Thorvald Solberg | |
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1st Register of Copyrights | |
In office July 22, 1897 –April 21, 1930 | |
Preceded by | None |
Succeeded by | William Lincoln Brown |
Personal details | |
Born | April 22, 1852 Manitowoc, Wisconsin |
Died | July 15, 1949 97) Glen Echo, Maryland | (aged
Spouse(s) | Mary Adelaide Nourse |
Residence | Glen Echo, Maryland |
Thorvald Solberg (April 22, 1852 – July 15, 1949) was the first Register of Copyrights (1897–1930) in the United States Copyright Office. He was a noted authority on copyright and played an instrumental role in shaping the Copyright Act of 1909.
Thorvald Solberg was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He was the eldest of six children born of immigrant Norwegian parents. Solberg attended public schools, working for booksellers after graduation in Manitowoc, Boston, Detroit, Knoxville, and Omaha.
On May 1, 1876, Solberg began working in the Library of Congress as a cataloguer. In 1876, he became part of the Library's law department staff, despite not being a lawyer. While there, he played an active role in the direction and control of the Library's copyright registration and deposit functions. He remained in that position until he left the Library altogether in 1889 to work for the Boston Book Company.
In 1897, Congress created the United States Copyright Office as a separate department of the Library of Congress to handle the administrative functions of copyright law. Solberg was widely supported to become the first head of the Office due to his growing reputation as a national authority on copyright (and due to some lobbying on his own part for the post). [1] After being interviewed by President William McKinley, Solberg was appointed by Librarian of Congress John Russell Young and took office as the first Register of Copyrights on July 22, 1897, with an annual salary of $3000 and a staff of 29 clerks. [2]
During his tenure as Register, Solberg played an active role in advancing United States copyright law. He advocated copyright reform and was instrumental in the passage of the Copyright Act of 1909, one of the most significant revisions in United States copyright law. He was known as a champion for the rights of authors and supported relaxing the registration and deposit requirements of copyright law, [3] consistent with the shift away from copyright formalities in the Berne Convention. Solberg also pushed for the United States to join the Berne Convention.
Thorvald Solberg retired as Register on April 21, 1930, his 78th birthday. He remains the longest-serving Register of Copyrights.
Thorvald Solberg was married to Mary Adelaide Nourse of Lynn, Massachusetts. He resided on Capitol Hill when he began his stint as Register of Copyrights. In 1914, Solberg moved to Glen Echo, Maryland, where he resided until his death. Solberg was a prolific writer, and he compiled several bibliographies and compilations of United States and foreign copyright laws.
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
The United States Copyright Office, a part of the Library of Congress, is the official U.S. government body that maintains records of copyright registration in the United States including a Copyright Catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are attempting to clear a chain of title for copyrighted works.
The Copyright Act of 1790 was the first federal copyright act to be instituted in the United States, though most of the states had passed various legislation securing copyrights in the years immediately following the Revolutionary War. The stated object of the act was the "encouragement of learning," and it achieved this by securing authors the "sole right and liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing and vending" the copies of their "maps, charts, and books" for a term of 14 years, with the right to renew for one additional 14-year term should the copyright holder still be alive.
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The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a copy of the work from an official government source.
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Solberg is a surname of Norwegian origin, and may refer to:
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
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Thorvald is from the Old Norse name Þórvaldr, which means "Thor's ruler". Despite this pagan origin, the name survived the conversion of Scandinavians to Christianity and remains popular up to the present.
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Barbara Ringer was one of the lead architects of the 1976 Copyright Act. She spent much of her career lobbying Congress and drafting legislation that overhauled the 1909 Copyright Act. Ringer was also the first woman to serve as the Register of Copyrights in the United States Copyright Office. During her three decades with the United States Copyright Office, Ringer gained a reputation as an authority on copyright law.
Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired.
The Copyright Act of 1831 was the first major revision to the U.S. Copyright Law. The bill is largely the result of lobbying efforts by American lexicographer Noah Webster.
The Copyright Act of 1870, also called the Patent Act of 1870 and the Trade Mark Act of 1870, was a revision to United States intellectual property law, covering copyrights and patents. Eight sections of the bill, sometimes called the Trade Mark Act of 1870, introduced trademarks to United States federal law, although that portion was later deemed unconstitutional after the Trade-Mark Cases.
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Preceded by New position | Register of Copyrights 1897–1930 | Succeeded by William Lincoln Brown |