it be a book, or if it be a map or chart, on the face thereof, the following words: "Entered according to act of congress, " in the year in the clerk's office of the "the district court of

by

§ 372. At the expiration of the term for which a copy right shall have been secured, which is in all cases twentyeight years, such right shall be continued for the farther term of fourteen years, provided the title of the work be again recorded, and all other regulations with regard to original copy rights be complied with, within six months before the expiration of the first term. And the author or proprietor must, within two months after the renewal, cause a copy of the record to be published in one or more news. papers printed in the United States, for the space of four weeks.

§ 373. If any other person, after the title of a book, map, chart, or engraving shall have been duly recorded and pub. lished, shall cause the same to be printed or published, without the consent of the author in writing, signed in the presence of two or more witnesses, the offender shall forfeit

371. Describe the manner of obtaining copy rights for books, maps, and charts. § 372. For how long a term are copy rights granted? How, and for what term renewed? § 373. What is the penalty for

every copy of the same to the author or proprietor; and he shall farther forfeit, if it be a book, fifty cents, or if it be a map, chart, or engraving, one dollar, for every sheet found in his possession, or printed, or exposed to sale; one half thereof to the proprietor who shall sue for the same, and the other half to the United States. Any person who shall print or publish the manuscript of an author or proprietor, without his consent, as before mentioned, shall be liable to the author for all damages sustained by the injury.

§ 374. If any person printing or publishing a book, shall print therein that the same has been entered according to act of congress, without having legally acquired a copy right, he shall forfeit one hundred dollars.

375. Patents and copy rights may be assigned and transferred to others; and the assignees have all the rights secured to the original parties. But every grant and conveyance of a right to an invention, must be recorded in the patent office, within three months from the execution thereof; for which the commissioner shall receive three dollars. Assignments of copy rights must be recorded in the offices whence they were issued. Rights may be obtained by the heirs of inventors who have died before the rights were obtained.

§376. Congress shall have power, "To constitute tri"bunals inferior to the supreme court."-Art. 1, sec. 8, cl. 9.

[For the organization and jurisdiction of these tribunals, see Judicial Department. The clause is inserted here merely to exhibit the several clauses of this section of the constitution in unbroken order.]

a violation of the law? § 375. How may rights be assigned and transferred?

CHAPTER XV.

Piracies, Felonies, and Offences against the Law of Nations.

§ 377. CONGRESS shall have power, "To define and "punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, "and offences against the law of nations.”—Art. 1, sec. 8. cl. 10.

$378. Our citizens are recognized, by foreign nations, as citizens of the United States, and not as citizens of the states, and consequently, as the general government, and not a state, is responsible to foreign nations for injuries committed on the high seas, by any citizen of the United States, this power is granted to congress. Besides, no single state is able to protect its commerce.

§379. The power to define felonies is especially requisite in the national government. The term felony was not exactly defined by the common and statute laws of England; and its meaning was various in the different states. It was sometimes applied to capital offences; at others to such as were by the common law punished by forfeiture of goods and lands. For the sake of uniformity, therefore, the power to define as well as punish offences on the seas, was given to congress.

§ 380. Piracy is the crime of robbery and depredation committed upon the high seas. As it is an offence against the law of nations, every nation has a right to attack and exterminate pirates, without any declaration of war. High seas, under the statute, comprehends an open roadstead, though vessels lie in it under the shelter of the land, at a season when the course of the wind is invariable; and also any waters on the sea coast, without the boundaries of low water mark, though such waters are in a roadstead or bay, within the jurisdictional limits of a foreign government.

§ 381. By the laws of the United States, if a person

§377, 378. Why ought congress to have the power to punish these offences? § 379. Why is the power to define felony necessary? What is felony? § 380. What is piracy? What is meant by high seas? 381. What offences on the sea are piracy? § 382, 383.

commit, upon the high seas, out of the jurisdiction of a state, murder or robbery, or any other offence which, if committed in the body of a county, would, by the laws of the United States, be punishable with death, he shall be ad. judged a pirate and felon, and punished with death. And if a captain or mariner of any vessel feloniously run away with the vessel, or any goods or merchandize to the value of fifty dollars, or shall yield up a vessel voluntarily to pirates; or if a seaman lay violent hands upon his commander, to prevent him from defending the ship or goods committed to his trust, or make a revolt in the ship; every such offender shall be adjudged a pirate and felon, and suffer death.

§ 382. The African slave trade, which was tolerated for many years after the constitution was adopted, was, in 1820, declared piracy. The transportation of slaves from the United States, by citizens thereof, to any foreign country, was prohibited by acts of 1794 and 1800. But as the im. portation of slaves was allowed by the constitution until 1808, no law against their importation could be passed to take effect before that time.

§ 383. A law was enacted in 1807, making it unlawful, under severe penalties, to import slaves into the United States. And laws were from time to time enacted, for the effectual suppression of the trade. By the law of 1820, it was provided, that, if any person whatever, being of the crew of any vessel armed or navigated for or on behalf of a citizen of the United States, or owned in whole or in part by a citizen of the United States, shall land on a foreign shore, and seize a negro or mulatto, with intent to make him a slave, or shall decoy or forcibly bring such negro on board such vessel, he shall be adjudged a pirate, and suffer death.

§ 384. If a person upon the high seas shall murder, or otherwise so injure any other person that he shall afterwards die upon the land, the offender shall be punishable with death. If a person shall wilfully destroy, or aid in destroy. ing, a vessel of war of the United States on the high seas;

What are the laws respecting the slave trade? § 384. What crimes

or if, being the owner of a vessel, he shall corruptly cast away, or aid in destroying the same, with a design to prejudice any person that has underwritten a policy of insurance, he shall suffer death. For maliciously attacking a vessel with intent to plunder the same, the offender shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding ten years, Numerous other crimes on the high seas are punishable by fine and imprisonment, in proportion to the aggravation of the offence.

§ 385. If a person, within a fort, arsenal, navy yard, or magazine, shall burn a dwelling house, store, barn, or other building, he shall be punishable with death. Sundry other crimes, if committed within any territory under jurisdiction of the general government, are punishable with fine and imprisonment.

§ 386. Offences against the law of nations are, besides piracy, violations of safe conducts or passports, and infringe. ments of the rights of ambassadors and other foreign ministers. A safe conduct contains a pledge of the public faith, that it shall be duly respected; and the observance of this duty is essential to the character of the government that grants it. An ambassador cannot be made answerable in a court of justice. If he commit an offence, he must be sent home to be punished by the laws of his own country.

§ 387. The statute law of the United States provides, in furthering the general sanction of the public law, that persons who violate passports shall be imprisoned, not exceed. ing three years, and fined at the discretion of the court. The like punishment is inflicted upon persons who infringe the law of nations, by offering violence to public ministers, by being concerned in prosecuting or arresting them. This is an offence highly injurious to the free and liberal intercourse between different governments, and may prove mischievous in its consequences to a nation, as it tends to provoke the sovereign whom the minister represents, and to bring upon the country the calamity of war.

on the high seas are punished by fine and imprisonment? § 385. What crimes on land are punishable by death? § 386. What are offences against the law of nations? What is a safe conduct? How are ambassadors punished? § 387. What is the penalty for violating passports, and offering violence to public ministers ?