Proclamation 2079—Copyright-Free City of Danzig

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas it is provided by the act of Congress approved March 4, 1909 (ch. 320, 35 Stat. 1075-1088), 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 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) 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 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 evidence has been received that in the Free City of Danzig the law permits and from the date of this proclamation will grant to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to citizens of the Free City of Danzig; and

Whereas satisfactory official assurance has been given that in the Free City of Danzig the law now permits to citizens of the United States similar rights to those accorded in section l(e) of the act of March 4, 1909:

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do declare and proclaim:

That on and after April 7, 1934 the conditions specified in section 8(b) and 1(e) of the act of March 4, 1909, will exist and be fulfilled in respect of the citizens of the Free City of Danzig and that on and after April 7, 1934 citizens of the Free City of Danzig shall be entitled to all the benefits of this act and acts amendatory thereof:

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 conditional 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, insofar as they secure copyright controlling 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 April 7, 1934 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 of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 7" day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and thirty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fifty-eighth.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

By the President:
CORDELL HULL
Secretary of State.