Proclamations

Proclamation 2993--Copyright-Principality of Monaco

Source: The provisions of Proclamation 2993 of Oct. 15, 1952, appear at 17 FR 9159, 3 CFR, 1949-1953 Comp., p. 170, unless otherwise noted.

WHEREAS section 9 of title 17 of the United States Code, entitled "Copyrights", as codified and enacted into positive law by the act of Congress approved July 30, 1947, 61 Stat. 652, provides in part that the copyright secured by said title shall extend to the work of an author or proprietor who is a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation only:
"(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 title 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 section 1 of the said title 17 provides in part as follows:
"Any person entitled thereto, upon complying with the provisions of this title, shall have the exclusive right:
"(e) To perform the copyrighted work publicly for profit if it be a musical composition; * * * Provided, That the provisions of this title, 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 July 1, 1909, 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 section 9 of the said title 17 further provides that "The existence of the reciprocal conditions aforesaid shall be determined by the President of the United States, by proclamation made from time to time as the purposes of this title may require * * *"; and

WHEREAS a Sovereign Ordinance has been issued this day by His Serene Highness the Prince of Monaco whereby citizens of the United States as of this day are entitled to obtain copyright protection in the Principality of Monaco for all their artistic and literary works on substantially the same basis as nationals of Monaco, including rights similar to those provided by section 1 (e) of the said title 17.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United States of America, do declare and proclaim:
That as of this day the conditions specified in sections 9 (b) and 1 (e) of title 17 of the United States Code exist and are fulfilled with respect to nationals of the Principality of Monaco, and that nationals of the Principality of Monaco as of this day are entitled to all the benefits of the said title 17 except those conferred by the provisions embodied in the second paragraph of section 9 (b) thereof regarding the extension of time for fulfilling copyright conditions and formalities.
Provided, that the enjoyment by any work of the rights and benefits conferred by the said title 17 shall be conditioned 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 said title 17, so far as they secure copyright controlling parts of instruments serving to reproduce mechanically the musical work, shall apply only to compositions published on or after this day, and registered for copyright in the United States which have not been reproduced within the United States prior to this day 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 fifteenth day of October in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-two and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-seventh.