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 THE 
 
 QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT 
 
 COMPRISING THE TEXT OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF 
 THE UNITED STATES, A SUMMARY OF THE COPY- 
 RIGHT LAWS AT PRESENT IN FORCE IN 
 THE CHIEF COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 A REPORT OF THE LEGISLATION NOW TENDING IN GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE CONTEST IN THE UNITED STATES, 1837-189I, 
 
 IN BEHALF OF INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT, AND CERTAIN 
 
 PAPERS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTION 
 
 OF LITERARY PROPERTY, AND ON THE RESULTS 
 
 OF THE AMERICAN ACT OF 1 89 1 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, A.M. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, REVISED, AND WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK LONDON 
 
 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 
 
 %\t Imidurbocker |jrrss 
 1896
 
 ItU ° 
 
 Copyright, 1891 
 
 BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 Copyright, 1896 
 
 BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
 
 "Ebe •fcnicfterbocfeer press, 1Rew tRocbelle, 1ft. JtJ.
 
 I? 
 
 \ 
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The original edition of this volume was prepared 
 for the press very hurriedly, immediately after the 
 passage of the Act of 1891, for the purpose of putting 
 into shape, for convenient reference, the text of the 
 new law, with an analysis of its provisions, and of 
 presenting with this a brief record of the inter- 
 national copyright movement in this country, and 
 a sketch of the development throughout the world 
 of the conception of literary property. Five years 
 have passed since the United States, through this 
 law of 1 89 1, adopted the policy which had for a 
 number of years been accepted by nearly all the 
 other literature-producing states of the world, a 
 policy which assumed that the producers of intellec- 
 tual property were entitled to the protection given 
 by law to all other producers, and to the enjoy- 
 ment of the fruits of their labors, irrespective of 
 political boundaries. The American recognition of 
 this principle was coupled with certain conditions 
 which, while they had no logical connection with 
 authors' rights, were believed, by the political party 
 that in 1891 controlled the national policy, to be 
 called for by the exceptional industrial conditions of 
 our country.
 
 IV PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 It was, on the other hand, the opinion of those 
 who, in 1 89 1, were carrying on the contest (begun 
 nearly half a century before) in behalf of the rights 
 of authors, American as well as foreign, and of 
 what they held to be the honor of the nation, that 
 these hampering conditions and restrictions would 
 doubtless be removed in a few years' time. There 
 is as yet, it must be admitted, no progress to be 
 recorded in this direction, and it is evident that the 
 date when the United States is to come into full lit- 
 erary fellowship with other civilized states by accept- 
 ing the unrestricted copyright of the Convention of 
 Berne, is to be postponed beyond the original expec- 
 tation. Such an advance to a logical and civilized 
 policy in regard to literary property must, however, 
 certainly be secured in the not very remote future, 
 and in any case the most difficult step forward was 
 taken when we expressed our willingness to acknow- 
 ledge, even with illogical conditions, the property 
 rights of aliens, and in so doing, were able to secure 
 recognition on the other side of the Atlantic (and on 
 much more favorable terms) for the similar rights of 
 Americans. 
 
 I have presented in a later chapter my impressions 
 concerning the general results of the legislation of 
 1 891, and in regard to its effects upon the interests 
 of both the readers and the producers of books. It 
 is in order to admit that the Act has on the whole 
 worked with less friction and with less considerable 
 difficulty than had been anticipated by those who 
 were responsible for its provisions as first drafted, 
 and who were in a position to realize how seriously
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. V 
 
 the purpose and the consistency of character of the 
 measure had been imperilled by certain hastily con- 
 sidered " amendments " crowded into the bill, during 
 the last days of the contest, by both the friends and 
 opponents of copyright. 
 
 A summary of the copyright cases which have 
 been brought before the courts since July, 1891, and 
 the issues of which have turned upon the inter- 
 national provisions of the law that went into effect, 
 is given in one of the following chapters. The list is 
 not a considerable one, and the Act has thus far not 
 only withstood the various attacks made upon its 
 general purpose, but has received, in the details thus 
 far tested, the substantial support of the courts. 
 Certain suits which are at this date (January, 1896) 
 still pending, will probably be more important than 
 those already decided, in determining the purport of 
 its several provisions. 
 
 I have given the record of the Covert amendment, 
 which was adopted in 1895, and which is the only 
 change that has been made in the law since March, 
 1891. This amendment secured a correction that 
 was very justly called for by the newspaper publish- 
 ers, who, under the original Act, had been exposed to 
 oppressive penalties (amounting sometimes to black- 
 mail) in connection with the reproduction of photo- 
 graphs and of popular art designs. I have also noted 
 the attempt made under the Hicks bill, of the same 
 year, which was very properly defeated, to undermine 
 the protection given by the Act to European artists. 
 
 The most serious and most legitimate criticisms of 
 the law have come from the authors of France, Ger-
 
 VI PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 many, and Italy, who have found that, under the 
 requirements of American manufacture and of simul- 
 taneous publication, the difficulties were almost in- 
 superable in the way of securing American copyright 
 for books which required to be translated before 
 they were available for American readers. In Ger- 
 many, the disappointment and annoyance at what 
 are held to be the inequitable restrictions of the 
 American statute have been so considerable that 
 steps have been taken, on the part of the authors 
 and publishers, to secure the abrogation of the con- 
 vention entered into in 1893 between Germany and 
 the United States. The defenders of the convention 
 have thus far succeeded in preventing it from being 
 set aside, but they do not feel at all assured that they 
 will be able to maintain it for an indefinite period 
 unless some indications may come from this side of 
 the Atlantic that we look forward to removing the 
 special difficulties complained of. The disappoint- 
 ment and the criticism on the part of the authors of 
 France are hardly less bitter, and I understand that 
 it is only the fact that certain substantial advantages 
 are secured under the law to foreign artists and de- 
 signers, and the expectation that our people can not 
 long remain satisfied, while granting literary copy- 
 right in form to refuse it in fact, that prevent organ- 
 ized attacks, not only in Paris, but in Rome, upon 
 the present international arrangement. These com- 
 plaints impress me as well founded, and they give 
 ground for a feeling of mortification on the part of 
 Americans who have at heart the reputation of their 
 country for good faith and for fair dealing.
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Vll 
 
 The several points to be kept in view in connec- 
 tion with future modifications of our copyright Act 
 are in my judgment as follows : 
 
 First. The extension of the term of copyright, 
 with a view to securing for the producers of intellec- 
 tual property the control of their productions during 
 their own lifetime and of preserving for their heirs 
 the enjoyment of the results from these productions 
 during a reasonable term after the death of the pro- 
 ducer. Under the present conditions, it is quite 
 possible for an author to be exposed, during his own 
 lifetime, to the competition of unauthorized editions 
 of his earlier works. In connection with such unau- 
 thorized editions, he has not only the annoyance of 
 the interference with the sales of the editions issued 
 by his own publishers, but (what may often constitute 
 a more serious grievance) the mortification of seeing 
 reproduced crude youthful productions which he had 
 intended to cancel, or unrevised and incomplete ver- 
 sions of compositions to which in later years he had 
 given a final literary form. 
 
 Such an extension of term is required to secure 
 for an author the privilege that is under our laws 
 conceded to all other workers or producers, of being 
 able to labor for the advantage of his children and 
 grandchildren. The justice of such larger measure 
 of protection for literary property and of encourage- 
 ment for literary workers has been fully recognized 
 by every country in Europe excepting Great Britain, 
 and the British law is much more liberal to the rights 
 of authors than is our own. The British Act will 
 itself also doubtless in the near future be modified
 
 viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 in accordance with the bill now pending, so that the 
 term of copyright will be extended to correspond 
 with that of Germany, which covers the life of the 
 author and thirty years thereafter. 
 
 Second. Steps should be taken as promptly as 
 practicable to remove the special grievance now ex- 
 isting on the part of European authors whose works 
 require to be translated. France, Germany, Italy, 
 and Spain have extended to American authors the 
 privileges possessed by their native writers, while the 
 United States has given to the authors of these 
 countries no privileges which are really equivalent. 
 It may not be practicable for a number of years, in 
 connection with the continued approval given by the 
 majority of our citizens to the so-called protective 
 system, to remove from our copyright Act the con- 
 dition of manufacturing within the United States. 
 It will also probably be necessary to retain in the 
 Act, in connection with the manufacturing pro- 
 vision, the condition of simultaneous publication. 
 The Act should, however, provide that an exception 
 to this requirement for simultaneous publication 
 should be made in the case of a work originally 
 issued in a foreign language. Such a work could be 
 registered for copyright in regular course, with a title- 
 page in English, and with two copies of the original 
 text submitted for purposes of identification as pre- 
 liminary deposits ; with the provision that, within a 
 specific term (say twelve months) after the date of 
 such registration, publication be made of an English 
 version, an edition of which should be printed, accord- 
 ing to the manufacturing condition, from " type set
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IX 
 
 within the United States." If, within that date, no 
 edition should be produced, the producers of which 
 had complied with the conditions of the American 
 Act, the right to reproduce the work in English 
 might then fall into the public domain. A pro- 
 vision to such effect, while by no means sufficient to 
 do full justice to European authors, would secure to 
 such of those authors as really had an American 
 reading public awaiting their books, the substantial 
 advantages of American copyright. I do not see 
 any other way in which foreign authors can obtain 
 the benefits intended by the Act as long as the 
 manufacturing condition and the provision for simul- 
 taneous publication are retained. Such a provision 
 would be in line with the arrangements now in force 
 between the European states (under the Berne con- 
 vention) covering the similar requirements for trans- 
 lated works. 
 
 Third. A substantial improvement is called for, 
 in connection with the system for the entry of copy- 
 rights and the registration of titles, and for the 
 preservation for use later in the courts if required, 
 of authoritative evidence that the requirements of 
 the law have been complied with. 
 
 The Acts of 1870 and 1891 make adequate provi- 
 sion for the registration of articles entered for copy- 
 right, the most important of which articles, in 
 connection with the possible necessity of future 
 reference to the registry, being undoubtedly books. 
 It has, however, been found impracticable, with the 
 facilities existing in the office of the Librarian of 
 Congress, as that office is now organized, to give
 
 X PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 adequate and prompt attention to the business con- 
 nected with copyrights. The library business of the 
 Librarian has during the last ten years increased 
 enormously, and the work of supervising effectively 
 the entry of copyrights calls for the establishment 
 of a registry of copyrights which shall not be a 
 division of the Library of Congress, but shall con- 
 stitute an independent Bureau. The producers of 
 books, works of art, music, designs and other articles 
 entitled to copyright, contribute each year in the 
 form of copyright fees a very considerable sum, esti- 
 mated at from $35,000 to $40,000. In addition to 
 this money payment, they are called upon to deposit 
 copies of the articles copyrighted. In the case of 
 books, two copies of which must be deposited for 
 the National Library, the value of the volumes (aggre- 
 gating for 1895 over 10,000) thus delivered by the 
 publishers, constitutes in itself a large annual tax. 
 This tax is paid for the support of an effective 
 system of copyright entry and for the maintenance 
 of a registry for titles which shall always be available 
 for ready reference. 
 
 At the present time the producers and owners of 
 literary property are not securing for this payment 
 adequate consideration. It is therefore a ground for 
 satisfaction that the steps have now been taken to 
 institute such a Bureau of copyrights as is required. 
 In December, 1895, a bill was introduced in the 
 House by Mr. Bankhead, and a second bill with 
 nearly identical provisions was introduced in the 
 Senate by Senator Morrill, under the provisions of 
 which the office of Register of Copyrights is insti-
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xi 
 
 tuted. With this register are to be appointed an 
 assistant register and a clerk. An appropriation of 
 $7500 is to be made to cover the salaries of the 
 three. The register is to be appointed by the 
 President, subject to the approval of the Senate, and 
 the assistant register, under one bill, by the Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, and under the other, by the 
 President. The general purpose of these two bills 
 is to be commended. It is my opinion, however, 
 that a larger appropriation should be made for the 
 salaries and also that the register should have 
 placed in his own hands the appointment of the 
 assistant and the clerk. 
 
 Fourth. A further consideration will be required 
 for the provisions of the Act having to do with 
 property in the right of productions. The case of 
 Werckmeister vs. Pierce and Bushnell, referred to in 
 another chapter, and one or two other similar issues 
 that have arisen, indicate that the wording of the 
 sections providing regulations for the entry of the 
 copyright of works of art is not sufficiently explicit, 
 and that Transatlantic artists may occasionally fail 
 to secure for their productions the protection which 
 it was the purpose of the Act to provide. 
 
 I venture to repeat a suggestion which I have 
 more than once had occasion to put into print, that 
 the framing of a satisfactory copyright Act which 
 shall have for its purpose an equitable and adequate 
 protection for the producers of intellectual property, 
 and which shall be so worded as to carry out that 
 purpose effectively, should be entrusted to a com- 
 mission of experts. Such a commission should
 
 xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 comprise representatives of the several interests to 
 be considered, producers of works of literature, pro- 
 ducers of works of art, publishers of books, and pub- 
 lishers of art works. The commission should also 
 include at least one skilled copyright lawyer, and it 
 may be in order to add some representative of the 
 general public who would have no direct property 
 interest in the results of such a bill as may be framed. 
 All existing copyright systems of the world except- 
 ing that of the United States have been the work of 
 such commissions of experts. The members of these 
 commissions have had authority to summon wit- 
 nesses and to take testimony, and after having de- 
 voted sufficient time to the mastery of the details of 
 a subject which is of necessity complex and which 
 certainly calls for expert training and expert experi- 
 ence, they have presented their conclusions in the 
 form of a report containing the specifications of the 
 legislation recommended. The copyright laws of 
 the States of Europe have, without an exception, 
 been based upon such recommendations. The Gov- 
 ernment of the United States stands alone in having 
 relied for its copyright legislation solely upon the 
 conclusions that could be arrived at by Congres- 
 sional committees. However intelligent the mem- 
 bers of such committees might be, and however 
 conscientious the interest given by these Congress- 
 men, or by some among them, to the subject, experi- 
 ence has shown that it is not practicable to secure 
 wise and trustworthy copyright legislation in this 
 manner. Whenever we may be able to overcome 
 that prejudice which declines to take advantage of
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Xlll 
 
 the experience and the example of the States of 
 Europe in connection with the solution of problems 
 and questions similar to our own, we shall doubtless 
 decide to try the experiment of instituting a com- 
 mission of experts for the reforming of our copyright 
 law. 
 
 G. H. P. 
 
 New York, Febrtiary, 1896.
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 In connection with the recent enactment by Con- 
 gress of a Copyright Law securing American Copy- 
 right for aliens, the subject of the status of literary 
 property and of the rights of the producers of liter- 
 ature in the United States and throughout the 
 world is attracting at this time special attention. 
 I have judged, therefore, that a volume presenting, 
 in convenient form for reference, a summary of the 
 more important of the Copyright Laws and Interna- 
 tional Conventions now in force, and indicating the 
 bearing of these laws on the interests of writers and 
 their readers, might prove of some service to the 
 public. With the summary of existing legislation, 
 I have included a brief abstract of certain measures 
 now under consideration in England, some one of 
 which is likely, before long, to replace the present 
 British law. 
 
 The compilation lays no claim to completeness, 
 but is planned simply as a selection of the more im- 
 portant and pertinent of the recent enactments and 
 of some of the comments upon them. 
 
 I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Brander 
 Matthews for the permission to include in the vol- 
 ume his valuable papers on "The Evolution of 
 Copyright," and " Copyright and Prices "—papers 
 which were prepared for use in the copyright cam-
 
 XVI PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 paign and which proved of very practical service. 
 Mr. Bowker, who is an oid-time worker in the copy- 
 right cause, has also kindly permitted the use of 
 three pertinent articles from his pen, which were 
 first printed in the valuable work on The Law and 
 Literature of Copyright, prepared by himself and 
 Mr. Solberg, a volume which contains the most com- 
 prehensive bibliography of the subject with which I 
 am acquainted. 
 
 I have thought it worth while, also, to reprint sev- 
 eral papers of my own, which appeared to have some 
 bearing on the history or on the status of copyright, 
 and which also were, for the most part, written for 
 " campaign " purposes. 
 
 The report submitted by Mr. Simonds on behalf 
 of the House Committee on Patents presents a very 
 comprehensive and succinct summary of the grounds 
 on which the demand for an International Copy- 
 right Bill was based, and it is probably the most 
 complete and forcible of the many reports presented 
 to Congress on the subject. This report appeared, 
 therefore, to belong very properly in the collection. 
 
 In bringing together statements and records from 
 a number of sources, it was impracticable to avoid 
 a few repetitions ; but in a volume which lays no 
 claim to literary form, but has been planned simply 
 as a compilation of facts and information, a certain 
 amount of repetition will, I trust, not be considered 
 a very grave defect. 
 
 An examination of the copyright legislation of 
 Europe makes clear that the United States, not- 
 withstanding the important step in advance it has,
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XV11 
 
 after such long delays, just taken, is still, in its 
 recognition of the claims of literary workers, very 
 much behind the other nations of the civilized 
 world. 
 
 The conditional measure for securing American 
 copyright for aliens (and, under reciprocity, foreign 
 copyright for Americans), a measure which is the 
 result of fifty-three years of effort on the part of 
 individual workers and of successive Copyright 
 Committees and Leagues, brings this country to 
 the point reached by France in 1810, and by Great 
 Britain and the states of Germany in 1 836-1 837. 
 
 Under the International Copyright arrangements 
 which went into effect in Europe in the earlier years 
 of the century, copyright was conceded to works by 
 foreign authors only when such works had been 
 manufactured within the territory of the country 
 granting the copyright. As late as 1 83 1 , for instance, 
 Lord St. Leonards stated, in the case of Jeffreys vs. 
 Boosey, that it had never been the intention of the 
 English law to extend a copyright protection over 
 works not manufactured within British territory. 
 
 The new American act, which makes American 
 manufacture a first condition of American copy- 
 right for aliens, brings us, therefore, to what has 
 usually, in other countries, been the first stage in the 
 development of International Copyright — a stage 
 which was reached in Europe more than half a cent- 
 ury ago. 
 
 What is probably the final stage was attained in 
 Europe in 1887, when the provisions of the Berne 
 Convention went into effect. Under this conven-
 
 xviii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 tion, by fulfilling the requirements of their domestic 
 copyright laws, authors can now at once secure, 
 without further conditions or formalities, copyright 
 for their productions in all the states belonging to 
 the International Union. 
 
 The states which, in accepting this convention 
 (the report of which will be found printed in this 
 volume), organized themselves into the International 
 Copyright Union, comprised, in addition to nearly 
 all the countries of Europe, Tunis and Liberia as 
 representatives of Africa, together with a single 
 representative of the literary civilization of the 
 western hemisphere, the little republic of Hayti. 
 
 It is not probable that another half century of 
 effort will be required to bring public opinion in the 
 American republic up to the standard of interna- 
 tional justice already attained by Tunis, Liberia, and 
 Hayti. 
 
 Under this standard, it is recognized that literary 
 producers are entitled to the full control of their 
 productions, irrespective of political boundaries and 
 without the limitations of irrelevant conditions. 
 
 The annual production of American literature 
 should certainly be not a little furthered, both as 
 to its quantity and its importance, by the stimulus 
 of the new Copyright Act. During the past few 
 years American writers have been securing growing 
 circles of readers in England and on the Continent, 
 and a material increase can now be looked for in the 
 European demand for American books — a demand 
 which, in the absence of restrictions, will be met by 
 the export of plates as well as of editions. The
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XIX 
 
 improvement and the cheapening of American 
 methods of typesetting and electrotyping, and, in 
 fact, of all the processes of book manufacture, will, 
 I anticipate, at no distant date, remove from the 
 minds of the men engaged in this manufacture the 
 fear that they are not in a position to compete to 
 advantage with the book-making trades of Europe, 
 and that an International Copyright, without manu- 
 facturing conditions, might bring about a transfer 
 to England and to Germany of a large part of the 
 business of American book-making. It was this 
 apprehension on the part of the American printers, 
 and the trades associated with them, that caused the 
 restrictions in the present act to be inserted. It is 
 my belief, however, that the trades in question will 
 before long recognize that there is no adequate 
 ground for such an apprehension, and that, admit- 
 ting the importance of preventing any obstacles 
 from being placed in the way of the exporting of 
 American books and American plates, they will 
 themselves take action to secure the elimination of 
 these restrictions. 
 
 When this has been brought about, there should 
 be nothing further to prevent the United States 
 from entering the International Copyright Union, 
 and thus completing, so far as the literature-produc- 
 ing and literature-consuming nations of the world 
 are concerned, the abolition of political boundaries 
 for literary property. 
 
 While the recognition by our country of the 
 claims of foreign authors has been so tardy, its leg- 
 islation for domestic copyright has also been based
 
 XX PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 upon a narrower conception of the property rights 
 of authors than that accepted by the legislators of 
 Europe. The law of 1870 (given in full in this vol- 
 ume), which is in this respect unchanged by the Act 
 of 1 891, gives to a literary production a first term of 
 copyright of twenty-eight years, and an extension 
 of such term for fourteen years further only if at the 
 expiration of the first term the author or the author's 
 widow or children be living. If the author, dying 
 before the expiration of the first term, leave neither 
 widow nor children, the copyright of his work is lim- 
 ited to twenty-eight years. It was for this reason 
 that Washington Irving was unable to insure for his 
 nieces (his adopted children) the provision which 
 they needed, and which a continued copyright in 
 their uncle's works would have secured for them. 
 
 In England, the present law gives a copyright 
 term of forty-two years, or for the life of the author 
 and for seven years thereafter, whichever term may 
 be the longer ; and the amended law now proposed 
 extends the term for thirty years after the death of 
 the author. 
 
