Dam v. Kirke La Shelle Co.

HAZEL, District Judge.

This suit in equity was brought to restrain the defendant, the Kirke La Shelle Company, from producing or publicly performing the dramatic play or composition entitled “The Heir to the Hoorah.” The bill alleges that the play is an unauthorized dramatization of the published story entitled “The Transmogrification of Dan.”

It is first to be considered herein whether the story was protected by statutory copyright. Complainant’s intestate, who was the author of the story, sold it to the Ess Ess.Publishing Company, which later published the story, with other articles, in its…