Farmer v. Elstner

33 F. 494, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2238
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Michigan
DecidedJanuary 9, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 33 F. 494 (Farmer v. Elstner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farmer v. Elstner, 33 F. 494, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2238 (circtedmi 1888).

Opinion

Brown, J.

We have felt considerable difficulty in reaching a satisfactory conclusion in this case, from the fact that the piracies, though numerous, are not extensive; and from the further fact that defendant’s pamphlet was evidently not intended to supersede, or in any way interfere with the sale of, the elaborate and instructive work of the plaintiff. Where defendant’s publication is designed to rival or compete with the plaintiff’s in the market, courts are astute to protect the technical rights of the plaintiff to his composition, and will even enjoin an imitation of his general plan and arrangement, though there be no plagiarism of sentences or ideas. Where defendant has been guilty of a complete or substantial reprint of plaintiff’s work, no difficulty is encountered in granting an injunction; but where the alleged violation consists in excerpts from the plaintiff, the court is bound to consider not only the quantity and quality of the matter appropriated, but the intention with which such appropriation is made, the extent to which the plaintiff is injured by it, and the damage to the defendant by an injunction.

With reference to the quantity and, quality taken, of course no general rule can be laid down, applicable to all cases. One writer might take all the vital part of another’s book, though it might be but a small portion of the book in quantity. In many valuable books, particularly of a scientific character, the leading ideas of the author may be very tew in number, the greater part of the work being devoted either to the illustration or amplification of these ideas, or to the reproduction of the ideas of other authors upon the same subject. The person who could seize [496]*496these leading ideas, or, to use an expression attributed to Macaulay, who “could tear the heart out of the book,” though it involved the republication of only a single paragraph, might do the author substantial damage, while another might republish pages without imparting the same information! It is not only quantity, but value and quality, that are to be regarded in determining the question of piracy. Bramwell v. Halcomb, 3 Mylne & C. 738. It must appear,” said Vice-Chancellor Siiadwell, “where a complaint is made to this court, that the piracy has either been of what is called a large part or of a material part.” Drone, Copyr. 524.

Regarding the intent with which the appropriation is made, it is obvious that the use of a certain amount of an author’s production may be perfectly fair and legitimate in one case, while the use of a similar amount in another case might be unlawful. Thus, great liberty is exercised in permitting a reviewer to make extracts for the purposes of criticism, so long as such extracts are not made as a cover for a republication, or for the purpose of superseding the original work. Indeed, such quotations in the form of criticisms are frequently of great value to the author himself, and may actually increase the sale of his book. Other instances may be imagined, especially in the publication of legal and scientific works, where it would be almost impossible for a subsequent author to properly state the existing state of the science, without making quotations from preceding works. On the other hand, if the selections are made animo furandi, with intent to make use of them for the same purpose for which the original author used them, to convey in a different publication the information which he imparted, or to supplant him in his own territory, a small quantity will suffice to render the defendant liable to a charge of piracy. Thus, in Campbell v. Scott, 11 Sim. 31, the defendant published a work containing an original essay on Modern English Poetry, including biographical sketches of 43 modern poets, and selections from their poems, among which were six short poems, and parts of longer poems, the copyright whereof belonged to plaintiff. The selections constituted altogether the bulk of the defendant’s work, but were alleged to have been introduced into it for the purpose of illustrating the essay. The court restrained the publication of the work as being an infringement of the plaintiff’s copyright. The case of Bradbury v. Hotten, L. R. 8 Exch. 1, was an action at law by the proprietors of Punch against the defendant for reproducing nine cartoons of Napoleon III. published in Punch between 1849 and 1867, with descriptive writing underneath them. It was held by the court that a substantial part of the plaintiff’s book or sheets of letterpress had been appropriated, and that he was entitled to recover. The jury, however, awarded but forty shillings damages.

In the case under consideration the defendant has made numerous, but not very lengthy, excerpts from plaintiff’s book. These excerpts, however, are from the most valuable part of-his work, and contain lacts which had never before been published and which were obtained from original sources, at very considerable labor and expense. On nearly one-tbird [497]*497of the first 70 pages of defendant’s book there are evidences of republication from plaintiff’s. On the first 11 pages in particular it appears very clearly that a considerable part of the information contained was taken from it; without any credit to him. On page 9 it is said that “Champlain heard of the strait from Indians in 1603.” The same page also contains statements as to Joliet and La Salle, as well as a statement regarding mounds as “evidently of Aztec origin,” all taken from plaintiff’s book. On page 10 is the following statement: “Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillae was born March 5, 1658, at St. Nicholas de la Grave, in the department of Tarn and Garonne in France. He received a liberal education, was a lieutenant in the French army when he arrived in the new world, and was married at Quebec June 25, 1687, to Marie Terése Guy on. ” These are specimens of i he extracts made by the defendants from, plaintiff’s work to the number of about a hundred. There is no pretense that the compiler of this publication resorted to the original sources himself for this information, nor that he procured it from any other source than the plaintiff’s book. Had he extended to this book the common courtesy of an acknowledgment, we should have looked upon his appropriation with much more favor than we are disposed to at present. As the case stands, the animus jurandi is entirely clear.

The chief difficulty we have met with in this case is the absence of testimony showing that plaintiff has been, or is likely to be, injured by defendants’publication; and as it was not intended as a competing work in any sense of the term, it is doubtful in my mind whether its circulation would prevent the sale of a single copy of plaintiff’s book. This book is an elaborate work upon the history, government, architecture, and present condition of the city. Defendants’ pamphlet is a mere advertisement of its industries, prefaced by an historical sketch, which alone contains the pirated matter. Some of the facts taken from the plaintiff’s book have never before been published, and were gathered by plaintiff from the original sources; but apparently that is not true of all of them. Many of these facts are matters within the common knowledge of those who are acquainted with the history of this city and state, and were taken by the plaintiff himself from prior works, or from sources equally accessible to the defendants. Such facts the defendants would have a right to republish without the plaintiff’s assent, or without giving him credit for them.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 F. 494, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farmer-v-elstner-circtedmi-1888.