 This latter is the term provided in the law of the 
 German Empire, while in Russia and in France the 
 copyright endures for the life of the author and for 
 fifty years thereafter. 
 
 The steady tendency of legislation has been 
 towards an increase of the term of copyright and 
 a recognition of the right of a literary producer to 
 work for his grandchildren as well as for his children ; 
 and the desirability of bringing the American term 
 into accord with that in force in Germany and pro-
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXI 
 
 posed in England, namely, the life of the author and 
 thirty years thereafter, is now a fair subject for con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Since the framing of the American Act of 1870, 
 not a few questions have arisen in connection with 
 new processes of reproduction of works of art, etc., 
 which are not adequately provided for in that act ; 
 and the criticism is often heard from American 
 artists that the copyright protection for their designs 
 is inadequate. 
 
 The American act of the present year, providing 
 copyright for aliens, can hardly be accepted as final 
 legislation, and some of its provisions will, doubtless, 
 at no distant date, after they have had the practical 
 test of experience, call for further consideration. 
 
 It seems to me that in order to secure consistent, 
 enduring, and satisfactory legislation, that will fairly 
 meet all the requirements and will not bring about 
 needless business perplexities necessitating for their 
 solution frequent appeals to the courts, it will be 
 wise to follow the precedent of Germany, France, 
 and England, and to arrange for the appointment of 
 a commission of experts to make a thorough inves- 
 tigation of the whole subject of copyright, literary, 
 musical, and artistic, domestic and international. 
 The report of such a commission should form a 
 much more satisfactory basis for trustworthy legis- 
 lation than could be secured in any other way. A 
 subject like copyright is evidently not one which 
 can safely be intrusted to the average congressional 
 committees, especially if the bills framed in such 
 committees are to have injected into them after-
 
 xxii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 wards the "amendments" of eleventh-hour experts 
 of the Senate or the House, men who, having looked 
 into the matter over night, feel assured that they 
 know all about it. 
 
 The action of the Senate in February, 1891, on the 
 Platt-Simonds Bill, is a fair example of the kind of 
 amateur and haphazard legislation referred to. 
 
 Under the lead of the principal republican and 
 democratic opponents of the Copyright Bill, an 
 amendment was offered and was actually passed 
 by the Senate, which had the effect of abolishing 
 domestic copyright ; and it was not until several days 
 later, when this unlooked-for result of senatorial 
 wisdom had been pointed out by outside critics, 
 that the amendment was rescinded. 1 
 
 If this volume may serve to direct public atten- 
 tion to the advisability of the appointment of a 
 copyright commission through whose labors the 
 risks of such haphazard copyright legislation may at 
 least be minimized, an important purpose of its pub- 
 lication will have been accomplished. 
 
 G. H. P. 
 
 New York, March 28, 1891. 
 
 1 The Sherman amendment, as originally framed, authorized the 
 importation, irrespective of the permission of the author, of foreign 
 editions of works, whether by foreign or American authors, which had 
 secured American copyright. 
 
 The amendment was passed February 14, 1891, by a vote of 25 to 
 24, and was rescinded February 17, by a vote of 31 to 29. Its mover 
 was Senator Sherman of Ohio, and he was actively supported by 
 Senators Daniels of Virginia, Hale of Maine, Gorman of Maryland, 
 and other experienced legislators.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface to Second Edition iii 
 
 Preface to First Edition xv 
 
 I. The Law of Copyright in the United States... i 
 Text of Statutes in Force July i, 1895. 
 Directions for Securing Copyrights. 
 Foreign States with which the United States is in 
 
 Copyright Relations. 
 Amendments to the Copyright Act Proposed since 
 July 1, 1 891. 
 II. Summary of Copyright Legislation in the United 
 
 States, by R. R. Bowker 28 
 
 III. Henry Clay's Report in Favor of International 
 
 Copyright 33 
 
 IV. History of the Contest for International Copy- 
 right 40 
 
 V. The Hawley Copyright Bill of January, 1885 64 
 
 VI. The Pearsall-Smith Scheme of Copyright 65 
 
 VII. Report of the House Committee on Patents, on 
 the International Copyright Bill of 1890-91, 
 
 by W. E. Simonds 77 
 
 VIII. The Platt-Simonds Copyright Act of March, 1891. 131 
 IX. Analysis of the Provisions of the Copyright Act 
 
 of 1891 138 
 
 X. Extracts from the Speeches in the Copyright 
 Debates in Congress, 1891, together with the 
 
 Vote in the House and in the Senate 148 
 
 XI. Results of the Copyright Law of 1891, Con- 
 sidered in January, 1894 162 
 
 xxiii
 
 XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XII. A Summary of International Copyright Cases 
 
 and Decisions since the Act of 1891 175 
 
 XIII. Abstract of the Copyright Law of Great 
 
 Britain, with a Digest of These Laws, 
 Prepared by Sir James Stephen 188 
 
 XIV. Report of the British Copyright Commission 
 
 OF 1878 214 
 
 XV. The Monkswell Copyright Bill of 1890, with 
 
 AN ANALYSIS OF ITS PROVISIONS, BY SlR FRED- 
 ERICK Pollock 275 
 
 XVI. The Berne Convention of 1887 287 
 
 XVII. The Montevideo Convention of 1889 314 
 
 XVIII. States avhich have Become Parties to the 
 
 Convention of Berne (January, 1896) 316 
 
 XIX. The Nature and Origin of Copyright, by R. R. 
 
 Bowker 3*7 
 
 XX. The Evolution of Copyright, by Brander 
 
 Matthews 3 2 4 
 
 XXI. Literary Property ; an Historical Sketch 351 
 
 XXII. Statutory Copyright in England, by R. R. 
 
 Bowker 4*2 
 
 XXIII. Cheap Books and Good Books, by Brander 
 
 Matthews 418 
 
 XXIV. Copyright and the Prices of Books 441 
 
 XXV. " Copyright," " Monopolies," and " Protec- 
 tion " 449 
 
 XXVI. Summary of the Existing Copyright Laws of 
 the More Important Countries of the 
 
 World (January, 1896) 454 
 
 XXVII. The Status of Canada in Regard to Copy- 
 right (January, 1896) 467 
 
 Index 477 
 
 The papers for which the name of the author is not specified, are the work of 
 the compiler.
 
 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT
 
 THE 
 QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 i. 
 
 THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED 
 STATES. 
 
 Text of the Statutes in force July i, 1895. 1 
 
 Section 4948. All records and other things relat- 
 ing to copyrights and required by law to be pre- 
 served, shall be under the control of the Librarian 
 of Congress, and kept and preserved in the Library 
 of Congress ; and the Librarian of Congress shall 
 have the immediate care and supervision thereof, 
 and, under the supervision of the Joint Committee 
 of Congress on the Library, shall perform all acts 
 and duties required by law touching copyrights. 
 
 Sec. 4949. The seal provided for the office of the 
 Librarian of Congress shall be the seal thereof, and 
 
 1 From the Revised Statutes of the United States, in force December 
 1, 1873, as amended by the Acts of June 18, 1874, August I, 1882, 
 March 3, 1891, and March 2, 1895. 
 I
 
 2 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 by it all records and papers issued from the office, 
 and to be used in evidence shall be authenticated. 
 
 Sec. 4950. The Librarian of Congress shall give a 
 bond, with sureties, to the Treasurer of the United 
 States, in the sum of five thousand dollars, with the 
 condition that he will render to the proper officers 
 of the Treasury a true account of all moneys received 
 by virtue of his office. 
 
 Sec. 495 i. The Librarian of Congress shall make an 
 annual report to Congress of the number and descrip- 
 tion of copyright publications for which entries have 
 been made during the year. 
 
 Sec. 4952. The author, inventor, designer, or pro- 
 prietor of any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical 
 composition, engraving, cut, print, or photograph or 
 negative thereof, or of a painting, drawing, chromo, 
 statuary, and of models or designs intended to be 
 perfected as works of the fine arts, and the execu- 
 tors, administrators, or assigns of any such person, 
 shall, upon complying with the provisions of this 
 chapter, have the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, 
 publishing, completing, copying, executing, finishing, 
 and vending the same ; and, in the case of a dramatic 
 composition, of publicly performing or representing 
 it, or causing it to be performed or represented by 
 others. And authors or their assigns shall have 
 exclusive right to dramatize or translate any of their 
 works, for which copyright shall have been obtained 
 under the laws of the United States. 
 
 Sec. 4953. Copyrights shall be granted for the 
 term of twenty-eight years from the time of recording 
 the title thereof, in the manner hereinafter directed.
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 3 
 
 SEC. 4954- The author, inventor, or designer, if he 
 be still living, or his widow or children, if he be 
 dead, shall have the same exclusive right continued 
 for the further term of fourteen years, upon record- 
 ing the title of the work or description of the article 
 so secured a second time, and complying with all 
 other regulations in regard to original copyrights, 
 within six months before the expiration of the first 
 term. And such person shall, within two months 
 from the date of said renewal, cause a copy of the 
 record thereof to be published in one or more news- 
 papers, printed in the United States, for the space of 
 four weeks. 
 
 Sec. 4955. Copyrights shall be assignable in law 
 by any instrument of writing, and such assignment 
 shall be recorded in the office of the Librarian of 
 Congress within sixty days after its execution ; in 
 default of which it shall be void as against any subse- 
 quent purchaser or mortgagee for a valuable con- 
 sideration, without notice. 
 
 SEC. 4956. No person shall be entitled to a copy- 
 right unless be shall, on or before the day of publi- 
 cation, in this or any foreign country, deliver at the 
 office of the Librarian of Congress, or deposit in the 
 mail within the United States, addressed to the 
 Librarian of Congress, at Washington, District of 
 Columbia, a printed copy of the title of the book, 
 map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engrav- 
 ing, cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a descrip- 
 tion of the painting, drawing, statue, statuary, or a 
 model or design, for a work of the fine arts, for 
 which he desires a copyright ; nor unless he shall
 
 4 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 also, not later than the day of the publication there- 
 of, in this or any foreign, country, deliver at the 
 office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 
 District of Columbia, or deposit in the mail, within 
 the United States, addressed to the Librarian of 
 Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, two 
 copies of such copyright book, map, chart, dramatic 
 or musical composition, engraving, chromo, cut, print, 
 or photograph, or in case of a painting, drawing, 
 statue, statuary, model, or design for a work of the 
 fine arts, a photograph of the same : Provided, That 
 in the case of a book, photograph, chromo, or litho- 
 graph, the two copies of the same required to be 
 delivered or deposited as above, shall be printed 
 from type set within the limits of the United States, 
 or from plates made therefrom, or from negatives, or 
 drawings on stone made within the limits of the 
 United States, or from transfers made therefrom. 
 During the existence of such copyright the importa- 
 tion into the United States of any book, chromo, 
 lithograph, or photograph, so copyrighted, or any 
 edition or editions thereof, or any plates of the same 
 not made from type set, negatives, or drawings on 
 stone made within the limits of the United States, 
 shall be, and it is hereby prohibited, except in the 
 cases specified in paragraphs 512 to 516, inclusive, in 
 section two of the act entitled, 1 an act to reduce the 
 revenue and equalize the duties on imports and for 
 
 1 Note. — These paragraphs of the Tariff act permit free importa- 
 tion of books, etc., more than twenty years old, books in foreign 
 languages, publications imported by the Government, or for societies, 
 colleges, etc. , and libraries which have been in use one or more years, 
 brought from abroad by persons or families and not for sale.
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 5 
 
 other purposes, approved October I, 1890; and ex- 
 cept in the case of persons purchasing for use and 
 not for sale, who import, subject to the duty there- 
 on, not more than two copies of such book at any 
 one time ; and, except in the case of newspapers 
 and magazines, not containing in whole or in part 
 matter copyrighted under the provisions of this 
 act, unauthorized by the author, which are hereby 
 exempted from prohibition of importation : 
 
 Provided, nevertheless, That in the case of books in 
 foreign languages, of which only translations in 
 English are copyrighted, the prohibition of importa- 
 tion shall apply only to the translation of the same, 
 and the importation of the books in the original 
 language shall be permitted. 
 
 SEC. 4957. The Librarian of Congress shall record 
 the name of such copyright book, or other article, 
 forthwith in a book to be kept for that purpose, in 
 the words following : " Library of Congress, to wit : 
 
 Be it remembered that on the day of 
 
 A. B., of hath deposited in this office the title 
 
 of a book, (map, chart, or otherwise, as the case 
 may be, or description of the article,) the title or 
 description of which is in the following words, to 
 wit : (here insert the title or description,) the right 
 whereof he claims as author, (originator, or pro- 
 prietor, as the case may be,) in conformity with the 
 laws of the United States respecting copyrights. C. 
 D., Library of Congress." And he shall give a copy 
 of the title or description under the seal of the 
 Librarian of Congress, to the proprietor, whenever 
 he shall require it.
 
 6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Sec. 4958. The Librarian of Congress shall receive 
 from the persons to whom the services designated 
 are rendered, the following fees: 1. For recording 
 the title or description of any copyright book or other 
 article, fifty cents. 2. For every copy under seal 
 of such record actually given to the person claiming 
 the copyright, or his assigns, fifty cents. 3. For re- 
 cording and certifying any instrument of writing for 
 the assignment of a copyright, one dollar. 5. For 
 every copy of an assignment, one dollar. All fees 
 so received shall be paid into the Treasury of the 
 United States : Provided, That the charge for record- 
 ing the title or description of any article entered for 
 copyright, the production of a person not a citizen 
 or resident of the United States, shall be one dollar, 
 to be paid as above into the Treasury of the United 
 States, to defray the expenses of lists of copyrighted 
 articles as hereinafter provided for. 
 
 And it is hereby made the duty of the Librarian of 
 Congress to furnish to the Secretary of the Treasury 
 copies of the entries of titles of all books and other 
 articles wherein the copyright had been completed 
 by the deposit of two copies of such book printed 
 from type set within the limits of the United States, 
 in accordance with the provisions of this act, and by 
 the deposit of two copies of such other article made 
 or produced in the United States ; and the Secretary 
 of the Treasury is hereby directed to prepare and 
 print, at intervals of not more than a week, catalogues 
 of such title-entries for distribution to the collectors 
 of customs of the United States and to the post- 
 masters of all post offices receiving foreign mails, and
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. J 
 
 such weekly lists, as they are issued, shall be fur- 
 nished to all parties desiring them, at a sum not 
 exceeding five dollars per annum ; and the Secretary 
 and the Postmaster General are hereby empowered 
 and required to make and enforce such rules and 
 regulations as shall prevent the importation into the 
 United States, except upon the conditions above 
 specified, of all articles prohibited by this act. 
 
 Sec. 4959. The proprietor of every copyright book 
 or other article shall deliver at the office of the Li- 
 brarian of Congress, or deposit in the mail, addressed 
 to the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, a copy of every subsequent edition 
 wherein any substantial changes shall be made : Pro- 
 vided, however, That the alterations, revisions, and 
 additions made to books by foreign authors, hereto- 
 fore published, of which new editions shall appear 
 subsequently to the taking effect of this act, shall be 
 held and deemed capable of being copyrighted as 
 above provided for in this act, unless they form a 
 part of the series in course of publication at the time 
 this act shall take effect. 
 
 Sec. 4960. For every failure on the part of the 
 proprietor of any copyright to deliver, or deposit in 
 the mail, either of the published copies, or descrip- 
 tion, or photograph, required by Sections 4956 and 
 4959, the proprietor of the copyright shall be liable 
 to a penalty of twenty-five dollars, to be recovered 
 by the Librarian of Congress, in the name of the 
 United States, in an action in the nature of an action 
 of debt, in any district court of the United States 
 within the jurisdiction of which the delinquent may 
 reside or be found.
 
 8 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 SEC. 4961. The postmaster to whom such copy- 
 right book, title, or other article is delivered, shall, if 
 requested, give a receipt therefor ; and when so de- 
 livered he shall mail it to its destination. 
 
 Sec. 4962. No person shall maintain an action for 
 the infringement of his copyright unless he shall 
 give notice thereof by inserting in the several copies 
 of every edition published, on the title-page, or the 
 page immediately following, if it be a book ; or if a 
 map, chart, musical composition, print, cut, engrav- 
 ing, photograph, painting, drawing, chromo, statue, 
 statuary, or model or design intended to be per- 
 fected and completed as a work of the fine arts, by 
 inscribing upon some visible portion thereof, or of 
 the substance on which the same shall be mounted, 
 the following words, viz. : " Entered according to 
 
 act of Congress, in the year , by A. B., in the 
 
 office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington ; " 
 or, at his option, the word " Copyright," together 
 with the year the copyright was entered, and the 
 name of the party by whom it was taken out, thus : 
 " Copyright, 18—, by A. B." 
 
 Sec. 4963. Every person who shall insert or im- 
 press such notice, or words of the same purport, in 
 or upon any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical 
 composition, print, cut, engraving, or photograph, or 
 other article, for which he has not obtained a copy- 
 right, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred 
 dollars, recoverable one-half for the person who shall 
 sue for such penalty, and one-half to the use of the 
 United States. 
 
 Sec. 4964. Every person who, after the recording
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 9 
 
 of the title of any book and the depositing of two 
 copies of such book as provided by this act, shall, 
 contrary to the provisions of this act, within the 
 term limited, and without the consent of the pro- 
 prietor of the copyright first obtained in writing, 
 signed in the presence of two or more witnesses, 
 print, publish, dramatize, translate, or import, or, 
 knowing the same to be so printed, published, drama- 
 tized, translated, or imported, shall sell or expose to 
 sale any copy of such book, shall forfeit every copy 
 thereof to such proprietor, and shall also forfeit and 
 pay such damages as may be recovered in a civil 
 action by such proprietor in any court of competent 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 SEC. 4965. If any person, after the recording of 
 the title of any map, chart, dramatic or musical com- 
 position, print, cut, engraving, or photograph, or 
 chromo, or of the description of any painting, draw- 
 ing, statue, statuary, or model or design intended to 
 be perfected and executed as a work of the fine arts 
 as provided by this act, shall, within the term limited, 
 contrary to the provisions of this act, and without 
 the consent of the proprietor of the copyright first 
 obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or 
 more witnesses, engrave, etch, work, copy, print, 
 publish, dramatize, translate, or import, either in 
 whole or in part, or by varying the main design, 
 with intent to evade the law, or knowing the same 
 to be so printed, published, dramatized, translated, 
 or imported, shall sell or expose to sale any copy of 
 such map or other article, as aforesaid, he shall for- 
 feit to the proprietor all the plates on which the
 
 IO THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 same shall be copied, and every sheet thereof, either 
 copied or printed, and shall further forfeit one dollar 
 for every sheet of the same found in his possession, 
 either printing, printed, copied, published, imported, 
 or exposed for sale ; and in case of a painting, statue, 
 or statuary, he shall forfeit ten dollars for every copy 
 of the same in his possession, or by him sold or ex- 
 posed for sale ; one-half thereof to the proprietor and 
 the other half to the use of the United States. Pro- 
 vided, however, That in case of any such infringement 
 of the copyright of a photograph made from any 
 object not a work of fine arts, the sum to be recov- 
 ered in any action brought under the provisions of 
 this section shall be not less than one hundred dol- 
 lars, nor more than five thousand dollars, and, Pro- 
 vided further, That in case of any such infringement 
 of the copyright of a painting, drawing, statue, en- 
 graving, etching, print, or model or design for a work 
 of the fine arts or of a photograph of a work of the 
 fine arts, the sum to be recovered in any action 
 brought through the provisions of this section shall 
 be not less than two hundred and fifty dollars, and 
 not more than ten thousand dollars. One-half of all 
 the foregoing penalties shall go to the proprietors of 
 the copyright and the other half to the use of the 
 United States. 1 
 
 Sec. 4966. Any person publicly performing or 
 representing any dramatic composition for which a 
 copyright has been obtained, without the consent of 
 the proprietor thereof, or his heirs or assigns, shall 
 
 1 This is the provision of the act of March, 1891, as amended by 
 the Covert act of March, 1895.
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. I I 
 
 be liable for damages therefor ; such damages in all 
 cases to be assessed at such sum, not less than one 
 hundred dollars for the first, and fifty dollars for 
 every subsequent performance, as to the court shall 
 appear to be just. 
 
 SEC. 4967. Every person who shall print or pub- 
 lish any manuscript whatever, without the consent 
 of the author or proprietor first obtained, shall be 
 liable to the author or proprietor for all damages 
 occasioned by such injury. 
 
 Sec. 4968. No action shall be maintained in any 
 case of forfeiture or penalty under the copyright 
 laws, unless the same is commenced within two years 
 after the cause of action has arisen. 
 
 SEC. 4969. In all actions arising under the laws 
 respecting copyrights the defendant may plead the 
 general issue, and give the special matter in evidence. 
 
 SEC. 4970. The circuit courts, and district courts 
 having the jurisdiction of circuit courts, shall have 
 power, upon bill in equity, filed by any party ag- 
 grieved, to grant injunctions to prevent the vio- 
 lation of any right secured by the laws respecting 
 copyrights, according to the course and principles of 
 courts of equity, on such terms as the court may 
 deem reasonable. 
 
