American Vitagraph, Inc. A Corporation, Lloyd v. Friedgen, Jr., and William J. Gleason v. Ronald R. Levy, M.D. And Cinamco, Inc., a Corporation

ELY, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from a declaratory judgment action, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201, 2202, involving copyright questions under the 1909 Copyright Act, as amended, 1 17 U.S.C. §§ 10, 26. Jurisdiction rests under 28 U.S.C. § 1338(a), giving federal courts original jurisdiction of civil actions arising under an Act of Congress relating to copyrights.

This appeal raises important questions concerning what constitutes “publication” of a motion picture under the 1909 Act. Plaintiff-appellee Vitagraph 2 successfully contended below that copyright protection to the film “Hooray for Hollywood”…