A copyright is "the exclusive privilege, secured according to certain legal forms, of printing, or otherwise multiplying, publishing and vending copies of certain literary or artistic productions." 1

In England a certain common law right of copyright existed at one time, but such common law copyright was never recognized in this country.

The power to issue copyrights was granted to Congress by the same provision of the United States Constitution that gave this body the power to issue patents:

(Congress shall have power) - to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."2

Copyrights as they exist in the United States, thus, depend wholly upon legislation by Congress.3

Copyright law being thus entirely statutory in its origin, it is treated like patents, by giving the portions of the Federal statutes relative to this subject, with such annotations as are considered necessary for an understanding of the text of the statutes.