 Sec. — . [Approved June 18, 1874, to take effect 
 August 1, 1874.] In the construction of this act the 
 words " engraving," " cut," and " print," shall be ap- 
 plied only to pictorial illustrations or works con- 
 nected with the fine arts, and no prints or labels 
 designed to be used for any other articles of manu- 
 facture shall be entered under the copyright law, but
 
 12 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 may be registered in the Patent Office. And the 
 Commissioner of Patents is hereby charged with the 
 supervision and control of the entry or registry of 
 such prints or labels, in conformity with the regu- 
 lations provided by law as to copyright of prints, 
 except that there shall be paid for recording the 
 title of any print or label, not a trade-mark, six dol- 
 lars, which shall cover the expense of furnishing a 
 copy of the record, under the seal of the Commis- 
 sioner of Patents, to the party entering the same. 
 
 SEC. — . [Approved August I, 1882.] That manu- 
 facturers of designs for molded decorative articles, 
 tiles, plaques, or articles of pottery or metal, subject 
 to copyright, may put the copyright mark prescribed 
 by section forty-nine hundred and sixty-two of the 
 Revised Statutes, and acts additional thereto, upon 
 the back or bottom of such articles, or in such other 
 place upon them as it has heretofore been usual for 
 manufacturers of such articles to employ for the 
 placing of manufacturers', merchants', and trade- 
 marks thereon. 
 
 Sec. 11. [Approved March 3, 1891, to take effect 
 July 1, 1 89 1.] That for the purpose of this act each 
 volume of a book in two or more volumes, when such 
 volumes are published separately, and the first one 
 shall not have been issued before this act shall take 
 effect, and each number of a periodical shall be con- 
 sidered an independent publication, subject to the 
 form of copyrighting as above. 
 
 Sec. 12. That this act shall go into effect on the 
 first day of July, Anno Domini eighteen hundred 
 and ninety-one.
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES 1 3 
 
 Sec. 13. [Approved March 3, 1 891, to take effect 
 July 1, 1 891.] That this act shall only apply to a 
 citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation when 
 such foreign state or nation permits to citizens of the 
 United States of America the benefit of copyright 
 on substantially the same basis as to its own citizens ; 
 or when such foreign state or nation is a party to 
 an international agreement which provides for reci- 
 procity in the granting of copyright, by the terms of 
 which agreement the United States of America may 
 at its pleasure become a party to such agreement. 
 The existence of either of the conditions aforesaid 
 shall be determined by the President of the United 
 States, by proclamation made from time to time as 
 the purposes of this act may require. 
 
 Directions for Securing Copyrights. 
 
 Under the Revised Acts of Congress, including the Provisions for 
 Foreign Copyright, by Act of March 3, 1891. 
 
 I. A printed copy of the title of the book, map, 
 chart, dramatic or musical composition, printed title 
 engraving, cut, print, photograph, or required. 
 chromo, or a description of the painting, drawing, 
 statue, statuary, or model or design for a work of 
 the fine arts, for which copyright is desired, must be 
 delivered to the Librarian of Congress or deposited 
 in the mail, within the United States, prepaid, ad- 
 dressed Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 
 This may be done on or before day of publication 
 in this or any foreign country.
 
 14 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 The printed title required may be a copy of the 
 title-page of such publications as have title-pages. 
 what style of In other cases the title must be printed ' ex- 
 prmt. pressly for copyright entry, with name of 
 
 claimant of copyright. The style of type is imma- 
 terial, and the print of a typewriter will be accepted. 
 But a separate title is required for each entry, and 
 each title must be printed on paper as large as com- 
 mercial note. The title of a periodical must include 
 the date and number ; and each number of the peri- 
 odical requires a separate entry of copyright. 
 
 Blank forms of application furnished 
 
 Applications. 
 
 to applicants. 
 
 2. The legal fee for recording each copyright claim 
 
 is 50 cents, and for a copy of this record 
 
 (or certificate of copyright under seal of 
 
 the office) an additional fee of 50 cents is required, 
 
 making $1, if certificate is wanted, which will be 
 
 mailed as soon as reached in the records. 
 
 No money is to be placed in any package of books, 
 music, or other publications. A bank check, to order, 
 avoids all risk. 
 
 For publications which are the production of per- 
 sons not citizens or residents of the United States, 
 the fee for recording title is $1, and 50 cents addi- 
 tional for a copy of the record. Certificates covering 
 more than one entry in one certificate are not issued. 
 
 Bank checks, money orders, and currency only 
 taken for fees. No postage stamps received. 
 
 Two copies 3- Not later than the day of publi- 
 
 required. cation in this country or abroad, two 
 
 complete copies of the best edition of each book or
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. I 5 
 
 other article must be delivered, or deposited in the 
 mail within the United States, addressed Librarian 
 of Congress, Washington, D. C. to perfect the 
 copyright. 
 
 The freight or postage must be prepaid, or the 
 publications inclosed in parcels covered by printed 
 Penalty Labels, furnished by the Libra- 
 
 , . , , . , , Free by mail. 
 
 nan, in which case they will come FREE 
 by mail {not express), without limit of weight, ac- 
 cording to rulings of the Post-Office Department. 
 Books must be printed from type set in To be of American 
 the United States, or from plates made ™ an ufacture. 
 therefrom ; photographs from negatives made in the 
 United States ; chromos and lithographs from draw- 
 ings on stone or transfers therefrom made in the 
 United States. 
 
 Without the deposit of copies above required the 
 copyright is void, and a penalty of $25 
 is incurred. No copy is required to be 
 deposited elsewhere. 
 
 The law requires one copy of each new edition, 
 wherein any substantial changes are 
 
 New editions. 
 
 made, to be deposited with the Libra- 
 rian of Congress. 
 
 4. No copyright is valid unless notice is given by 
 inserting; in every copy published, on Notice of copy- 
 
 J x J x m right to be given 
 
 the title-page or the page following, if b y imprint. 
 it be a book ; or if a map, chart, musical composi- 
 tion, print, cut, engraving, photograph, painting, 
 drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, or model or de- 
 signs intended to be perfected as a work of the fine 
 arts, by inscribing upon some portion thereof, or on
 
 1 6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the substance on which the same is mounted, the 
 following words, viz. : "Entered according to act of 
 
 claimant's name Congress, in the year , by , in 
 
 to be printed. fj ie office of the Librarian of Congress, 
 at Washington" or at the option of the person enter- 
 ing the copyright, the words : " Copyright, 18 — , 
 
 by r 
 
 The law imposes a penalty of $100 upon any per- 
 Penaity for false son wno h as not obtained copyright 
 claim - who shall insert the notice, "Entered 
 
 according to act of Congress," or "Copyright" or 
 words of the same import, in or upon any book or 
 other article. 
 
 5. The copyright law secures to authors and their 
 Translations and assigns the exclusive right to translate 
 dramas. or ^- dramatize any of their works ; no 
 notice or record is required to enforce this right. 
 
 6. The original term of a copyright runs for 
 Duration of copy- twenty-eight years. Within six months 
 ri s ht - before the end of that time, the author 
 or designer, or his widow or children, may secure 
 a renewal for the further term of fourteen years, 
 making forty-two years in all. Applications for 
 
 renewal must be accompanied by a 
 
 Renewals. . ... . . . ... 
 
 printed title and fee ; and by explicit 
 statement of ownership, in the case of the author or 
 of relationship, in the case of his heirs, and must 
 state definitely the date and place of entry of the 
 original copyright. Within two months from date 
 of renewal the record thereof must be advertised in 
 an American newspaper for four weeks. 
 
 7. The time of publication is not limited by any
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 7 
 
 law or regulation, but the courts have held that it 
 should take place " within a reasonable time." A 
 copyright may be secured for a pro- T ime of pubii- 
 jected as well as for a completed work. cation - 
 But the law provides for no caveat, or notice of 
 interference — only for actual entry of title. 
 
 8. Copyrights arc assignable by any instrument 
 of writing. Such assignment to be 
 
 . Assignments. 
 
 valid, is to be recorded in the office of 
 the Librarian of Congress within sixty days from 
 execution. The fee for this record and certificate is 
 one dollar, and for a certified copy of any record of 
 assignment one dollar. 
 
 9. A copy of the record (or duplicate certificate) 
 of any copyright entry will be fur- Copies or dupii- 
 
 .,, , ir,i rr iii cate certificates. 
 
 nished, under seal of the office, at the 
 rate of fifty cents each. 
 
 10. In the case of books published in more than 
 one volume, or of periodicals published serials or separate 
 in numbers, or of engravings, photo- P ublicatl0ns - 
 graphs, or other articles published with variations, a 
 copyright must be entered for each volume or part 
 of a book, or number of a periodical, or variety, as 
 to style, title, or inscription, of any other article. 
 To complete the copyright on a book published seri- 
 ally in a periodical, two copies of each serial part as 
 well as of the completed work (if published sepa- 
 rately), should be deposited. 
 
 11. To secure copyright for a painting, statue, or 
 
 model or design intended to be per- copyright for 
 
 fected as a work of the fine arts, a defi- workso£ art - 
 
 nite title and description must accompany the appli- 
 2
 
 1 8 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 cation for copyright, and a mounted photograph of 
 the same, as large as " cabinet size," mailed to the 
 Librarian of Congress not later than the day of pub- 
 lication of the work or design. 
 
 The fine arts, for copyright purposes, include only 
 painting and sculpture, and articles of 
 
 Fine arts. . 
 
 merely ornamental and decorative art 
 should be sent to the Patent Office, as subjects for 
 Design Patents. 
 
 12. Copyrights can not be granted upon trade- 
 No labels or marks, nor upon names of companies, 
 names copyright, libraries, or articles, nor upon an idea 
 or device, nor upon prints or labels intended to be 
 used for any article of manufacture. If protection 
 for such names or labels is desired, application must 
 be made to the Patent Office, where they are regis- 
 tered, if admitted, at a fee of $6 for labels, and $25 
 for trade-marks. 
 
 13. The provisions as to copyright entry in the 
 Foreign or inter- United States by foreign authors, etc., 
 national copyright, ^y act f Congress approved March 3, 
 
 1 89 1 (which took effect July 1, 1 891), are the same 
 as the foregoing, except as to productions of persons 
 not citizens or residents, which must 
 cover return postages, and are $1 for 
 entry, or $1.50 for entry and certificate of entry 
 (equivalent to 4s. $d. or 6s. yd.). All publications 
 must be delivered to the Librarian at Washington 
 free of charge. The free penalty labels can not be 
 used outside of the United States. 
 
 The right of citizens or subjects of a foreign na- 
 tion to copyright in the United States extends by
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 9 
 
 Presidential proclamations to Great Britain, France, 
 Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, 
 and Switzerland ; and Americans can secure copy- 
 right in those countries. For this, direct arrange- 
 ments must be made abroad. The Librarian of 
 Congress can not take charge of any foreign copy- 
 right business. 1 
 
 14. Every applicant for a copyright should state 
 distinctly the full name and residence Full name of pro- 
 of the claimant, whether book or other prietor required, 
 publication, and whether the right is claimed as 
 author, designer, or proprietor. No affidavit or wit- 
 ness to the application is required. 
 
 Office of the Librarian of Congress, 
 Washington, 1895. 
 
 Foreign States with which the United States is 
 in Copyright Relations. 
 
 The provisions of the Act of 1891 having to do 
 with International Copyright, are (January, 1896) in 
 force with the following States : 
 
 Belgium, 
 France, 
 Great Britain, 
 Switzerland, 
 
 By Proclamation of the Presi- 
 dent, July 4, 1 89 1. 
 
 1 American authors, artists, and composers who desire to secure 
 for their productions the protection of copyright in the States with 
 which the United States has entered into copyright relations, must 
 fulfil the requirements of the Statutes of those States. The pro- 
 visions of these Statutes are given in a later chapter of this volume. 
 — Editor.
 
 20 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Germany, by Treaty, March 8, 1892. 
 Italy, by Proclamation, Oct. 31, 1892. 
 Denmark, by Proclamation, May 8, 1893. 
 Portugal, by Proclamation, July 20, 1895. 
 Spain, by Proclamation, July 15, 1895. 
 Mexico, by Proclamation, Feb. 27, 1896. 
 
 Amendments to the Copyright Act Proposed 
 Since July, 1891. 
 
 1. The Hicks Bill. — In September, 1894, an 
 amendment to the Copyright Act was introduced 
 by Representative Hicks, of Pennsylvania, which 
 had for its purpose the application of the manufac- 
 turing requirement to engravings and etchings; 
 under the Hicks provision, art productions of this 
 class were to be " printed from plates engraved or 
 etched within the limits of the United States." A 
 second division of the Hicks Bill excepted from the 
 works the contents of which were to be protected 
 by copyright " daily or weekly newspapers devoted 
 in whole or in part to the news of the day." 
 
 The purpose of the first provision was stated to 
 be the protection of newspapers against dispropor- 
 tioned damages in connection with the reproduction 
 of photographs or of popular works of art, which 
 were the work of alien designers. Its results would 
 have been the undermining of copyright in foreign 
 works of art, the protection of which constituted 
 practically the only advantage secured by the states 
 of Europe (other than England) under the American 
 Act of 1 89 1. The alleged purpose of the second 
 provision (which was presented at the instance of
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 21 
 
 the smaller papers) was to prevent what they called 
 " a monopoly of news." The result would have 
 been to destroy the copyright property in any liter- 
 ary or art productions published not only in the 
 daily papers, but in such journals as Harper s 
 Weekly or Frank Leslie's, which are in part devoted 
 to " news of the da3'." Strong protests were made 
 against the bill by European artists and art publish- 
 ers, and by the publishers of literary illustrated 
 weeklies and their contributors. Concerted action 
 was taken, on behalf of all the copyright interests 
 assailed by the Authors' and Publishers' Copyright 
 Leagues, and the bill was killed in Committee. 
 
 2. The Covert Amendment. — In January, 1895, 
 Representative Covert of New York, introduced a 
 bill which had for its purpose the relief of the news- 
 papers from excessive penalties in connection with 
 the infringement of art designs, photographs, etc. 
 This bill as first worded would have constituted a 
 serious impairment of the protection of copyright 
 property. 
 
 After consultation between the representatives of 
 the Authors' and Publishers' Copyright Leagues and 
 those of the newspaper publishers, the Covert amend- 
 ment was modified. The original draft provided 
 that the total sum to be " recovered for any one in- 
 fringement should not exceed double the value of 
 the printing, drawing, object or thing infringed 
 upon, copied, issued, or edited in violation of law." 
 As finally worded the amendment read : 
 
 " Provided, however, that in the case of any such
 
 22 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 infringement of the copyright of a photograph made 
 from an object not a work of the fine arts, the sum 
 to be recovered in any action brought under the 
 provisions of this section shall be not less than $100, 
 nor more than $5000, and Provided further, In case 
 of any such infringement of the copyright of a print- 
 ing, drawing, statue, engraving, etching, print, or 
 model, or design not a work of the fine arts, the sum 
 to be recovered in any action brought through the 
 provisions of this section shall not be less than $250 
 and not more than $10,000." 
 
 The act was passed in March, 1895, becoming part 
 of the copyright law, and constituting the first 
 amendment to the international copyright provi- 
 sions. 
 
 3. The Cummings* Amendment, in re Stage-right. 
 — In February, 1896, Mr. Amos Cummings, of New 
 York, introduced in the House of Representatives a 
 bill which had for its purpose the more thorough 
 protection of the rights of dramatic authors. These 
 authors and their assigns, the managers who are in- 
 terested with them in the copyright protection of 
 plays, had for some years found occasion to complain 
 of the inadequacy of the protection accorded to 
 their property under the existing methods of the 
 Federal Courts. Under the existing law, an injunc- 
 tion granted by one Federal Court is preventive only 
 within the judicial circuit of that Court. There are 
 within the territory of the United States nine of 
 these Judicial Circuits. If an injunction be granted, 
 for instance, by the United States Court in the City 
 of New York, restraining the piratical performance
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 23 
 
 of a play, such injunction has force only within the 
 judicial circuit of New York City. The pirate may 
 produce the play in Philadelphia, Boston, or any- 
 where else outside of that circuit, and the only way 
 to reach him is to secure another injunction from the 
 court of the circuit within which the latter injunc- 
 tion is accorded. Even then, the offender is still at 
 liberty to repeat his operations in a third circuit, 
 and so on for the entire series of nine. The text of 
 the Cummings' Bill, which will probably become law 
 by the time the printing of this volume is completed, 
 is as follows : 
 
 A Bill to Amend Title Sixty, Chapter Three, of the Revised Statutes, 
 relating to copyrights. 
 
 Be it enacted oy the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 United States of America in Congress assembled, That section forty- 
 nine hundred and sixty-six of the Revised Statutes be, and the same 
 is hereby, amended so as to read as follows : 
 
 Sec. 4966. Any person publicly performing or representing any 
 dramatic or operatic composition for which a copyright has been ob- 
 tained, without the consent of the proprietor of said dramatic or 
 operatic composition or of his heirs or assigns, shall be liable for dam- 
 ages therefor, such damages in all cases to be assessed at such sum, 
 not less than one hundred dollars for the first and fifty dollars for 
 every subsequent performance, as to the court shall appear to be just ; 
 and if it be determined that such unlawful performing and represen- 
 tation was wilful and for profit, in addition thereto, such person or 
 persons shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to imprisonment 
 for a period not exceeding one year. Any injunction that may be 
 granted by any circuit court of the United States, or by any judge 
 thereof, restraining and enjoining the performance or representation 
 of any such dramatic or operatic composition may be served on the 
 parties against whom such injunction may be granted anywhere in 
 the United States, and shall be operative and may be enforced by 
 proceedings to punish for contempt or otherwise by any other circuit
 
 24 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 court or judge in the United States : but the defendants in said 
 action, or any or either of them, may make a motion in any other 
 circuit in which he or they may be engaged in performing or repre- 
 senting said dramatic or operatic composition to dissolve or set aside 
 the said injunction upon such reasonable notice to the plaintiff as the 
 circuit court or the judge before whom said motion shall be made 
 shall deem proper ; service of said motion to be made on the plaintiff 
 in person or on his attorneys in the action. The circuit courts or 
 judges thereof shall have jurisdiction to enforce said injunction and 
 to hear and determine a motion to dissolve the same, as herein pro- 
 vided, as fully as if the action were pending or brought in the circuit 
 in which said motion is made. 
 
 The clerk of the court, or judge granting the injunction, shall, 
 when required so to do by the court hearing the application to dis- 
 solve or enforce said injunction, transmit without delay to said court 
 a certified copy of all the papers on which the said injunction was 
 granted that are on file in his office. 
 
 4. The Treloar Bill. — In February, 1896, Mr. 
 Treloar of Missouri introduced in the House of 
 Representatives a Bill the general purpose of which 
 was specified as the " revision of the copyright law." 
 
 Mr. Treloar had incorporated in his measure (with 
 some changes) the plan for the organization of a 
 Bureau of Copyrights which should be distinct from 
 the Library of Congress. He had also included the 
 substance of The Cummings' Bill then pending in 
 the House, the purpose of which was to secure a 
 more adequate protection for the rights of dramatic 
 authors. The original features of his Bill can be 
 summarized as follows : 
 
 1. The extension of the first term of copyright 
 from twenty-eight to forty years and of the second 
 term (to be secured by the author if living and 
 otherwise by his widow or children) from fourteen
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 25 
 
 to twenty years, making the total term sixty years 
 instead of forty-two ; 2. The restriction to citizens 
 of the United States of the privilege of securing 
 copyright, (which privilege, under all acts prior to 
 that of 1 891, had been conceded to residents without 
 regard to citizenship, and which, under the Act of 
 1 891, had been extended to citizens of other coun- 
 tries whose government extended similar copyright 
 privileges to American citizens) ; 3. The addition 
 to the list of articles which, in order to secure the 
 privileges of copyright in the United States, must be 
 wholly manufactured within the limits of the United 
 States, of musical compositions and of reproductions 
 of works of art in the form of engravings, cuts, or 
 prints ; 4. The limitation to $5000 of the total 
 penalty to be collected for the infringement of the 
 copyright of a literary production. 
 
 The clause in regard to the instituting of a Bureau 
 of Copyrights, provided for a chief of such Bureau 
 to be entitled a commissioner (in the Bankhead and 
 Morrill Bills he was to be styled register) and for a 
 staff of no less than thirty-eight assistants. (The 
 Bankhead and Morrill Bills made provision for but 
 three assistants.) The total expense of the Bureau 
 on the scheme proposed would amount to not less 
 than $50,000, while the Bankhead and Morrill Bills 
 estimated that the annual cost of such Bureau need 
 not exceed $7500. The Treloar estimate was doubt- 
 less very much in excess of the actual business 
 requirements of such a Bureau, while the Bank- 
 head provision was decidedly inadequate. The an- 
 nual receipts from the copyright fees amounted (in
 
 26 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 1895) to something over $35,000. It was the calcu- 
 lation of good judges that the work of the copyright 
 Bureau ought to be performed efficiently for a 
 sum not exceeding $20,000, with provision for such 
 gradual increase of the clerical force as the normal 
 development of the business would necessitate. 
 
 The Bill was referred in due course to the House 
 Committee on Patents. The Authors' and Pub- 
 lishers' American Leagues promptly expressed their 
 entire disapproval of its chief provisions. In the 
 resolutions adopted in these Leagues, it was pointed 
 out that the Bill would, if it became law, bring about 
 the revocation of the copyright granted to foreign 
 producers of works of art, and would add very ma- 
 terially to the difficulties in the way of securing copy- 
 right for foreign works of literature, if it did not 
 entirely nullify the copyright privileges of foreign 
 authors. It was further contended that the limita- 
 tion to $5000 of the damages to be secured for the 
 infringement of literary property, a penalty which 
 had heretofore been left proportionate to the actual 
 extent of the damage caused, was inequitable and 
 was contrary to all precedents of existing copy- 
 right law. 
 
 The unnecessary outlay planned for the mainte- 
 nance of the Bureau of Copyright constituted a dis- 
 tinctive though less important objection to the Bill. 
 The extention of the term of copyright, while de- 
 sirable in itself, was not to be considered as an offset 
 to the serious defects above specified. It was, further, 
 a subject which was not to be passed upon hastily, 
 but which called for mature consideration in connec-
 
 LAW OF COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 2J 
 
 tion with the experience of foreign States and with 
 the conclusions arrived at in these States. 
 
 At the time this chapter is going through the 
 press, the Treloar Bill is still under consideration 
 in Committee, but there is supposed to be no pos- 
 sible prospect of its securing a majority in either the 
 House or the Senate, while in the event of the 
 measure being passed by Congress, it is assumed 
 that it will certainly meet with the disapproval of 
 the Executive.
 
 II. 
 
 SUMMARY OF COPYRIGHT LEGISLA- 
 TION IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 By R. R. Bowker. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States authorized 
 Congress "to promote the progress of science and 
 useful arts by securing for limited times, to authors 
 and inventors, the exclusive right to their respect- 
 ive writings and discoveries." Previous to its adop- 
 tion, in 1787, the nation had no power to act, but 
 on Madison's motion, Congress, in May, 1783, rec- 
 ommended the States to pass acts securing copy- 
 right for fourteen years. Connecticut, in January, 
 1783, and Massachusetts, in March, 1783, had al- 
 ready provided copyright for twenty-one years. 
 Virginia, in 1785, New York and New Jersey, in 
 1786, also passed copyright acts, and other States 
 were considering them — thanks to the vigorous 
 copyright crusade of Noah Webster, who travelled 
 from capital to capital — when the United States 
 Statute of 1790 made them unnecessary. This act- 
 followed the precedent of the English act of 1710, 
 and gave to authors who were citizens or residents, 
 their heirs and assigns, copyrights in books, maps, 
 and charts for fourteen years, with renewal for four- 
 teen years more, if the author were living at expi-
 
 COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 29 
 
 ration of the first term. A printed title must be 
 deposited before publication in the clerk's office of 
 the local United States District Court ; notice must 
 be printed four times in a newspaper within two 
 months after publication ; a copy must be deposited 
 with the United States Secretary of State within 
 six months after publication ; the penalties were 
 forfeiture and a fine of fifty cents for each sheet 
 found, half to go to the copyright owner, half to 
 the United States ; a remedy was provided against 
 unauthorized publication of manuscripts. 
 
 This original and fundamental act was followed 
 by others — in 1802, requiring copyright record to 
 be printed on or next the title-page, and including 
 designs, engravings, and etchings ; in 18 19, giving 
 United States Circuit Courts original jurisdiction 
 in copyright cases; in 1831 (a consolidation of pre- 
 vious acts), including musical compositions, extend- 
 ing the term to twenty-eight years, with renewal 
 for fourteen years to author, widow, or children, 
 doing away with the newspaper notice except for 
 renewals, and providing for the deposit of a copy 
 with the district clerk (for transmission to the Sec- 
 retary of State) within three months after pub- 
 lication ; in 1834, requiring record of assignment in 
 the court of original entry ; in 1846 (the act estab- 
 lishing the Smithsonian Institution), requiring one 
 copy to be delivered to that, and one to the Library 
 of Congress ; in 1856, securing to dramatists the 
 right of performance; in 1859, repealing the pro- 
 vision of 1846 for the deposit of copies, and making 
 the Interior Department instead of the State De-
 
 30 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 partment the copyright custodian ; in 1861, provid- 
 ing for appeal in all copyright cases to the Supreme 
 Court ; in 1865, one act again requiring deposit with 
 the Library of Congress, within one month from publi- 
 cation, another including photographs and negatives ; 
 in 1867, providing $25 penalty for failure to deposit. 
 This makes twelve acts bearing on copyright up to 
 1870, when a general act took the place of all, in- 
 cluding " paintings, drawings, chromos, statues, statu- 
 ary, and models or designs intended to be perfected 
 as works of the fine arts." This did away with the 
 local District Court system of registry, and made the 
 Librarian of Congress the copyright officer, with 
 whom printed title must be filed before, and two 
 copies deposited within ten days after, publication. 
 In 1873-74 the copyright act was included in the Re- 
 vised Statutes as Sections 4948 to 4971 (also see 
 §§ 629 and 699), and in 1874 an amendatory act made 
 legal a short form of record, " Copyright, 18 — , by 
 A. B.," and relegated labels to the Patent Office. 
 
 The act of 1790 received an interpretation, in 
 1834, in the case of Wheaton vs. Peters (rival law 
 reports), at the bar of the United States Supreme 
 Court, which placed copyright in the United States 
 exactly in the status it held in England after the 
 decision of the House of Lords in 1774. The court 
 referred directly to that decision as the ruling prec- 
 edent, and declared that by the statute of 1790 
 Congress did not affirm an existing right, but created 
 a right. It stated also that there was no common 
 law of the United States, and that (English) com- 
 mon law as to copyright had not been adopted in
 
 COPYRIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 3 I 
 
 Pennsylvania, where the case arose. So late as 
 1880, in Putnam vs. Pollard, claim was made that 
 this ruling decision did not apply in New York, 
 which, in its statute of 1786, expressly "provided, 
 that nothing in this act shall extend to, affect, prej- 
 udice, or confirm the rights which any person may 
 have to the printing or publishing of any books or 
 pamphlets at common law, in cases not mentioned 
 in this act." But the New York Supreme Court 
 decided that the precedent of Wheaton vs. Peters 
 nevertheless held. 
 
 As in the English case of Donaldsons vs. Beckett, 
 the decision in the American ruling case came from 
 a divided court. The opinion was handed down by 
 Justice McLean, three other judges agreeing, Jus- 
 tices Thompson and Baldwin dissenting, a seventh 
 judge being absent. The opinions of the dissenting 
 judges (see Drone, p. 43 ct seq.) constitute one of 
 the strongest statements ever made of natural rights 
 in literary property, in opposition to the ruling that 
 the right is solely the creature of the statute. " An 
 author's right," says Justice Thompson, "ought to 
 be esteemed an inviolable right established in sound 
 reason and abstract morality." 
 
 The application of copyright law, unlike that re- 
 garding patents, is solely a question of the courts. 
 The Librarian of Congress is simply an officer of 
 record, and makes no decisions, as is well stated in 
 his general circular in reply to queries : 
 
 " I have to advise you that no question concerning the validity of 
 a copyright can be determined under our laws by any other authority 
 than a United States Court. This office has no discretion or author-
 
 32 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 ity to refuse any application for a copyright coming within the pro- 
 visions of the law, and all questions as to priority or infringement 
 are purely judicial questions, with which the undersigned has nothing 
 to do. 
 
 " A certificate of copyright is prima facie evidence of an exclusive 
 title, and is highly valuable as the foundation of a legal claim to the 
 property involved in the publication. As no claim to exclusive 
 property in the contents of a printed book or other article can be 
 enforced under the common law, Congress has very properly pro- 
 vided the guarantees of such property which are embodied in the 
 ' Act to revise, consolidate, and amend the statutes relating to patents 
 and copyrights,' approved July S, 1870. If you obtain a copyright 
 under the provisions of this act, you can claim damages from any 
 person infringing your rights by printing or selling the same article ; 
 but upon all questions as to what constitutes an infringement, or 
 what measure of damages can be recovered, all parties are left to 
 their proper remedy in the courts of the United States." 
 
 The many perplexities that arise under our com- 
 plicated and unsatisfactory law, as it stands at pres- 
 ent, suggest the need here, as in England, of a 
 thorough remodeling of our copyright system. 
 
 December, 1885.
 
 III. 
 
 HENRY CLAYS REPORT IN FAVOR OF 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 During the second session of the Twenty-fourth 
 Congress, on February 16, 1837, Henry Clay in the 
 Senate made the following report, submitted with 
 Senate bill No. 223 : 
 
 The select committee to which was referred the 
 address of certain British, and the petition of 
 certain American, authors, has, according to 
 order, had the same under consideration, and 
 begs leave now to report : 
 
 1. That, by the act of Congress of 1831, being the 
 law now in force regulating copyrights, the benefits 
 of the act are restricted to citizens or residents of 
 the United States; so that no foreigner, residing 
 abroad, can secure a copyright in the United States 
 for any work of which he is the author, however 
 important or valuable it may be. The object of the 
 address and petition, therefore, is to remove this 
 restriction as to British authors, and to allow them 
 to enjoy the benefits of our law. 
 
 2. That authors and inventors have, according to 
 the practice among civilized nations, a property in 
 the respective productions of their genius is incon- 
 testable ; and that this property should be protected 
 
 3
 
 34 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 as effectually as any other property is, by law, fol- 
 lows as a legitimate consequence. Authors and 
 inventors are among the greatest benefactors of 
 mankind. They are often dependent, exclusively, 
 upon their own mental labors for the means of sub- 
 sistence ; and are frequently, from the nature of 
 their pursuits, or the constitutions of their minds, 
 incapable of applying that provident care to worldly 
 affairs which other classes of society are in the habit 
 of bestowing. These considerations give additional 
 strength to their just title to the protection of the 
 law. 
 
 3. It being established that literary property is 
 entitled to legal protection, it results that this pro- 
 tection ought to be afforded wherever the property 
 is situated. A British merchant brings or trans- 
 mits to the United States a bale of merchandise, 
 and the moment it comes within the jurisdiction of 
 our laws, they throw around it effectual security. 
 But if the work of a British author is brought to the 
 United States, it may be appropriated by any resi- 
 dent here, and republished without any compensa- 
 tion whatever being made to the author. We 
 should be all shocked if the law tolerated the least 
 invasion of the rights of property in the case of the 
 merchandise, whilst those which justly belong to the 
 works of authors are exposed to daily violation, 
 without the possibility of their invoking the aid of 
 the laws. 
 
 4. The committee thinks that this distinction in 
 the condition of the two descriptions of property is 
 not just, and that it ought to be remedied by some
 
 HENRY CLAY'S REPORT. 35 
 
 safe and cautious amendment of the law. Already 
 the principle has been adopted, in the patent laws, 
 of extending their benefits to foreign inventions or 
 improvements. It is but carrying out the same 
 principle to extend the benefits of our copyright 
 laws to foreign authors. In relation to the subjects 
 of Great Britain and France, it will be but a measure 
 of reciprocal justice; for, in both of those countries, 
 our authors may enjoy that protection of their laws 
 for literary property which is denied to their sub- 
 jects here. 
 
 5. Entertaining these views, the committee has 
 been anxious to devise some measure which, without 
 too great a disturbance of interests, or affecting too 
 seriously arrangements which have grown out of the 
 present state of things, may, without hazard, be 
 subjected to the test of practical experience. Of 
 the works which have heretofore issued from the 
 foreign press, many have been already republished 
 in the United States ; others are in a process of 
 republication, and some probably have been stereo- 
 typed. A copyright law which should embrace any 
 of these works might injuriously affect American 
 publishers, and lead to collision and litigation 
 between them and foreign authors. 
 
 6. Acting, then, on the principles of prudence and 
 caution, by which the committee has thought it 
 best to be governed, the bill which the committee 
 intends proposing provides that the protection which 
 it secures shall extend to those works only which 
 shall be published after its passage. It is also lim- 
 ited to the subjects of Great Britain and France;
 
 36 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 among other reasons, because the committee has 
 information that, by their laws, American authors 
 can obtain there protection for their productions, 
 but they have no information that such is the case 
 in any other foreign country. But, in principle, the 
 committee perceives no objection to considering the 
 republic of letters as one great community, and 
 adopting a system of protection for literary property 
 which should be common to all parts of it. The bill 
 also provides that an American edition of the foreign 
 work, for which an American copyright has been 
 obtained, shall be published within reasonable time. 
 
 7. If the bill should pass, its operation in this 
 country would be to leave the public, without any 
 charge for copyright, in the undisturbed possession 
 of all scientific and literary works published prior 
 to its passage — in other words, the great mass of 
 the science and literature of the world ; and to en- 
 title the British and French author only to the 
 benefit of copyright in respect to works which may 
 be published subsequent to the passage of the law. 
 
 8. The committee cannot anticipate any reason- 
 able or just objection to a measure thus guarded 
 and restricted. It may, indeed, be contended and it 
 is possible that the new work, when charged with 
 the expense incident to the copyright, may come 
 into the hands of the purchaser at a small advance 
 beyond what would be its price if there were no 
 such charge ; but this is by no means certain. It 
 is, on the contrary, highly probable that, when the 
 American publisher has adequate time to issue 
 carefully an edition of the foreign work, without
 
 HENRY CLAY S REPORT. 3/ 
 
 incurring the extraordinary expense which he now 
 has to sustain to make a hurried publication of it, 
 and to guard himself against dangerous competi- 
 tion, he will be able to bring it into the market as 
 cheaply as if the bill were not to pass. But, if that 
 should not prove to be the case, and if the Ameri- 
 can reader should have to pay a few cents to com- 
 pensate the author for composing a work by which 
 he is instructed and profited, would it not be just 
 in itself ? Has any reader a right to the use, with- 
 out remuneration, of intellectual productions which 
 have not yet been brought into existence, but lie 
 buried in the mind of genius? The committee 
 thinks not ; and its members believe that no Amer- 
 ican citizen would not feel it quite as unjust to 
 appropriate to himself their future publications, 
 without any consideration being paid to their for- 
 eign proprietors, as he would to take the bale of 
 merchandise, in the case stated, without paying for 
 it ; and he would the more readily make this trifling 
 contribution, when it secured to him, instead of the 
 imperfect and slovenly book now often issued, a 
 neat and valuable work, worthy of preservation. 
 
 9. With respect to the constitutional power to 
 pass the proposed bill, the committee entertains no 
 doubt, and Congress, as before stated, has acted on 
 it. The Constitution authorizes Congress " to pro- 
 mote the progress of science and useful arts, by 
 securing, for limited times, to authors and invent- 
 ors, the exclusive right to their respective writings 
 and discoveries." There is no limitation of the 
 power to natives or residents of this country. Such
 
 38 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 a limitation would have been hostile to the object 
 of the power granted. That object was to promote 
 the progress of science and useful arts. They be- 
 long to no particular country, but to mankind gen- 
 erally. And it cannot be doubted that the stimulus 
 which it was intended to give to mind and genius — 
 in other words, the promotion of the progress of 
 science and the arts — will be increased by the mo- 
 tives which the bill offers to the inhabitants of 
 Great Britain and France. 
 
 10. The committee concludes by asking leave to 
 introduce the bill which accompanies this report. 
 
 The following bill accompanied the report : 
 A Bill to amend the act entitled " An Act to 
 amend the several acts respecting copyright." 
 
 Be it enacted, etc., That the provisions of the act 
 to amend the several acts respecting copyrights, 
 which was passed on the third day of February, 
 eighteen hundred and thirty-one, shall be extended 
 to, and the benefits thereof may be enjoyed by, 
 any subject or resident of the United Kingdom of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, or of France, in the same 
 manner as if they were citizens or residents of the 
 United States, upon depositing a printed copy of 
 the title of the book, or other work for which a 
 copyright is desired, in the clerk's office of the 
 district court of any district in the United States, 
 and complying with the other requirements of the 
 said act : Provided, That this act shall not apply to 
 any of the works enumerated in the aforesaid act, 
 which shall have been etched or engraved, or 
 printed and published, prior to the passage of this
 
 HENRY CLAY'S RErORT. 39 
 
 act: And provided, also, That, unless an edition of 
 the work for which it is intended to secure the 
 copyright shall be printed and published in the 
 United States simultaneously with its issue in the 
 foreign country, or within one month after deposit- 
 ing as aforesaid the title thereof in the clerk's office 
 of the district court, the benefits of copyright here- 
 by allowed shall not be enjoyed as to such work.
 
 IV. 
 
 THE CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL 
 COPYRIGHT. 
 
 By Geo. Haven Putnam. 
 
 The history of the movement in this country in 
 behalf of International Copyright is still to be writ- 
 ten. I can present here only a brief summary of the 
 more noteworthy of the earlier events in this history, 
 accompanied by a more detailed statement of the 
 work done during the past three years by the Copy- 
 right Leagues. 
 
 In 1837, Henry Clay presented to Congress a 
 petition of British authors asking for American 
 copyright. The petition was referred to a select 
 committee, which included, in addition to Clay, 
 Webster, Buchanan, and Ewing. The report sub- 
 mitted by the committee, favoring the petition, was 
 written by Clay, and is given in this volume. 
 
 Between 1837, the date of rendering his report, 
 and 1842, the bill drafted by Clay on the lines of his 
 report was presented in the Senate five times. But 
 one vote upon it was, however, secured in 1840, 
 when it was ordered to lie upon the table. This 
 bill was in substantial accord with that just passed, 
 in requiring American manufacture for the books 
 securing copyright. Between 1837 and r ^4 2 numer-
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 4 I 
 
 ous petitions favoring International Copyright were 
 presented to Congress, which were noteworthy as 
 containing the signatures of nearly all the leading 
 authors of the country. 
 
 During those same five years, 1 837-1 842, the first 
 International Copyright conventions were being 
 framed between certain of the European states, the 
 earliest being that between Prussia and Wurtemberg. 
 
 In nearly all these earlier interstate arrangements, 
 it was made a condition that the work should be 
 printed within the territory of the country granting 
 the copyright protection to a foreign author. 
 
 In 1838, after the passing of the first International 
 Copyright Act in Great Britain, Lord Palmerston 
 invited the American Government to co-operate in 
 establishing a Copyright Convention between the 
 two countries. 
 
 In 1840, George P. Putnam issued in pamphlet 
 form an argument in behalf of International Copy- 
 right, and in the same year a somewhat similar 
 argument was printed by Cornelius Matthews. 
 
 In 1843, Mr. Putnam presented to Congress a 
 memorial, drafted by himself, and signed by ninety- 
 seven publishers and printers, in which it was stated 
 that the absence of an international copyright was 
 " alike injurious to the business of publishing and 
 to the best interests of the people at large." 
 
 In 1848, a memorial was presented to Congress, 
 signed by W. C. Bryant, John Jay, George P. Put- 
 nam, and others, asking for a copyright measure 
 very similar in principle to that which has just been 
 enacted. The memorial was ordered printed, and
 
 42 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 was referred to a select committee, from which no 
 report was made. 
 
 In 1853, Charles Sumner, then Chairman of the 
 Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, interested 
 himself in the subject, and reported to the Senate 
 a treaty drafted by Mr. Everett, then Secretary of 
 State, and himself, to secure copyright with Great 
 Britain ; but he was not able to obtain a vote upon 
 it. 
 
 In 1853, certain publishing houses in New York 
 including Charles Scribner, D. Appleton & Co., 
 C. S. Francis, Mason Bros., and George P. Putnam, 
 addressed a letter to Mr. Everett, Secretary of 
 State, favoring a Copyright Convention with Great 
 Britain, and suggesting a copyright arrangement 
 substantially identical in its conditions with that 
 secured under the present Act. 
 
 In 1858, Mr. Edward Jay Morris of Pennsylvania 
 introduced an International Copyright Bill contain- 
 ing similar provisions, but the bill was never re- 
 ported from committee. 
 
 In 1868, the American Copyright Association was 
 formed, at a meeting held in response to a circular 
 letter, headed " Justice to Authors and Artists." 
 This letter was issued by a committee composed of 
 George P. Putnam, Dr. S. Irenaeus Prime, Henry 
 Ivison, and James Parton. Of this association 
 W. C. Bryant was made President, George William 
 Curtis, Vice-President, and E. C. Stedman, Secre- 
 tary. 
 
 In 1867, Mr. Samuel M. Arnell of Tennessee se- 
 cured the passage of a resolution in the House of
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 43 
 
 Representatives, ordering the joint Library Commit- 
 tee to inquire into the subject of International Copy- 
 right and to report. Such a report was presented 
 in 1868 to the House by Mr. J. D. Baldwin of Mas- 
 sachusetts, together with a bill based upon a draft 
 submitted from the Copyright Association of New 
 York, by W. C. Bryant and George P. Putnam, secur- 
 ing copyright to foreign authors, with the condition 
 that their books should be manufactured in this 
 country. The bill was referred to the joint Com- 
 mittee on the Library, from which it never emerged. 
 
 In 1870, the so-called Clarendon Treaty was pro- 
 posed through Mr. Thornton, the British Minister 
 at Washington. The proposed treaty gave to the 
 authors and artists of each country the privilege of 
 copyright in the other by registering the work 
 within three months of the original publication. 
 
 In 1871, Mr. Cox introduced a Copyright Bill 
 practically identical in its provisions with the pre- 
 vious bill of Mr. Baldwin. This was the first bill 
 that reached the stage of discussion in the Com- 
 mittee of the Whole. 
 
 In 1872, a bill was drafted by Mr. W. H. Apple- 
 ton, which provided that the American edition of 
 the foreign work securing American copyright 
 should be manufactured in this country, and that 
 the American registry of copyright should be made 
 within one month of the date of the original publi- 
 cation. In the same year the draft of a bill was 
 submitted by Mr. John P. Morton of Louisville, 
 under which any American publisher was to be at 
 liberty to reprint the work of a foreign author, on
 
 44 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the condition of making payment to such author 
 of a ten per cent, royalty. Later in the year a 
 similar measure was introduced by Mr. Beck and 
 Mr. Sherman, providing that the royalty should be 
 five per cent. Both these bills were referred to the 
 Library Committee. 
 
 In 1873, Senator Lot M. Morrill of Maine re 
 ported, on behalf of the Library Committee, ad- 
 versely to the consideration by Congress of any 
 International Copyright Bill, on the ground that 
 " there was no unanimity of opinion among those 
 interested in the measure." 
 
 In 1874, Mr. Henry B. Banning of Ohio intro- 
 duced in the House the sixth International Copy- 
 right Bill, which gave copyright to foreign authors 
 on the simple condition of reciprocity. It was 
 referred to the Committee on Patents, where it 
 remained. 
 
 In 1878, the project for a Copyright Convention, 
 or treaty, was submitted by Messrs. Harper & 
 Brothers to Mr. Evarts, then Secretary of State; 
 and in 1880 the draft of a Convention, substan- 
 tially identical with the suggestions of Messrs. 
 Harper, was submitted by Mr. Lowell to Lord 
 Granville. 
 
 In 1883 the American Copyright League was 
 organized, mainly on the lines of a plan drafted in 
 1882, by Edward Eggleston and R. W. Gilder. 
 Mr. George Parsons Lathrop was made Secretary, 
 and an active campaign was begun in arousing and 
 educating public opinion on the subject. 
 
 In 1882, Mr. Robinson of New York presented a
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 45 
 
 bill giving consideration to the whole subject of 
 copyright, domestic and international. It was re- 
 ferred to the Committee on Patents, where it was 
 buried. 
 
 In 1883, the eighth Copyright Bill was introduced 
 by Mr. Patrick A. Collins of Massachusetts. This 
 also was buried in the Committee on Patents. 
 
 In 1884, the ninth International Copyright Bill 
 was introduced into the House by Mr. Dorsheimer 
 of New York. This provided simply for the ex- 
 tension to foreign authors of the privileges en- 
 joyed by the citizens or residents of the United 
 States. 
 
 This bill was approved by the Copyright League, 
 and was favorably reported to the House from the 
 Committee on the Judiciary, to which it had been 
 referred. It reached the stage of being discussed 
 in the House, but a resolution to fix a day for its 
 final consideration was defeated. 
 
 In the same year a bill was introduced in the 
 House by Mr. English, dealing with International 
 Copyright in dramatic compositions. It was re- 
 ferred to the Judiciary Committee, which took no 
 action. 
 
 In 1885, Mr. Lowell accepted the Presidency of 
 the Copyright League, and Mr. Stedman was made 
 its Vice-President. In the same year, at the in- 
 stance of the League, Senator Hawley of Connec- 
 ticut introduced his Copyright Bill (the text of 
 which is given in this volume), which was substan- 
 tially identical with that of Mr. Dorsheimer. The 
 bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Pat-
 
 46 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 ents. It was introduced in the House by Randolph 
 Tucker of Virginia, and was, like its predecessors, 
 referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. 
 
 In 1884 and in 1885 the annual messages of 
 Presidents Arthur and Cleveland contained earnest 
 recommendations for the enactment of some meas- 
 ure of International Copyright. 
 
 January 21, 1886, the twelfth International Copy- 
 right Bill was brought before the Senate by Jona- 
 than Chace of Rhode Island, and was referred to 
 the Committee on Patents. 
 
 As Mr. Solberg points out in his clearly presented 
 record of the fight for copyright, the introduction 
 of the Chace Bill marked a distinct epoch in the 
 history of the struggle for International Copyright. 
 The long work of education through the public 
 press, the distribution of pamphlets and missionary 
 addresses, was at last bearing fruit, and in 1886 it 
 was not so much a question whether there should be 
 or should not be an International Copyright, but 
 simply what form the law should take. 
 
 The Senate Committee on Patents gave a careful 
 consideration to the two measures then before them, 
 the Hawley Bill and the Chace Bill, and took testi- 
 mony concerning them in four public hearings. On 
 May 21, 1886, the committee presented a report 
 recommending the passage of the Chace Bill, but no 
 further action was secured in the Forty-ninth Con- 
 gress. Senator Chace was, however, a more persist- 
 ent champion than the cause of copyright had pre- 
 viously been fortunate enough to secure, and on 
 December 12, 1887, in the first session of the Fif-
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 47 
 
 tieth Congress, he reintroduced his bill, which was 
 again referred to the Committee on Patents. 
 
 In November, 1887, the American Copyright 
 League (which was composed, in the main, of the 
 authors of the country) voted to its Executive 
 Committee full discretion to secure the enactment of 
 such measure of International Copyright as might, 
 in the judgment of the committee, be found equi- 
 table and practicable. Armed with this authority, 
 the Executive Committee decided to use its efforts 
 to secure the passage of the Chace Bill, the only 
 measure for which any adequate support in Con- 
 gress could be depended upon. Of this commit- 
 tee Edward Eggleston was Chairman, George 
 Walton Green, Secretary, and R. U. Johnson, 
 Treasurer. 
 
 In December, 1887, the organization was effected 
 of the American Publishers' Copyright League, 
 with William H. Appleton as President, A. C. 
 McClurg as Vice-President, Charles Scribner as 
 Treasurer, and Geo. Haven Putnam as Secretary. 
 The Executive Committee of this league was in- 
 structed to co-operate with the American authors 
 in securing an International Copyright. 
 
 A Conference Committe, was at once formed of 
 the executive committees of the two leagues, and 
 every subsequent step in the campaign, until the 
 passage of the bill in 1891, was taken by this Con- 
 ference Committee. Mr. Putnam acted as Secre- 
 tary of the Conference Committee until Novem- 
 ber, 1889, when he was obliged to give up the post 
 on the ground of ill-health, and from that time until
 
 48 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the passage of the bill, in March, 1 891, the secretary's 
 work for the Conference Committee was most ably 
 carried on by Mr. R. U. Johnson, who had become 
 Secretary of the Authors' League. 
 
 He divided with Mr. Putnam the task of preparing 
 the documents, but he took upon himself the chief 
 burden of the correspondence and of the arduous 
 work in Washington. 
 
 Various sojourns were made in Washington by 
 Mr. Putnam, in connection particularly with the 
 shaping of evidence for the committees. The most 
 important service in the capital, however, was prob- 
 ably that rendered by Edward Eggleston, who de- 
 voted a number of weeks to bringing personal 
 influence to bear upon doubtful Representatives and 
 stubborn Senators. Dr. Eggleston's humorous cas- 
 tigation of Senator Beck of Kentucky (who was 
 inclined to characterize copyright as a " pernicious 
 monopoly") will be remembered as one of the re- 
 freshing incidents of the campaign. President Cleve- 
 land took a keen interest in the copyright measure, 
 and was not a little disappointed that it did not 
 become law in time to be classed with the things 
 accomplished under his administration. I may, I 
 trust, be pardoned for referring also to the valuable 
 service rendered (in connection more particularly 
 with the social opinion of the capital) by the grace- 
 ful personal influence of Mrs. Cleveland, who was 
 cordially and intelligently interested in the cause. 
 
 The Copyright Association of Boston had been 
 formed in December, 1887, at the instance of Mr. 
 Houghton, Mr. Estes, President Eliot, President
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 49 
 
 Walker, and other of the leading citizens of Boston 
 having to do with literature. 
 
 Mr. Estes was made Secretary, and under his active 
 direction the association promptly made its influence 
 felt, and succeeded in arousing interest in the question 
 with the public and among the Congressmen of New 
 England. The Boston association was represented in 
 the Conference Committee by Mr. Houghton and Mr. 
 Estes, and in addition to its local work it took its full 
 share of the responsibilities of the general campaign. 
 
 The Boston association was fortunate enough to 
 secure the services, as Counsel, of Mr. Samuel J. 
 Elder, one of the leaders of the Massachusetts Bar, 
 who had given special attention to the law of copy- 
 right and was a recognized authority on the subject. 
 Mr. Elder took an active part in the meetings of the 
 General Committee in New York at the time when 
 the preliminary drafts of the act were being worked 
 over, and he also assisted at several of the consulta- 
 tions which were held in Washington with Senator 
 Chace, and his legal experience and thorough knowl- 
 edge of the requirements to be provided for rendered 
 his co-operation particularly valuable. These ser- 
 vices of the Counsel from New England were, like 
 those of the secretaries and the other working mem- 
 bers of the Leagues, rendered without compensation 
 and as a personal contribution to the cause. 
 
 A Copyright League was also organized in Chi- 
 cago, with General McClurg as President, the influ- 
 ence of which throughout the northwest proved 
 very valuable. Auxiliary leagues were also formed 
 in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Denver, Buf-
 
 50 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 falo, Colorado Springs, and other places, and a large 
 amount of " missionary " work for copyright was 
 done throughout the country. The Rev. Henry S. 
 Van Dyke of New York took the lead in the work 
 of interesting ministers in the moral phase of the 
 question, and his own address on the " National 
 Sin of Piracy " was widely circulated. Archdeacon 
 A. Mackay Smith of New York did some effective 
 writing in behalf of the bill in the Churchman and 
 elsewhere, and by means as well of the pulpits as 
 of the more intelligent of the journals, Interna- 
 tional Copyright was made a question of the day 
 throughout the country. 
 
 A noteworthy feature in the authors' share of the 
 campaign was the holding of " authors' readings " 
 at meetings called for the purpose in New York, 
 Brooklyn, Washington, Boston, Chicago, and else- 
 where, at which the leading authors of the country 
 read selections from their own writings. The " read- 
 ings " were well attended and served as an effective 
 advertisement of the copyright cause, while the 
 admission fees helped to defray some of the mis- 
 sionary expenses of the campaign. Among the 
 authors who co-operated in these readings were 
 Lowell, Curtis, Eggleston, Stedman, Stoddard, Gil- 
 der, Stockton, Bunner, Cable, Page, Hawthorne, 
 " Mark Twain," J. W. Riley, " Uncle Remus," Mrs. 
 Elliott, and others. 
 
 Testimony before the Committees of the Senate 
 and the House was given on behalf of the bill by a 
 number of representatives of the two leagues, in- 
 cluding, among the authors, E. C. Stedman, Edward 
 Eggleston, R. U. Johnson, R. W. Gilder, "Mark
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 5 I 
 
 Twain," and R. R. Bowker, and among the pub- 
 lishers, W. W. Appleton, H. O. Houghton, Chas. 
 Scribner, Dana Estes, and G. H. Putnam. 
 
 Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Welsh, and other representa- 
 tives of the Typographical Unions of Boston, New 
 York, and Philadelphia, were also heard. Argu- 
 ments in opposition to the bill were presented by 
 Mr. Gardiner Hubbard, a lawyer of Washington, 
 who said that he spoke simply for himself, and by 
 Messrs. Arnoux, Ritch & Woodford, a law firm of 
 New York, representing certain clients whose names 
 they were unwilling to disclose. After two years of 
 service on behalf of these anonymous clients, they 
 finally stated, under pressure from the Chairman of 
 the House Committee on the Judiciary, that they 
 were opposing the bill in the interest of Mr. Ignatius 
 Kohler of Philadelphia, Mr. Kohler being a Ger- 
 man publisher of modest business standing. The 
 committee did not feel that it had been candidly 
 dealt with by the counsel, and this feeling doubtless 
 helped to secure their favorable report for the bill. 
 
 The first draft of the bill which was submitted to 
 Senator Chace by the authors and the publishers 
 provided that foreign books securing American 
 copyright must be printed in the United States, 
 but permitted the importation of clichds of the type 
 or of duplicates of the plates used in printing the 
 original editions. 
 
 It was contended that for certain classes of books 
 the necessity of doing the type-setting twice in- 
 stead of dividing its cost between an English and an 
 American edition would involve a wasteful expense,
 
 52 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the burden of which would have to be shared be- 
 tween the readers, the authors, and the publishers. 
 On the other hand, the Typographical Unions in- 
 sisted that a provision for American type-setting 
 was essential for their trade interests, and that un- 
 less such a provision were inserted they would be 
 under the necessity of opposing the bill. It was 
 the opinion of Senator Chace, and of other of the 
 congressional friends of copyright, that the co- 
 operation of the unions would be very important, 
 while their influence against the bill in committee 
 and through their friends in the House would prob- 
 ably be sufficiently powerful to prevent its passage, 
 at least at any early date. 
 
 It was, therefore, decided by the authors and pub- 
 lishers of the two leagues to meet the views of the 
 typographers on this point, and, in utilizing their 
 co-operation to associate with the Conference Com- 
 mittee a representative of the National Typographi- 
 cal Union. Mr. Boselly was the first typograph- 
 ical representative ; he was later succeeded by Mr. 
 Dumars, who had also succeeded him as the Presi- 
 dent of the New York union. The most active and 
 important work for the bill on behalf of the Typo- 
 graphical Unions was, however, done by Mr. Ken- 
 nedy, of the Washington union, whose services in 
 Washington proved most valuable. 
 
 The negotiations with the Unions were carried 
 on in Philadelphia by Mr. C. Febiger, and in New 
 York by Mr. Eggleston and Mr. Putnam. 
 
 The National Association of Typothetse, or em- 
 ploying printers, was represented in the Conference
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 53 
 
 Committee by Mr. Theodore L. De Vinne, through 
 whose influence and arguments, at two of the an- 
 nual meetings of the Typothetae, resolutions were 
 secured in support of the bill. 
 
 The second bill introduced by Senator Chace con- 
 tained the clause, drafted at the instance of the 
 typographers, providing that the foreign book se- 
 curing American copyright must be printed from 
 type set within the United States. It also provided 
 for the prohibition of the importation of all foreign 
 editions of works copyrighted in this country. 
 
 For the wording of these provisions of the bill 
 Henry C. Lea of Philadelphia was chiefly responsi- 
 ble. Mr. Lea, himself an author of distinction, had 
 had long experience as a publisher. He was a 
 strong believer in the principle of international 
 copyright, but he was equally clear in his convic- 
 tion that it would be contrary to the interests of 
 the community to permit any injury to the business 
 of the American book-making trades, or to transfer 
 to English publishers any control of the American 
 book-market. He contended, therefore, that the 
 total American manufacture of the books copy- 
 righted must be made an essential condition of the 
 concession of American copyright to foreign au- 
 thors. His contention, backed up by the printers, 
 was finally accepted by the authors, and the "type- 
 setting " and " non-importation " clauses were in- 
 serted in the bill. 
 
 The Chace bill, thus modified, was introduced in 
 the House March 19, 1888, byW. C. P. Breckinridge 
 of Kentucky, and referred to the Judiciary Com-
 
 54 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 mittee, and by the committee favorably reported to 
 the House April 21. 
 
 On April 23 the bill was called up for considera- 
 tion in the Senate, and after a discussion which 
 took portions of several days, it was passed May 
 9, 1888, by a vote of 34 to 10. 
 
 The leaders in its support were Senators Chace, 
 Hawley, Hoar, Frye, and Piatt, while its most 
 active opponents were Senators Beck of Kentucky, 
 Daniels of Virginia, George of Mississippi, and Rea- 
 gan of Texas. 
 
 In the House the bill was not in as favorable a 
 position on the calendar, while the long discussion 
 of tariff questions in connection with the Mills Bill 
 had seriously blocked the progress of business. Not- 
 withstanding, therefore, the prestige of the success 
 of the measure in the Senate, it did not prove prac- 
 ticable during the session to bring it to a vote in the 
 House. The difficulty may, also, have been some- 
 what increased by the fact that the bill had origi- 
 nated in the Senate, which was strongly Republican, 
 while the conduct of business in the House was in 
 the hands of a Democratic majority. 
 
 The campaign for the Copyright Bill in the Fifty- 
 first Congress was initiated at a breakfast given in 
 New York on the 7th of December, 1889, by advo- 
 cates of International Copyright, to the Comte de 
 K£ratry, in compliment to himself and to the 
 French literary and artistic associations of which 
 he was the representative. 
 
 In the Fifty-first Congress the bill was promptly 
 introduced in the Senate December 4, 1889, by Sen-
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 55 
 
 ator O. H. Piatt of Connecticut (Senator Chace 
 having in the meantime resigned his seat), and was 
 again referred to the Committee on Patents. A 
 duplicate of the bill was, on January 6, 1890, intro- 
 duced in the House by W. C. P. Breckinridge of 
 Kentucky, its old-time supporter, and found its way 
 in regular course to the Committee on the Judiciary, 
 From this committee it was favorably reported on 
 January 21, 1890. For the purpose of securing a 
 double chance for the bill, Mr. Butterworth of Ohio, 
 an earnest friend of copyright, also introduced the 
 bill, and had it referred to the Committee on Pat- 
 ents, of which he was chairman. The result showed 
 that if it had not been for this piece of foresight 
 the bill could hardly have succeeded in the Fifty- 
 first Congress. In this Congress the majority in the 
 House, as well as in the Senate, was Republican, 
 and it was, therefore, essential to place the bill 
 under Republican leadership. 
 
 Fortunately, in connection with this necessity, 
 two active friends had been found for the measure 
 on the Republican side of the House — Mr. G. E. 
 Adams of Chicago, and Mr. W. E. Simonds of New 
 Haven. 
 
 The former presented to the House on the 15th 
 of February, a forcible report in favor of the bill, 
 together with a new printing of the bill itself, giv- 
 ing the full wording of the sections of the Revised 
 Statutes, as they would appear when the new pro- 
 visions had been inserted. 
 
 On February 18, Mr. Simonds submitted a fav- 
 orable report from the Committee on Patents,
 
 56 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 accompanied by a bill which was a duplicate of that 
 of Mr. Adams, with the addition, however, of what is 
 known as the Reciprocity clause. On February 21, 
 Senator Piatt obtained leave to substitute the text 
 of the Adams bill for his Senate bill. 
 
 On the 1st of May, the Adams Judiciary Com- 
 mittee Bill was reached on the calendar of the 
 House, and after a vigorous discussion, extending 
 over two days, the third reading was refused by a 
 vote of 126 to 98. The opposing vote was largely 
 Democratic, but it was led by a Republican, Judge 
 Lewis E. Payson of Illinois, while on the Demo- 
 cratic side Mr. Breckinridge of Kentucky was, as 
 heretofore, active in support of the bill ; and he 
 was ably assisted on his side of the House by W. 
 L. Wilson of West Virginia, Ashbel P. Fitch of 
 New York, and others, and among the Republicans, 
 by Mr. Lodge, Mr. Stewart of Vermont, Mr. Si- 
 monds, and others. Not discouraged by this adverse 
 vote, Mr. Simonds, having added a reciprocity 
 clause to his bill, again introduced it on the 16th 
 of May, and had it referred to the Committee on 
 Patents, and on June 10 it was again reported from 
 that committee. The report, which was written by 
 Mr. Simonds, was most comprehensive and forcible, 
 and it has been included in this volume. 
 
 Early in the second session, Mr. Simonds suc- 
 ceeded in getting a day fixed for his bill, and on 
 December 3 the bill was passed by a vote of 139 
 to 96. 
 
 The result was partly due to skilful parliamentary 
 management, and to the personal influence brought
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. $? 
 
 to bear upon more or less indifferent members and 
 upon members who had previously misapprehended 
 the subject, by Representatives who had made a 
 careful study of it, like Mr. Lodge of Massachu- 
 setts, Mr. Simonds, and others. 
 
 A good share of the credit for the noteworthy 
 change in the opinion of the House may, however, 
 justly be claimed for the active " missionary " work 
 which had been kept up by the league during the 
 summer throughout the country, and especially in 
 the constituencies of doubtful members, by means 
 of the distribution of tracts and arguments, the 
 preparation of material for the leaders of local 
 newspapers, and also by reaching the personal cor- 
 respondents of authors and the friends of authors. 
 
 The higher grade journals throughout the country 
 gave a hearty support to the bill, and the aid of the 
 Times, Tribune, and Post, of New York, the Sun of 
 Baltimore, the Times and Ledger of Philadelphia, 
 and the Commercial of Cincinnati, was especially 
 valuable. The members of the book trade were kept 
 thoroughly informed and educated on the subject by 
 an able series of papers in the Publishers' Weekly. 
 
 The bill, as passed in the House, was considered 
 in the Senate in a discussion extending over portions 
 of six days. 
 
 A similar measure (the Chace Bill) having before 
 received the approval of a majority of the Senators, 
 it was at first thought that the success of this bill in 
 the Senate was assured. On the strength of the 
 record of the Chace Bill, the secretary of the Joint 
 Committee obtained for the bill the second place on
 
 58 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the calendar of the prescribed business for the ses- 
 sion, "without which advantage it would probably 
 not have been reached. New obstacles had, how- 
 ever, developed, including the political prejudices 
 engendered by the preceding election, and the fight 
 of two years before had to be fought over again on 
 new lines, although with the great aid of the import- 
 ant work previously accomplished. 
 
 Certain of the senators who had previously voted 
 for the bill and who had expressed themselves as 
 friendly to its principles, found themselves now inter- 
 ested in proposing various amendments, some of 
 which were inconsistent with the main purpose and 
 with the existing provisions of the bill, and all of which 
 were promptly taken advantage of by the opponents 
 as affording opportunities for killing the bill by delays. 
 
 The amendment which brought out the largest 
 amount of discussion was that offered by Senator 
 Sherman, which has already been referred to in this 
 volume (in the analysis immediately following the 
 text of the Act). 
 
 This amendment authorized the importation of 
 foreign editions of books by foreign authors secur- 
 ing American copyright. The supporters of the 
 bill contended that such an authorization would be 
 incompatible with the manufacturing provisions of 
 the bill, which made American manufacture of all the 
 editions issued in this country an essential condition 
 of American copyright. It became apparent after 
 the first conferences that the House would not recede 
 from this view, and the amendment, after being 
 twice passed by the Senate, was finally abandoned.
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 59 
 
 A modification was, however, finally made in the 
 Conference Committee in the provision of the bill 
 permitting the importation of copies of authorized 
 foreign editions of works copyrighted in the United 
 States, in quantities not to exceed two copies in any 
 one invoice. This provision, as originally worded, 
 made the written consent of the owner of the copy- 
 right a condition of the importation of these two 
 copies. The Conference Committee eliminated the 
 consent of the author. This concession undoubtedly 
 helped to secure the final vote in the Senate, accept- 
 ing the bill without the Sherman amendment, as it re- 
 moved the objection that readers preferring European 
 editions ought not to be prevented from securing these 
 (in duly authorized issues) for their own libraries. 
 
 A fourth amendment, to the consideration of which 
 a good deal of time was also given in the Senate, was 
 presented by Senator Frye, in the interest of Ameri- 
 can lithographers and chromo-manufacturers. 
 
 As first worded, it provided that foreign artists 
 and designers could secure American copyright for 
 their art productions or designs only when the re- 
 productions of these had been manufactured in the 
 United States. This Frye amendment was vigor- 
 ously opposed by the artists throughout the country 
 and by all who were interested in having justice 
 done to foreign artists, and petitions against it came 
 in from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, 
 and elsewhere. The friends of the bill pointed out 
 that it would in the larger number of cases be ab- 
 solutely impracticable for foreign artists to arrange 
 to have the reproductions of their works of art
 
 60 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 manufactured in the United States, as this would 
 necessitate the importation of the original — an im- 
 portation entailing, in addition to other serious dis- 
 advantages, outlays for freight and duty. 
 
 The amendment would, therefore, have the result 
 of nullifying the American copyright of foreign art- 
 ists, which it had been the intention of the bill to 
 secure. This Frye amendment passed the Senate on 
 the 17th of February by a vote of 41 to 24. The 
 secretary of the Joint Committee, who had spent six 
 weeks of the session in Washington, in active canvass 
 for the bill, took immediate steps to organize an op- 
 position to this amendment, both in Congress and 
 throughout the country. 
 
 As a result of the protests that came in to the Sen- 
 ate from art associations, artists, art students, from 
 educational centres, and from many of the leading 
 journals, the action of the Senate was on the 19th of 
 February, reversed by a vote of 33 to 31. Among 
 those who were active in bringing public opinion to 
 bear upon Congress in this matter were R. W. Gilder, 
 Dana Estes, and G. H. Putnam. In its final form 
 the bill provided for the American manufacture only 
 of such art reproductions as took the form of litho- 
 graphs, photographs, and chromos ; and left the 
 foreign artist, therefore, in a position to secure, ir- 
 respective of place of manufacture, American copy- 
 right for reproductions in the form of engravings (on 
 steel or on copper) and photogravures. 
 
 An amendment proposed by Senator Ingalls, and 
 finally accepted, with some modifications, by the 
 Conference Committee, permitted the importation
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 6l 
 
 of foreign newspapers and magazines containing 
 material that had been copyrighted in the United 
 States, provided the publication in such periodicals 
 had been authorized by the author. 
 
 The most active supporters of the bill in the Senate 
 were Senator Piatt, whose patience, parliamentary 
 skill, and tact were unwearying, and Senator Hoar, 
 Evarts, Hawley, Wolcott, Aldrich, and Dixon. 
 
 The most persistent and unwearying opponent 
 was Senator Daniels of Virginia, who was supported 
 in his opposition by Senators Sherman, Hale, Pasco, 
 Vance, Reagan, and Plumb. 
 
 Mr. Daniels took up a considerable portion of the 
 time allotted to the bill during the several days of 
 the debate, and at one time it looked as if he would 
 succeed, in connection with the crowded condition 
 of the calendar, in killing it by " talking out the 
 time." While criticising severely the protectionist 
 provision of the bill, he voted for the Frye amend- 
 ment, which constituted an important addition to 
 these provisions, and he voted for every amendment 
 which seemed likely to make delays. The bill, with 
 the several Senate amendments, passed the Senate 
 on the 19th of February, by the decisive vote of 36 
 to 14, 38 members being absent. 
 
 On the 1st of March the House decided, by a 
 vote of 128 to 64, not to concur with the Senate 
 amendments. The friends of the measure voted 
 with the majority, having already assured them- 
 selves that it would not be practicable to pass the 
 bill in the House with the amendments. 
 
 On the 3d of March Mr. Simonds reported to the
 
 62 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 House that the Conference Report had agreed upon 
 certain of the amendments, with some modifications, 
 but had disagreed upon the Sherman amendment. 
 He secured, by a vote of 139 to 90, authority for 
 another conference. On the evening of the same 
 day the Senate refused, by a vote of 33 to 28, to 
 recede from the Sherman amendment, but also 
 ordered another conference. 
 
 The result of this second conference, which took 
 place after one o'clock on the night of the 3d, was 
 a report to the Senate by a majority of its com- 
 mittee, in favor of receding from the Sherman 
 amendment. The change in the opinion of the 
 Senate Committee had been brought about by a 
 change in the position of Senator Hiscock, who had 
 become convinced that if an International Copyright 
 Law was to be enacted by the Fifty-first Congress, 
 the Sherman amendment must be abandoned. His 
 associates on the committee were Senator Piatt, who 
 had from the outset opposed the amendment, and 
 Senator Gray of Delaware, who favored it. The report 
 of the second Conference Committee was accepted 
 by the House, by a vote of 127 to 82, the House having 
 accepted from the Senate the Frye amendment (as 
 modified), the Ingalls amendment, and an amendment 
 proposed by Senator Edmunds, giving to the Presi- 
 dent, in place of the Attorney-General, the responsi- 
 bility of declaring when reciprocity had been arranged 
 for with any foreign state, and the provisions of the 
 act had, therefore, come into force with such state. 
 
 The successful steering of the bill through the 
 House in the several votes required during the
 
 CONTEST FOR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 63 
 
 night of the 3d of March was largely the work of 
 Henry Cabot Lodge, and was not a little furthered 
 by the friendly co-operation of Speaker Reed. 
 
 At half-past two in the morning of March 4 the 
 Senate assented to the final report of its Conference 
 Committee, by a vote of 27 to 19 (with 40 senators 
 absent), and the bill was passed. 
 
 A motion to reconsider was, however, immediately 
 made by Mr. Pasco of Florida, and, although the 
 bill had in the meantime been signed by the Vice- 
 President, it was not permitted to be sent to the 
 President until a quorum could be secured to vote 
 upon Mr. Pasco's motion. This was accomplished 
 at half-past ten in the morning of March 4, within 
 an hour of the close of the Fifty-first Congress, 
 when the motion to reconsider was defeated by the 
 vote of 29 to 21, with 36 absentees. 
 
 The greater number of the Senators had been up 
 through a large part of the night, and the friends 
 of the bill were rallied to resist this last assault only 
 by means of an urgent " whip " delivered in person 
 by Mr. Johnson, Mr. Appleton, and Mr. Scribner, 
 who, acting on behalf of the Copyright Leagues, 
 had, in company with Mr. Piatt, Mr. Lodge, and 
 other friends of the bill, kept a continuous vigil 
 over its varying fortunes during the long hours of 
 the night session. 
 
 The bill was promptly signed by the President, 
 and thus, after a struggle extending over fifty-three 
 years, the United States put itself on record as ac- 
 cepting the principle of International Copyright. 
 
 New York, April 2, 1S91.
 
 V. 
 THE HAWLEY BILL. 
 
 INTRODUCED into the Senate, January, 1885, by 
 Senator J. R. Haw ley of Connecticut, but never 
 reported from the Committee on Patents to which 
 it was referred. 
 
 Be it enacted, etc. 
 
 I. The citizens of foreign states and countries, of which the laws, 
 treaties, or conventions confer or shall hereafter confer upon citi- 
 zens of the United States rights of copyright equal to those accorded 
 to their own citizens, shall have in the United States rights of copy- 
 right equal to those enjoyed by citizens of the United States. 
 
 II. This act shall not apply to any book or other subject of copy- 
 right published before the date hereof. 
 
 III. The laws now in force in regard to copyright shall be appli- 
 cable to the copyright hereby created, except so far as the said laws 
 are hereinafter amended or repealed. 
 
 IV. Section 4971 of the Revised Statutes of the United States is 
 hereby repealed. Section 4954 is amended by striking out the words 
 "and a citizen of the United States or resident therein." Section 
 4967 is amended by striking out the words " if such author or pro- 
 prietor is a citizen of the United States or resident therein." 
 
 V. The proclamation of the President of the United States that 
 such equality of rights exists in any country shall be conclusive proof 
 of such equality.
 
 VI. 
 
 AN ANALYSIS OF A SCHEME FOR INTER- 
 NATIONAL COPYRIGHT, SUGGESTED 
 BY MR. R. PEARSALL-SMITH. . 
 
 Reprinted, with some additions, from the New York Evening Post. 
 
 PUBLIC attention has recently been directed to a 
 new scheme for international copyright which has 
 been presented in the Nineteenth Century by Mr. R. 
 Pearsall-Smith, of Philadelphia, under the title of 
 " An Olive Branch from America." Mr. Smith pro- 
 poses: 
 
 (i) That any American publisher shall be at lib- 
 erty to print editions of the works of a foreign 
 author under the condition of paying to such author 
 a royalty of ten per cent, of the retail price. 
 
 (2) That this royalty shall be paid by the pur- 
 chase from the author, in advance of the publication 
 of the American edition, of stamps representing the 
 above rate, as many stamps being bought as there 
 are copies printed in the edition, and each copy of 
 the book that is placed in the market by the pub- 
 lisher bearing one of these stamps conspicuously 
 affixed. 
 
 The plan contains some further suggestions as to 
 the penalties for the sale or purchase of an un- 
 stamped book, but the above are the essential pro- 
 visions, and the only ones at present calling for con- 
 sideration. 
 5
 
 66 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Mr. Smith does not speak as an author, and it is 
 evident that he has no adequate knowledge of the 
 conditions under which is carried on the business of 
 publishing and distributing books. It seems desir- 
 able, however, to give present consideration to the 
 practicability of his suggestions, as well because 
 he has seen fit to present them to the British pub- 
 lic with a certain assumption of speaking for the 
 American community, and has secured for them the 
 quasi approval of certain English authors, such as 
 Tennyson, Gladstone, Matthew Arnold and others, 
 as because at this time, when those who have for 
 many years been working on behalf of international 
 copyright are again hopeful of securing favorable 
 attention from Congress, it is important that public 
 and legislative opinion should not be confused with 
 crude and visionary schemes. 
 
 The question of international or of domestic 
 copyright is, it is claimed, and with justice, in the 
 main a matter between the authors and the public, 
 and in shaping legislation the rights of authors and 
 the interests of the public are the essential things to 
 be considered. It is in order, nevertheless, for pub- 
 lishers to claim a hearing in connection with the 
 provisions of copyright legislation, not because the 
 interests of their small group ought to be in any 
 degree offset against those of the community, but 
 because their experience gives them the knowledge 
 (possessed by no other class) of the conditions under 
 which the proposed laws must do their work, and 
 legislation put into shape without the benefit of this 
 technical knowledge may easily fail of its purpose as
 
 THE PEARSALL-SMITH SCHEME. 6y 
 
 well in protecting the authors as in serving the real 
 interests of the community. 
 
 The measure of permitting a foreign book to be 
 reprinted by all dealers who will contract to pay the 
 author a specified royalty, is, of course, not original 
 with Mr. Smith. It was suggested in 1872 by John 
 P. Morton, John Elderkin, and others, in connection 
 with the attempt then made to secure international 
 copyright. In 1877, at tne time tne British Copy- 
 right Commission was engaged in revising the act 
 for domestic copyright, the proposal was made by 
 Mr. Farrer (now Sir Thomas Farrer) that a similar 
 provision should apply to domestic publishing, and 
 that for the purpose of securing cheap books for the 
 people, all dealers should have the privilege of pub- 
 lishing editions of an author's works, who would 
 agree to pay to the author a copyright, to be fixed 
 by law, which would secure him " a fair profit for 
 his labor." Herbert Spencer, in his testimony 
 before the Commission, objected that : 
 
 (1) This would be a direct interference with the 
 laws of trade under which the author, like any pro- 
 ducer, had the right to select his own agents and 
 make his own bargains. 
 
 (2) No legislature was competent to determine 
 what was " a fair rate of profit for an author." 
 
 (3) No average royalty could be determined which 
 could give a fair recompense for the different 
 amounts and kinds of labor given to the production 
 of different classes of books. 
 
 (4) If the legislature has the right to fix the profit 
 of the author, it has an equal right to determine
 
 63 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 that of his associate in the publication, the pub- 
 lisher ; and if of the publisher, then also of the 
 printer, binder, and paper-maker, who all have an 
 interest in the undertaking. Such a right of control 
 would apply with equal force to manufacturers of 
 other articles of importance to the community, and 
 would not be in accordance with the present theo- 
 ries of the proper functions of government. 
 
 (5) If books are to be cheapened by such a meas- 
 ure, it must be at the expense of some portion of 
 the profits now going to the authors and publishers; 
 the assumption is that book producers and distribu- 
 ters do not understand their business, but require 
 to be instructed by the state how to carry it on, 
 and that the publishing business alone needs to have 
 its returns regulated by law. 
 
 (6) The prices of the best books would in many 
 cases, instead of being lessened, be higher than at 
 present, because the publishers would require to 
 insure themselves against the risk of rival editions, 
 and because they would make their first editions 
 smaller, and the first cost would have to be divided 
 among a less number of copies. Such reductions of 
 prices as would be made would be on the flimsier 
 and more popular literature, and even on this could 
 not be lasting. 
 
 (7) For enterprises of the most lasting importance 
 to the public, the publishers require to be assured 
 of returns from the largest market possible, and 
 without such security, enterprises of this character 
 could not be undertaken at all. 
 
 (8) Open competition of this kind would in the
 
 THE PEARSALL-SMITH SCHEME. 69 
 
 end result in crushing out the smaller publishers, 
 and Jn concentrating the business in the hands of a 
 few houses whose purses had been long enough to 
 carry through the long and unprofitable contests 
 that would certainly be the first effect of such legis- 
 lation. 
 
 Every one of these objections adduced against 
 the plan of open publishing for domestic works, 
 applies with equal force to the plan of legalizing 
 such open republishing for foreign works, and there 
 are some further considerations which Mr. Spencer 
 did not mention. 
 
 A British author could hardly obtain much satis- 
 faction from an arrangement which, while prevent- 
 in^ him from placing his American business in the 
 hands of a publishing house selected by himself, 
 and of whose responsibility he could assure himself, 
 threw open the use of his property to any dealers 
 who might choose to scramble for it. The author 
 could exercise no control over the style, shape, 
 accuracy, or completeness of his American edition, 
 the character of the illustrations contained in his 
 books, or the appropriateness of the association 
 that might be given to his writings (in series or in 
 volumes) with the works of other writers. If the 
 author were tenacious as to the collection of the 
 royalties to which he would become entitled, he 
 would in many cases be able to enforce his claims 
 (even under the proposed " stamp act ") only 
 through troublesome supervision and probably 
 through vexatious lawsuits, the expenses of which 
 might easily exceed his receipts. The benefit to
 
 JO THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the public would be no more apparent. Any gain 
 in the cheapness of the editions produced would be 
 more than offset by their unsatisfactorincss. They 
 would in the majority of cases be untrustworthy as 
 to accuracy or completeness, and be hastily and 
 flimsily manufactured. Scientific works could, as 
 Mr. Huxley points out, have their value materially 
 impaired by presenting illustrations which were 
 only travesties of the author's original designs, and 
 such inadequate and misleading illustrations would 
 assuredly find place in the competing editions of 
 the more " enterprising " reprinters. 
 
 A certain class of British authors would have the 
 further ground for objection that the provision re- 
 quiring payment in advance of copyright on the 
 first edition would not infrequently have the effect 
 of preventing any American edition of their books 
 from being undertaken. There is always considera- 
 ble risk in reprinting a first book by a foreign au- 
 thor, and the writers of first books are as a rule 
 sufficiently desirous to bring their productions to 
 the attention of the American public to be very 
 willing to permit the payment of compensation to 
 the author to be left contingent upon there being 
 any profits from the sales. 
 
 A great many ventures, desirable in themselves, 
 and that would be of service to the public, no pub- 
 lisher could, under such an arrangement, afford to 
 undertake at all, as, if they proved successful, un- 
 scrupulous neighbors would, through rival editions, 
 reap the benefit of his initiative, his literary judg- 
 ment, and his advertising. For works of this class,
 
 THE PEARSALL-SMITH SCHEME. J I 
 
 reprints of which were not ventured upon, Ameri- 
 can buyers would of course be obliged to depend 
 upon the more costly foreign editions. 
 
 It is also the case that a certain class of publica- 
 tions, of which the " International Science Series" 
 and the " Story of the Nations Series " are exam- 
 ples, are the undertakings of the publisher. They 
 are in a sense the creation of the publisher, as they 
 would not have come into existence at all except 
 for the publisher's initiative and planning ; and the 
 volumes in them are usually written at the pub- 
 lisher's suggestion. The commercial value of such 
 a series depends in part upon the value of the indi- 
 vidual volumes, but largely, also, upon the planning 
 and editorial management of the undertaking as a 
 whole ; and a considerable part of the sale of any 
 one of these volumes is to be credited to its con 
 nection with the series. In any such series, cer- 
 tain of the volumes, which are necessary and im- 
 portant to give completeness to the general plan, 
 are, from the nature of their special subjects, less 
 likely than the others to secure remunerative sale ; 
 and any deficiencies accruing from the publication 
 of these have to be made up from the sale of the 
 more popular volumes. 
 
 Under any "open publishing" scheme, however, 
 the competing " reprinters" would pick out for their 
 competing editions the more salable books, securing 
 on these the advantage of the initiative, the editorial 
 skill, and the advertising of the original publisher, 
 and, in part at least, also, of the prestige of the 
 series. The curtailing or destroying altogether of
 
 72 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the profits on these more popular volumes would, of 
 course, lessen to a corresponding extent the ability 
 of the original publisher to carry to completeness 
 the plan of his series by including in it subjects 
 which, however important for certain readers or 
 certain students, were not calculated to secure a 
 remunerative sale. Upon this class of readers the 
 plan of "open publishing" would therefore bring 
 loss and deprivation as surely as upon the publishers. 
 
 Responsible publishers, who fulfill strictly their 
 engagements with authors, and whose aim it is to 
 present effectively to the public complete and de- 
 cently printed books, must naturally object to a 
 measure which would put the business of reprint- 
 ing on the basis of a cut-throat competition, and 
 which would give such material advantages to the 
 more unscrupulous dealers who were oblivious of 
 their obligations either to the authors or the public. 
 
 I take the position that there is an impertinence 
 in the suggestion of the government's undertaking 
 to decide either for the author at what rate he 
 should be paid, or for the publisher by what ma- 
 chinery the payments should be made. It is also 
 absurd to assume that it would be either proper or 
 practicable to make the rate of payment the same 
 for all grades of authors and for all classes of books ; 
 while there is no more propriety in having the gov- 
 ernment supervise the business of the publisher by 
 such a " bell-punch " device, than there would be in 
 instituting similar government supervision for any 
 other classes of business in which trust interests are 
 involved.
 
 THE PEARSALL-SMITH SCHEME. H 
 
 With reference to this plan for legalized open re- 
 printing, the experienced publisher, W. H. Apple- 
 ton, wrote in 1872 : 
 
 "The first demand of property is for security, . . . and to 
 publish a book in any real sense — that is, not merely to print it, but 
 to make it well and widely known, requires much effort and larger 
 expenditure, and these will not be invested in a property which is 
 liable to be destroyed at any moment. Legal protection would put 
 an end to evil practices, make property secure, business more legiti- 
 mate, and give a new vigor to enterprise ; nor can a policy which is 
 unjust to the author, and works viciously in the book-trade be the 
 best for the public. The publisher can neither afford to make the 
 book so thoroughly known, nor can he put it at so low a price as if 
 he could count upon a permanent and undisturbed control of its 
 sales. Many valuable books are not reprinted at all, and therefore are 
 to be had only at English prices, for the same reason, that publishers 
 are cautious about risking their capital in unprotected property." 
 
 The arguments in favor of this plan of legalizing 
 open reprinting of foreign works would apply of 
 course with equal reasonableness to the legalizing 
 of open reprinting of domestic books, and to the 
 depriving of American, as well as foreign, writers 
 of their rights of contract, and of the control of 
 the property interests in their productions. Such 
 a system would make of home copyright, and of 
 any copyright, a farce and an absurdity. 
 
 None of the objections above presented could, of 
 course, be obviated in any way by the only new 
 suggestion in Mr. Smith's scheme, namely, the col- 
 lection of the author's royalties by means of stamps, 
 an idea which has possibly been suggested by the 
 use of stamps at different times by the government 
 to collect the taxes on beer sold in barrels, and on 
 patent medicines sold in bottles.
 
 74 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 The supervision of the manufacture and sale of 
 these articles is, however, a simple matter compared 
 with what would be necessary for the control of the 
 manufacture and sale of books; but for the proper 
 care of the government interests a large force of 
 expensive inspectors has always been required. I 
 doubt whether the probable return to foreign au- 
 thors from their American sales would warrant 
 them in the expenditure required to keep up a 
 force of officials adequate to supervise bookselling 
 throughout the continent. 
 
 In each large brewery, for instance, a revenue in- 
 spector is always stationed to keep a check on the 
 numbers of barrels produced and on the proper use 
 of the excise stamps for these. Under Mr. Smith's 
 scheme, it would be in order for " literature inspect- 
 ors " (paid by the foreign authors) to be stationed 
 in the office of each American publisher to check 
 off his reprints. 
 
 Responsible publishers would assuredly be averse 
 to investing any considerable sums in the purchase 
 from abroad of supplies of the proposed stamps 
 which could so easily be counterfeited by irrespon- 
 sible dealers as well in Canada as in the States. 
 The publication or the reprinting of any book is 
 more or less of a lottery (instead of being, as is so 
 often delusively calculated, an undertaking in which 
 the only problem is the division of the profits). 
 Under this scheme the publisher would be obliged 
 to add to the manufacturing outlay at risk, an in- 
 vestment in an advance purchase of as many stamps 
 as he believed would be required for the first edition.
 
 THE PEARSALL-SMITH SCHEME. 75 
 
 If he overestimated the sales it would often not be 
 an easy matter to return the surplus stamps and get 
 back the money paid for them, while if the im- 
 mediate demand exceeded the estimate, it could 
 easily happen that sales would be delayed and lost 
 because of the necessity of waiting for the importa- 
 tion of a further supply of the stamps. 
 
 It is, of course, also the case that under the con- 
 ditions of bookselling in this country, books are in 
 many cases sent out to dealers with the privilege of 
 returning, once or twice a year, unsold copies. The 
 getting back of these copies from points between 
 Oregon and Texas is a business that often requires 
 months, and the adjustment of the credit for stamps 
 on these returned copies, and on the copies given 
 to the press, or the copies (of scientific and educa- 
 tional works) given to instructors, would constitute 
 another complication for the bothered publishers. 
 
 American authors could justly object to this 
 scheme of open reprinting, first, because if offset 
 with a reciprocal measure of " protection " for Ameri- 
 can works abroad, it would expose them to all the 
 disadvantages above set forth of lack of power to 
 select their agents, lack of control of the printing 
 and publishing of their books, expense and difficulty 
 of enforcing their collections, and certainty of loss 
 through the use of forged stamps ; and, second, 
 because the business of reprinting in this country 
 would be left in the present condition of " scramble " 
 and cut-throat competition, and the difficulty in the 
 way of securing favorable consideration or remuner- 
 ative sale for American books (particularly in light
 
 y6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 literature), while the market is full of " cheap and 
 nasty " reprints, more or less incomplete, of similar 
 foreign works, would be practically as great as at 
 present. 
 
 International copyright is demanded, as it seems 
 almost a truism to say, by every consideration of 
 national honor, and of the highest national advan- 
 tage, and it is assuredly full time that the United 
 States of America placed itself on as high a plane of 
 international ethics as that now reached by the 
 African States of Liberia and Tunis, which have re- 
 cently united in the Copyright Convention formu- 
 lated at Berne. 
 
 If, however, Congress will bring about the 
 arrangement for the necessary recognition and 
 protection of literary property, the authors and 
 publishers can safely be left to adjust between 
 themselves all business details, such as rates of 
 compensation and methods of payment, which 
 details are properly matters of private contract. 
 
 G. H. P. 
 
 New York, Nov. 21st, 1877.
 
 VII. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Report of the Hon. W. E. Simonds, of Connecticut, from the 
 House Committee on Patents, June 10, 1890. 
 
 Mr. Simonds, from the Committee on Patents, 
 submitted the following report (to accompany H. 
 R. 10881): 
 
 The Committee on Patents, to whom was referred 
 the bill (H. R. 10254) "To amend title sixty, chap- 
 ter three, of the Revised Statutes of the United 
 States relating to copyright," respectfully report 
 that they have had the same under consideration. 
 They recommend that said bill be tabled and that 
 the accompanying substitute bill be passed. In 
 this connection they submit comments as follows: 
 
 THE PROPOSITION OF THE BILL. 
 
 The proposition of the bill is simply to permit 
 foreigners to take American copyright on the same 
 basis as American citizens, in three cases : first, 
 when the nation of the foreigner permits copyright 
 to American citizens on substantially the same basis 
 as its own citizens ; second, when the nation of the 
 foreigner gives to American citizens copyright priv- 
 ileges similar to those provided for in this bill ;
 
 ?$ THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 third, when the nation of the foreigner is a party to 
 an international agreement providing for reciprocity 
 in copyright, by the terms of which agreement the 
 United States can become a party thereto at its 
 pleasure. 
 
 A subsidiary but important proposition of the bill 
 is that all books copyrighted under the proposed 
 act shall be printed from type set within the United 
 States, or from plates made therefrom. The fol- 
 lowing is from the testimony of J. L. Kennedy, 
 given before the House Judiciary Committee, Jan- 
 uary 30, 1890, in behalf of the International Typo- 
 graphical Union : 
 
 Mr. Oates. "Why do the printers favor this bill ? 
 
 Mr. Kennedy. For several reasons. The first and principal 
 reason is the selfish one. How rare is the human action that has 
 not selfishness for its motive force ! Its effect as a law will be given 
 to greatly stimulate book printing in the United States. A vast 
 amount of printing that naturally belongs here (because it is executed 
 principally for this market), and now done on the other side, will 
 come home to us. Indeed, it has been conspicuously stated in the 
 London Times that if this bill becomes a law the literary and book 
 publishing centre of the English world will move westward from 
 London and take up its abode in the city of New York. That 
 would be a spectacle which every patriotic American might con- 
 template with complacency and pride. 
 
 The Englishman who writes books for the money he can get out 
 of them, as well as the fame — and I think it fair to presume that the 
 great majority of authors are actuated by both of those motives — 
 will recognize that here is the richest market, and he will not think 
 it a hardship to comply with the provisions of this proposed law in 
 view of the substantial benefit it is to him, and the printers do not 
 consider it a hardship to require of him that he shall leave upon our 
 shores so much of his profits at least as will pay for his printing. 
 The American author who goes abroad in search of a cheaper pub- 
 lishing market, sending his shell-plates over here to be mounted and
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 79 
 
 to have his presswork done, or else sending the printed sheets home 
 to be bound here, thus evading the heavier duty on bound books, 
 will also be compelled to patronize home industry for his mechanical 
 work. In short, it is not difficult for printers to see that such a law 
 will confer inestimable benefits upon their own and allied trades. 
 
 THE TERM OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Under the existing law of the United States 
 copyright is granted for twenty-eight years, with 
 the right of extension for fourteen more ; in all, 
 forty-two years. The bill proposes no change in 
 that respect. The term of copyright in other coun- 
 tries is as follows: 
 
 Mexico, in perpetuity. 
 
 Guatemala, in perpetuity. 
 
 Venezuela, in perpetuity. 
 
 Colombia, author's life and eighty years after. 
 
 Spain, author's life and eighty years after. 
 
 Belgium, author's life and fifty years after. 
 
 Ecuador, author's life and fifty years after. 
 
 Norway, author's life and fifty years after. 
 
 Peru, author's life and fifty years after. 
 
 Russia, author's life and fifty years after. 
 
 Tunis, author's life and fifty years after. 
 
 Italy, author's life and forty years after ; to be eighty years in any 
 event. (See later chapter in this volume.) 
 
 France, author's life and fifty years after. 
 
 Germany, author's life and thirty years after. 
 
 Austria, author's life and thirty years after. 
 
 Switzerland, author's life and thirty years after. 
 
 Hayti, author's life, widow's life, children's lives, and twenty 
 years after. 
 
 Brazil, author's life and ten yeais after. 
 
 Sweden, author's life and ten years after. 
 
 Roumania, author's life and ten years after. 
 
 Great Britain, author's life and seven years after ; to be forty-two 
 years in any event.
 
 8o THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Japan, author's life and five years after. 
 
 South Africa, author's life ; fifty years in any event. 
 
 Bolivia, author's life. 
 
 Denmark, fifty years. 
 
 Holland, fifty years. 
 
 The verdict of the world declares for a longer 
 term of copyright than that granted by the United 
 States of America. (La Propriety Littdraire et Ar- 
 tistique, Paris, 1889.) 
 
 LIBERALITY TO FOREIGNERS. 
 
 Without reference to international agreements, 
 every one of the twenty-six countries above named 
 permits foreigners to take copyright on the same 
 basis as its own citizens except Great Britain. That 
 country permits foreigners to take copyright on the 
 same basis as its own citizens, provided the for- 
 eigner is at the time of publication anywhere within 
 the British dominions, which expression includes 
 British colonies and possessions of every sort. 
 
 An alien friend temporarily residing in the British dominions, and 
 consequently owing a temporary allegiance, is entitled to copyright 
 in any work which he publishes here whilst so residing, however 
 short his period of residence may be. (Short's Law of Copyright, 
 p. 12.) 
 
 By Acts of Parliament the queen is empowered to 
 provide for copyright of an international character 
 as to any nation which will reciprocate. From con- 
 ditions herein pointed out it is clear that the queen 
 is thus empowered solely with reference to hoped- 
 for relations with the United States of America. 
 
 The United States alone refuses copyright to for- 
 eigners, and, alone among the nations of the earth,
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 8 1 
 
 refuses reciprocity in copyright. {La Propria 
 Litter aire et Artistiqtte, before cited.) 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT AGREEMENTS. 
 
 First and last there have been signed about a 
 hundred international agreements providing for rec- 
 iprocity in copyright, the general nature of which is 
 illustrated by the following quotation of Article II. 
 of the agreement made at the Berne International 
 Copyright Convention of September 9, 1886: 
 
 Authors within the jurisdiction of one of the countries of this 
 Union, or their heirs, shall enjoy in the other countries for their 
 works, whether they are or are not published in one of these coun- 
 tries, the rights which the respective laws of these countries now 
 accord, or shall subsequently accord, to their own countrymen. 
 
 The international copyright agreements of France 
 are: With Holland, July 25, 1840 ; Portugal, April 
 12, 1 85 1 ; Great Britain, November 3, 185 1 ; Bel- 
 gium, August 22, 1852 ; Spain, November 15, 1853; 
 Luxemburg, July 6, 1856; Russia, April 6, 1861 ; 
 Italy, June 29, 1862; Prussia, August 2, 1862; 
 Switzerland, June 30, 1864; Hanseatic Cities, 
 March 4, 1865 ; Bavaria, March 24, 1865 ; Frank- 
 fort-on-the-Main, April 18, 1865 ; Wurtemburg, 
 April 24, 1865 ; Baden, May 12, 1865 ; Saxony, 
 May 26, 186$ ; Mecklenburg-Schwerin, June 9, 
 1865 ; Hesse, June 14, 1865 ; Hanover, July 19, 
 1865; Monaco, November 9, 1865; Luxemburg, 
 December 16, 1865; Great Britain, August II, 
 1865; Salvador, June 2, 1880; German Empire, 
 April 19, 1883; Sweden and Norway, February 15, 
 1884; Italy, July 9, 1884; Portugal, July II, 1886; 
 
 6
 
 82 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Mexico, November 27, 1886 ; Bolivia, September 8, 
 1887. 
 
 The following named countries have signed inter- 
 national copyright agreements in number as fol- 
 lows : German Empire, six (the German states had 
 signed many prior to 1871, when the empire was 
 created) ; Belgium, six ; Bolivia, six ; Ecuador, one ; 
 Spain, seven ; Great Britain, nineteen ; Italy, ten ; 
 Luxemburg, two ; Mexico, one ; Monaco, one ; 
 Holland, three; Portugal, four; Russia, two; Sal- 
 vador, one ; Sweden and Norway, two ; Switzer- 
 land, five. 
 
 The agreement made at the Berne Convention of 
 September 9, 1886, was signed by Great Britain, 
 France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy, Switzer- 
 land, Hayti, Liberia, and Tunis. January 11, 1889, 
 the following seven South American Governments 
 signed the draft of the agreement made at the 
 Montevideo International Copyright Convention : 
 the Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Chili, Para- 
 guay, Peru, and Uruguay. The United States of 
 America, standing substantially alone in that regard 
 among the civilized nations of the earth, has never 
 entered into an international agreement for the pro- 
 tection of copyright. 
 
 We were represented at the Berne Convention of 
 1886 by the Hon. Boyd Winchester, who reported 
 strongly in favor of the United States giving its 
 adhesion to the Berne agreement ; but our Govern- 
 ment has refrained from doing so, for the express 
 reason that Congress is dealing with the subject 
 from time to time. The transactions in this regard
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 83 
 
 are given in Executive Document No. 354 (Forty- 
 ninth Congress, first session), and Executive Docu- 
 ment No. 37 (Forty-ninth Congress, second session). 
 The recent International American Congress, held 
 in the city of Washington, reported the following 
 resolution: 
 
 Whereas the International American Conference is of the opinion 
 that the treaties on literary and artistic property, on patents and on 
 trade-marks, celebrated by the South American Congress of Monte- 
 video, fully guaranty and protect the rights of property which are 
 the subject of the provisions therein contained : 
 
 Resolved, That the conference recommend, both to those Govern- 
 ments of America which accept the proposition of holding the Con- 
 gress, but could not participate in its deliberations, and to those not 
 invited thereto but who are represented in this conference, that they 
 give their adhesion to the said treaties. 
 
 Jose S. Decoud, 
 
 Delegate from Paraguay. 
 Andrew Carnegie, 
 
 Delegate from United States. 
 Climaco Calderon, 
 
 Delegate from Colombia. 
 
 The United States of America must give in its 
 adhesion to international copyright or stand as the 
 literary Ishmael of the civilized world. 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S NATURAL RIGHT. 
 
 The passage of the proposed act is demanded by 
 so-called practical reasons, referred to hereinafter, 
 which do not deal specially with the right and 
 wrong of the matter, but if no such " practical " rea- 
 sons existed it is a sufficient reason for its passage 
 that an author has a natural exclusive right to the 
 thing having a value in exchange which he produces
 
 84 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 by the labor of his brain and hand. No one denies 
 and every one admits that all men have certain nat- 
 ural rights which exist independently of all written 
 statutes. 
 
 The common law of England — inherited and 
 adopted to a great extent by the several American 
 States — is built upon and developed out of the nat- 
 ural rights of men. Our Declaration of Independ- 
 ence names some of these natural rights, calling 
 them self-evident, as the basis and foundation of our 
 right to national existence, to wit, life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 An equally self-evident natural right is the right 
 of property, the right to exclusively possess what- 
 ever in the nature of property a man rightfully 
 acquires. Civilized and uncivilized people alike 
 recognize this right. No form of society, no matter 
 how rude, no matter how cultivated, is possible with- 
 out the recognition of this right of property. What- 
 ever has value in exchange is, when possessed, 
 property. The visible expression of an author's 
 mental conception, written or printed, has value in 
 exchange, and is therefore property in the full sense 
 of the word. No better title to an article of prop- 
 erty can be imagined than that which is rooted in 
 the creation of the article ; creation gives the 
 strongest possible title. The author holds his prop- 
 erty by this first, best, and highest of all titles. 
 
 The principle is as old as the property itself, that what a man cre- 
 ates by his own labor, out of his own materials, is his own to enjoy 
 to the exclusion of all others. {Drone on Copyright, p. 4.) 
 
 The monopoly of authors and inventors rests on the general senti-
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 8$ 
 
 ment underlying all civilized law, that a man should be protected in 
 the enjoyment of the fruits of his own labor. (Copyright article, 
 Encyclopedia Britannica.) 
 
 The right of an author to the production of his mind is ac- 
 knowledged everywhere. It is a prevailing feeling, and none can 
 doubt it, that a man's book is his book — his property. (Daniel 
 Webster, 6 Peters' Reports, 653.) 
 
 The author cannot enjoy the value in exchange 
 of his property if others reproduce the visible ex- 
 pression of his mental conception without his per- 
 mission. To do so is to appropriate his valuable 
 thing without giving value in exchange. The au- 
 thor's right is incorporeal, but it is not a small thing 
 because incorporeal. Milton's Paradise Lost, Haw- 
 thorne's Scarlet Letter, and Shakespeare's Hamlet 
 suffice for evidence on that point. It is not a 
 unique kind of property because incorporeal. The 
 major part of the wealth of the world is incorporeal. 
 H. D. Macleod, in his article on copyright in the 
 Political Encyclopedia, says: "it is probable that 
 nineteen-twentieths of existing wealth is in this 
 form ; " the franchises of ferries, railways, telegraph 
 and telephone companies, patents, trade-marks, 
 good-will, shares in incorporated companies, and 
 annuities of all sorts are familiar instances of incor- 
 poreal property. 
 
 The courts of the several States, as well as the 
 United States Supreme Court, admit the author's 
 natural exclusive right to his intellectual property, 
 in that they are unanimous in holding that the au- 
 thor has a natural, exclusive, and perpetual right in 
 the visible expression of his mental conception so 
 long as it is expressed in written words.
 
 86 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Two principles are settled in English and American jurisprudence: 
 At common law the owner of an unpublished literary composition has 
 an absolute property therein. {Drone on Copyright, p. 101.) 
 
 When a man, before uninformed in the matter, 
 comes to understand that the author has an ad- 
 mitted natural and exclusive right to the visible 
 expression of his mental conception when that con- 
 ception is expressed in written words, his common 
 sense forbids him to entertain the notion that he 
 loses such right by expressing the conception in 
 printed words. The admission of the right as to 
 written words settles the question. 
 
 It is sometimes attempted to stigmatize copy- 
 right as monopoly, and writers of loose and careless 
 habit sometimes speak of copyright as monopoly. 
 It is no more monopoly than is the ordinary owner- 
 ship of a horse or a piece of land. Blackstone says 
 that a monopoly is — 
 
 A license or privilege . . . whereby the subject in general 
 is restrained from that liberty of manufacturing or trading which he 
 had before. 
 
 The law dictionaries define it in the same way. 
 A monopoly takes away from the public the enjoy- 
 ment of something which the public before pos- 
 sessed. Neither copyright nor patent does this, for 
 neither can be applied to anything which is not new ; 
 neither can be applied to anything which the public 
 before possessed. The author and inventor must 
 produce something new in order to be entitled to 
 copyright or patent. Notwithstanding this allusion 
 to patents, the mistake should not be made of sup- 
 posing that patents and copyrights stand on the
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 89 
 
 same basis as to natural exclusive right, for they u^f 
 not ; the difference between them, in this regard, is 
 radical. 
 
 A patent covers the idea or principle of an inven- 
 tion ; copyright does not cover the author's idea, 
 but only the language in which he clothes the idea; 
 hence arises a radical difference which it is not now 
 necessary to discuss. 
 
 THE COMMON-LAW RIGHT. 
 
 As has been already remarked, the common law 
 of England, inherited and adopted, to a great ex- 
 tent, by the several American States, is built upon 
 and developed out of the natural rights of man. 
 
 The common law of England always recognized 
 the natural, exclusive right of an author to the 
 written and printed expression of his mental con- 
 ception from the time when printing was introduced 
 into England by Caxton, in 1474. From 1474 to 
 1710 the common-law right was more or less inter- 
 fered with at times by Crown grants in the nature 
 of genuine monopoly, including decrees of the Star 
 Chamber. 
 
 April 10, 1710, the Statute of Anne, so-called, was 
 passed. It gave authors of works then existing the 
 sole right of printing the same for twenty-one years 
 and no longer. It gave to authors of works not 
 then printed, and to their assigns, the sole right for 
 fourteen years, and if the author was then alive he 
 had the right to a prolongation for fourteen years 
 more. In the copyright article of the Political En- 
 cyclopedia, Macleod correctly says :
 
 86 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Tc is quite impossible to read this act without seeing that it dis- 
 tinctly recognizes copyright as existing already, and independently of 
 the act. All they did was to enact certain statutory penalties for 
 its infringement. But that, by a well-known rule of law, in no way 
 affected proceedings at common law. We have seen that the courts 
 of law never raised the slightest doubt as to the existence of copy- 
 right at common law. We shall now see how the court of chancery 
 regarded it. As the act gave twenty-one years for old copies from 
 April 10, 1710, no question on copyright at common law could arise 
 before 1731. In 1735, Sir Joseph Jekyll granted an injunction in 
 the case of Eyre vs. Walker, to restrain the defendant from printing 
 The Whole Duty of Jlfan, the first assignment of which had been 
 made in December, 1657, being seventy-eight years before. In the 
 same year, Lord Talbot, in the case of Matte vs. Falkner, granted 
 an injunction restraining the defendant from printing Nelson's fes- 
 tivals and Fasts, printed in 1703, during the life of the author, who 
 died in 17 14. In 1739 Lord Hardwicke, in the case of Tonson 
 and another vs. Walker, otherwise Stanton, granted an injunction 
 restraining the defendant from printing Milton's Paradise Lost, the 
 copyright of which was assigned in 1667, or seventy-two years be- 
 fore. In 1752 Lord Hardwicke, in the case of Tonson vs. Walker 
 and Merchant, granted an injunction, restraining the defendants 
 from printing Milton's Paradise or Life or Notes. All this time 
 there had never been any solemn decision by the King's Bench as to 
 the existence of copyright at common law, or as to how it was affected 
 by the statute of Anne. But the court of chancery never granted an 
 injunction unless the legal right was clear and undisputed. If there 
 had been any doubt about it they would have sent it to be argued in 
 a court of common law. 
 
 In 1769 the question came before the Court of 
 King's Bench (the court of last resort, the House 
 of Lords excepted) in the case of Millar vs. Taylor 
 (4 Burr., 2303). It was held — three judges in the 
 affirmative to one in the negative — that the com- 
 mon-law right existed. In 1774 the question again 
 came before the Court of King's Bench in the 
 case of Beckett vs. Donaldson (4 Burr., 2408), and
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 89 
 
 it was' again decreed that the common-law right 
 existed. The case was immediately appealed to 
 the House of Lords and there the eleven judges 
 gave their opinions as follows on the following 
 points : 
 
 (1) Whether at common law an author of any book or literary 
 composition had the sole right of first printing and publishing the 
 same for sale, and might bring an action against any person who 
 printed, published, and sold the same without his consent ? On this 
 question there were eight judges in the affirmative and three in the 
 negative. 
 
 (2) If the author had such right originally, did the law take it 
 away upon his printing and publishing such book or literary com- 
 position, and might any person afterward reprint and sell for his 
 own benefit such book or literary composition against the will of 
 the author? This question was answered in the affirmative by four 
 judges and in the negative by seven. 
 
 (3) If such action would have lain at common law is it taken away 
 by the statute of 8 Anne, and is an author by the said statute pre- 
 cluded from every remedy, except on the foundation of the said 
 statute and on the terms of the conditions prescribed thereby ? Six 
 of the judges to five decided that the remedy must be under the 
 statute. 
 
 (4) Whether the author of any literary composition and his assigns 
 had the sole right of printing and publishing the same in perpetuity 
 by the common law ? Which question was decided in favor of the 
 author by seven judges to four. 
 
 (5) Whether this right is any way impeached, restrained, or taken 
 away by the statute of 8 Anne ? Six to five judges decided that the 
 right is taken away by the statute. 
 
 This decision is squarely to the effect that the 
 common-law right was in full force up to the pas- 
 sage of the Statute of Anne, April 10, 17 10. There 
 was a clear preponderance of judges to this effect, 
 but it was also decided — six judges to five — that the 
 Statute of Anne took away the common-law right.
 
 90 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Lord Mansfield, as one of the judges of the Court 
 of King's Bench, had decided that the Statute of 
 Anne had not taken away the common-law right ; 
 as a peer, he refrained from voting through motives 
 of delicacy ; had he voted in the House of Lords 
 the decision of the Court of King's Bench that the 
 Statute of Anne had not taken away the common- 
 law right would have stood unreversed. That the 
 common law of England had always recognized the 
 author's natural right was fully established by these 
 decisions. To show that the common law gave 
 copyright is to establish the natural right, for the 
 common law is built upon and developed out of 
 natural right. 
 
 COPYRIGHT IN THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The clause of the Constitution of the United States 
 of America which authorizes the grant of copyright 
 is to be found in Article I., section 8 : 
 
 The Congress shall have power ... to promote the progress 
 of science and the useful arts by securing, for limited times, to au- 
 thors and inventors, the exclusive rights to their respective writings 
 and discoveries ; . . . also to make all laws which shall be neces- 
 sary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers. 
 
 The object stated in the grant is " to promote the 
 progress of science and the useful arts." The state- 
 ment of the object has nothing to do with the ques- 
 tion whether the Constitution recognizes the au- 
 thor's natural rights. The use of the word secure 
 instead of give or grant is some recognition of the 
 natural ri^ht. This Constitution was formed in
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 9 1 
 
 1787, just thirteen years after the House of Lords 
 had expressly recognized the natural right. 
 
 The well-informed men who framed the Constitu- 
 tion could not have been ignorant of that decision 
 of the House of Lords, for that was a famous de- 
 cision of widespread interest and notoriety. They 
 were framing a grant of delegated powers to the Gen- 
 eral Government. They knew that such of the States 
 as fully adopted the common law adopted with it the 
 recognition of the author's natural right. It seemed 
 to them expedient to give to the General Govern- 
 ment the supreme power in the premises " for limited 
 times." They did not intend to affirm or deny the 
 natural right. 
 
 The natural inference from the language used, in 
 the light of the surrounding facts, is that they knew 
 of the natural right, the common-law right ; that 
 they did not choose to meddle with it, but did deem 
 it expedient to give the General Government su- 
 preme power in the premises " for limited times." 
 
 Possibly they might have thought that a natural 
 right necessarily means a perpetual right ; and the 
 United States Supreme Court in dealing with the 
 question, as referred to hereinafter, may have been 
 troubled by the same idea. Natural right does not 
 necessarily mean perpetual right. In all forms of 
 society, all kinds of property are held under such 
 conditions and limitations as society deems reason- 
 able. 
 
 Under the right of eminent domain, governments 
 take private property for public use upon suit- 
 able remuneration, when public necessity and con-
 
 92 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 venience demand it. In some cases private prop- 
 erty is taken for public use without compensation, 
 notably when a man's building is torn down to pre- 
 vent the spread of a conflagration. The disposition 
 of property by last will and testament is regulated 
 by law. In England the lands cannot be alienated 
 from the eldest son. In not to exceed a term of 
 one hundred years the entire value of almost every 
 specific piece of property is taken from the owner 
 by the public in the form of taxes, in return for the 
 protection and security which society gives. 
 
 It is entirely reasonable that the law should 
 bring a copyright to an end at the expiration of a 
 term of years — this, especially, in view of the fact 
 that it is not usual to tax copyrights from year to 
 year. It cannot be reasonably maintained that the 
 premise of natural right necessarily leads to the 
 conclusion of perpetuity. 
 
 COMMON-LAW RIGHT IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 It is universally conceded that wherever the com- 
 mon law exists in the several American States, it is 
 derived from and is identical with the English com- 
 mon law. It has been shown, beyond question, 
 that English common law recognizes the author's 
 natural right. It follows as a necessary conclusion 
 that the American common law, wherever it exists, 
 gives copyright, and recognizes the author's natural 
 right. 
 
 Connecticut passed a copyright law in January, 
 1783 ; Massachusetts, in March, 1783 ; Virginia, in 
 1785, and New York, in 1786. They all recognize
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 93 
 
 the pre-existing common-law right, the exclusive 
 natural right. It has been supposed that the 
 United States Supreme Court decided that the 
 common law does not give copyright in the United 
 States, in the case of Wheaton vs. Peters (8 
 Peters Reports, 591), decided in A.D. 1834. Such 
 is not the fact. The opinion in that case decided 
 only two points connected with this question, to 
 wit : (1) that the United States, as a nation, has no 
 common law, and (2) that as to Pennsylvania, where 
 the controversy in question arose, there was no 
 proof that the common law had been adopted. 
 This is what the United States Supreme Court said 
 in that case : 
 
 It is clear there can be no common law of the United States. 
 The Federal Government is composed of twenty-four sovereign and 
 independent States ; each of which may have its local usages, cus- 
 toms, and common law. There is no principle which pervades the 
 Union and has the authority of law that is not embodied in the 
 Constitution or laws of the Union. The common law could be 
 made a part of our Federal system only by legislative adoption. 
 
 It is insisted that our ancestors, when they migrated to this 
 country, brought with them the English common law as a part of 
 their heritage. 
 
 That this was the case to a limited extent is admitted. No one 
 will contend that the common law, as it existed in England, has ever 
 been in force in all its provisions in any State in this Union. It was 
 adopted so far only as its principles were suited to the condition of 
 the colonies ; and from this circumstance we see what is common 
 law in one State is not so considered in another. The judicial de- 
 cisions, the usages and customs of the respective States, must deter- 
 mine how far the common law has been introduced and sanctioned 
 in each. 
 
 In the argument it was insisted that no presumption could be 
 drawn against the existence of the common law as to copyrights in
 
 94 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Pennsylvania, from the fact of its never having been asserted until 
 the commencement of this suit. 
 
 It may be true, in general, that the failure to assert any particular 
 right may afford no evidence of the non-existence of such right. But 
 the present case may well form an exception to this rule. 
 
 If the common law, in all its provisions, has not been introduced 
 into Pennsylvania, to what extent has it been adopted ? Must not 
 this court have some evidence on this subject ? If no right, such as 
 is set up by the complainants, has heretofore been asserted, no cus- 
 tom or usage established, no judicial decision been given, can the 
 conclusion be justified that, by the common law of Pennsylvania, an 
 author has a perpetual property in the copyright of his works? (8 
 Peters, 658.) 
 
 Mr. Drone, in his book on copyright, says all that 
 is necessary to be said about this remarkable decis- 
 ion wherein the dissenting opinion has easily the 
 best of the argument : 
 
 The judgment of the court, as has been seen, was based on two 
 grounds : (1) That the common law of England did not prevail in 
 the United States. (2) That in England it had been decided that 
 the common-law property in published works had been taken away by 
 statute. The first position rested on a foundation of sand, which 
 has since been swept away. " The whole structure of our present 
 jurisdiction," said Mr. Justice Thompson in his dissenting opinion, 
 "stands upon the original foundation of the common law." The 
 doctrine is now well settled in this country that a complete property 
 in unpublished works is secured by the common law. This was 
 admitted by the Supreme Court in Wheaton vs. Peters. It has 
 since been repeatedly affirmed by the same tribunal, by the circuit 
 court of the United States, and by every State court in which the 
 question has been raised. If the common law thus prevails in the 
 United States with reference to unpublished productions, there is no 
 principle, independently of the statute, by which it can be held not 
 to prevail in the case of published works. (Drone on Copyright, 47.) 
 
 In right reason and sound logic the common law
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 95 
 
 does exist in the United States, and that existence 
 is conclusive of the existence of the natural right. 
 
 THE WRONG TO AMERICAN AUTHORS. 
 
 The Constitution authorizes copyrights in order 
 " to promote the progress of science and the useful 
 arts," primarily within the United States. Our 
 present procedure is a hinderance to. the " progress 
 of science and the useful arts" in the United States 
 in more ways than one. 
 
 One way in which our present practice hinders 
 the progress of science and the useful arts within 
 our borders is by the repression of the development 
 of American intellectual life, by the repression of 
 the home production of literary works through sub- 
 jecting native authors to a kind of competition to 
 which no other class of American workers is sub- 
 jected, a kind of competition which is ruinous and 
 destructive. 
 
 American authors are subjected to untrammeled 
 competition with English authors who do not re- 
 ceive a farthing for their labor. All stories compete 
 with all other stories so far as the demand of the 
 story-reading public is concerned ; and the story- 
 reading public of America comprises many millions 
 of people. An American publisher can, within the 
 pale of the law, appropriate and publish an English 
 story without remuneration to the English writer. 
 It is well and widely known that some American 
 publishers do this on a large scale. Since such 
 American publishers pay nothing to the English 
 authors whose stories they appropriate and pub-
 
 g6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 lish, other American publishers cannot afford to pay 
 American authors for writing stories except in those 
 comparatively rare cases where the American author 
 has already acquired an established reputation. 
 
 The new American author has no chance worthy 
 of the name for getting a start, and the sale of the 
 works of American authors of established reputation 
 is to a degree, prevented by this competition, in 
 which everything is against the American author. 
 It is not to the point to refer to persons engaged in 
 other kinds of business, the profession of law for 
 instance, and to say that competition exists there 
 as everywhere else, that the bright men succeed and 
 the dullards fail. The parallel is wholly wanting. 
 If American lawyers had to compete not only with 
 each other, but also with a numerous class of lawyers 
 receiving nothing for their labor, the parallel would 
 be complete, and the American lawyer would need 
 no extended argument to convince him of the un- 
 fairness of the arrangement. The American people 
 in general have no adequate idea of the extent of 
 this mischief. Mr. Henry Holt, a well-known New 
 York city publisher, said upon this point before the 
 Senate Committee on Patents in 1886: 
 
 The effect of this state of affairs on the opportunities of Ameri- 
 can authors to get into print or stay in print is very disastrous. I 
 have unused manuscripts in my safe and have lately sent back manu- 
 scripts which ought to have been published, but I was afraid to 
 undertake the publication ; the market will not support them. I 
 lately published, I think, the most important American work of fic- 
 tion with a single exception that I ever published. The critics re- 
 ceived it with praise. I had to write the author the other day that 
 it had been a financial failure. She is a poor girl of great talent.
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 97 
 
 Her old parents are living, and she has to support them and an old 
 family servant. 
 
 At the same hearing Mr. Dana Estes, of the well- 
 known Boston firm of Estes, Lauriat & Co., said: 
 
 It has been said by some gentlemen that the flood of British 
 reprints has a discouraging effect upon American authorship. I will 
 add my mite to that statement. For two years past, though I belong 
 to a publishing house that emits nearly $1,000,000 worth of books 
 per year, I have absolutely refused to entertain the idea of publishing 
 an American manuscript. I have returned many scores, if not hun- 
 dreds, of manuscripts of American authors, unopened even, simply 
 from the fact that it is impossible to make the books of most 
 American authors pay, unless they are first published and acquire 
 recognition through the columns of the magazines. Were it not for 
 that one saving opportunity of the great American magazines which 
 are now the leading ones of the world and have an international repu- 
 tation and circulation, American authorship would be at a still lower 
 ebb than it is at present. Take, for instance, an author of eminent 
 genius who has just arisen. I refer to Charles Egbert Craddock — 
 Miss Murfree. Had her manuscript been offered to any one of 
 half a dozen American publishers it is probable it would have been 
 refused. She got an entering wedge by having her articles published 
 in a magazine and sprang into a world-wide reputation at once. 
 How many of these " mute inglorious Miltons" there are in the manu- 
 scripts, tons of manuscripts, scattered about the country, I do not 
 know, but I venture to say there are a good many. 
 
 Sir Henry Maine said of the American people in 
 his book on Popular Government that their " neglect 
 to exercise their power for the advantage of foreign 
 writers has condemned the whole American com- 
 munity to a literary servitude unparalleled in the 
 history of thought." 
 
 The mischief that is being wrought upon Amer- 
 ican intellectual life of the literary sort, in this man-
 
 98 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 ner, is very great. It is none the less real because 
 it cannot be accurately stated in dollars and cents. 
 
 ENGLISH MARKET FOR AMERICAN AUTHORS. 
 
 American authors of established reputation would 
 be largely benefited by any sort of international 
 copyright with England. English publishers now 
 appropriate the stories of American writers as 
 American publishers appropriate the stories of 
 English authors. Reciprocity in copyright would 
 give the English market to American authors. 
 
 VITIATED EDUCATION OF AMERICANS. 
 
 The proposition that the story-reading public of 
 America comprises many millions of people, and 
 that the major part are youth, is easy of acceptance. 
 That they are having offered to them an exhaustless 
 stream of English stories written by authors of no 
 special repute, is equally plain. That these stories 
 deal with kings and queens, orders of nobility, an 
 established church, a standing army, monarchical 
 institutions generally, and with English manners, 
 scenes, customs, and social usages is almost a matter 
 of necessity. Probably a large portion of these 
 stories deal with some tale of seduction. 
 
 The good stories of England were long since ex- 
 hausted by the American reprinters, and as a con- 
 sequence we are having poured out upon us an un- 
 stinted flood of printed stuff, often nasty, still oftener 
 weak and silly, and always foreign in tone, senti- 
 ment, and description. In the aggregate these
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 99 
 
 stories constitute a powerful means of undesirable 
 education, as well as of vitiation of American taste ; 
 and this force is exerted more largely than other- 
 wise upon minds and morals which are in the plastic 
 and formative stage. It is entirely true that many 
 of the cheap American reprints are not stories and 
 that many of the reprinted English stories are good 
 stories, but these are an exception to the general 
 rule, and such exceptions constitute a small per- 
 centage of the whole ; the healthy part bears about 
 the same ratio to the unhealthy that the nutritive 
 element in a glass of strong beer bears to the baleful 
 part. Mr. Henry Holt, the New York publisher 
 already mentioned, said upon this point before the 
 Senate committee in 1886: 
 
 It is a vastly important subject, this subject of the prosperity of 
 American authors. It is a subject that reaches to the foundation of 
 our civilization. It is the question whether we are to continue to 
 have an American literature — for, as you all know, American litera- 
 ture is languishing even now — the question whether outside of the 
 daily and periodical press we are to derive our ways of thinking, our 
 ideal of life and politics, from alien, unsympathetic sources. But 
 this is not the whole question. It is rapidly becoming a question 
 whether, with a few rare exceptions, we are going to have any seri- 
 ous books at all. 
 
 Thought, morals, and education are the secret 
 springs of natural life. We are allowing them to be 
 contaminated at their sources. 
 
 BARRING OUT GOOD LITERATURE. 
 
 Another of the ways in which our present prac- 
 tice hinders the " progress of science and the useful
 
 IOO THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 arts " in the United States is by barring out the 
 really useful literature of England, a thoroughly 
 healthy mental and moral pabulum. As regards 
 works on law, theology, medicine, governmental sci- 
 ence, political economy, physical science, art, biog- 
 raphy, history, travel, language, education, and the 
 like, England is probably more prolific in eminently 
 useful books, in proportion to her population, than 
 any other country in the world. Unlike many of 
 her stories, these have no special tone which is for- 
 eign to American institutions. It would be a great 
 practical blessing for the American people if the 
 great mass of these publications were promptly re- 
 produced in America. They are, however, precisely 
 the kind of books which will never be reprinted here, 
 except to a very small extent, without the protec- 
 tion of copyright. 
 
 Almost every such work, separately considered, 
 appeals to a limited class only. The republication 
 of one of them involves, as a rule, a very consider- 
 able outlay. If reprinted at all, it must be in the 
 shape of books well printed on good paper, well 
 bound, and fit for preservation in a library. No 
 publisher dare undertake the necessary outlay — the 
 publication of a book always being an experiment, 
 financially — unless he is sure he can have the whole 
 limited field to himself. One effect which may con- 
 fidently be expected from the passage of such a bill 
 as is now proposed is the republication here of the 
 great volume of English books of the class now 
 under discussion which are now sealed books to the 
 great mass of the American people.
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. IOI 
 
 CHEAPENING THE PRICE OF BOOKS. 
 
 Still another way in which our present practice 
 hinders the "progress of science and the useful 
 arts" in the United States is by preventing the 
 cheapening of the prices of good and desirable 
 books. By " good and desirable books " is meant 
 all manner of books, except the very cheap 
 paper covered or no-covered reprints of English 
 stories. 
 
 International copyright between Great Britain 
 and the United States will open the American book 
 market to English authors and English publishers. 
 This can mean nothing less than the addition of an 
 enormous mass of competition to the existing com- 
 petition in American book publishing. This added 
 competition must, in the nature of things, cheapen 
 the price of all books, those of American origin and 
 those of English origin alike. It is the sure effect 
 of competition to reduce prices. It will never be 
 possible to take a backward step in international 
 copyright after the American public once feels this 
 effect of such a law as is now proposed. 
 
 The ordinary mode of attempting to show that 
 we get books cheaper because of the absence of in- 
 ternational copyright is to exhibit a list of English 
 books published at a high price and a parallel list of 
 cheap American reprints of the same. It is quite 
 as easy to exhibit a list of English books published 
 at a high, price and a parallel list of cheap English 
 reprints of the same. It is also quite as easy to 
 exhibit a list of American books published at a
 
 102 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 comparatively high price and a parallel list of cheap 
 American reprints of the same. 
 
 Many English books are first published at a high 
 price to be bought almost solely by the English cir- 
 culating libraries, and when the freshness is worn 
 off excellent shilling editions of the same appear at 
 the English railway book-stalls. American books 
 which prove to be a success are likewise reproduced 
 subsequently in the cheapest form consistent with 
 good paper and good print. The exhibition of a 
 list of English books published at a high price and 
 a parallel list of cheap American reprints of the 
 same, for the purpose of showing that the absence 
 of international copyright gives us cheap books, if 
 done with full knowledge is an attempt at deceit. 
 
 That " the selling price of a book depends, not 
 on the copyright, but on the extent of the market 
 that can be assured for it," is a trade maxim settled 
 beyond dispute. A very desirable and certain re- 
 sult of international copyright is stated as follows, 
 in the words of George Haven Putnam, the well- 
 known American publisher : 
 
 An international copyright will render practicable a large number 
 of international undertakings which cannot be ventured upon with- 
 out the assured control of several markets. The volumes for these 
 international series will be secured from the leading writers of the 
 world — American, English, and Continental — and the compensation 
 paid to these writers, together with the cost of the production of 
 illustrations, maps, tables, etc., will be divided among the several 
 editions. The lower the proportion of this first outlay to be charged 
 to the American edition, the lower the price at which this can be 
 furnished ; and as the publisher secures the most satisfactory returns 
 from large sales to a wider circle, the lower the price at which it will 
 be furnished. It would, perhaps, not be quite correct to say that
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 103 
 
 these international series would be cheaper than at present, for 
 there are, as yet, but few examples of them, but it is the case that, 
 by means of such series (only adequately possible under international 
 copyright), American readers will secure the best literature of con- 
 temporary writers at far lower prices than can ever otherwise be 
 practicable. 
 
 France and Germany are thoroughly under the 
 operation of international copyright, and books are 
 much cheaper there than in the United States ; the 
 fact is not accounted for by the difference in labor 
 cost, for the one occupation of the printer is pre- 
 cisely the occupation wherein labor cost is most 
 nearly the same here and abroad. 
 
 This one inevitable result of international copy- 
 right, the cheapening of the great mass of all real 
 books, easily outweighs the sole objection which it 
 is possible to maintain against international copy- 
 right, to wit, that it will increase by a few cents the 
 prices of the cheapest reprints of English stories. 
 
 THE CHEAP REPRINTS. 
 
 It is admitted that the proposed act, or any other 
 of a similar nature, will raise the price of the very 
 cheap reprints of English stories yet to be written a 
 few cents apiece. A pamphlet of that sort now 
 costing twenty cents will then cost twenty-five 
 cents. Of the additional price, two cents will go 
 to the author, and three cents will go into better 
 paper, better print, and better binding. For the 
 five cents of increased cost, an American story will 
 be furnished oftener than an English story ; an 
 American author will get pay for his labor, and the
 
 104 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 reader will get a book that is one hundred per cent, 
 better than the old one in paper, print, and bind- 
 ing. 
 
 E. P. Roe's Barriers Burned Away, Amelia E. 
 Barr's Bow of Orange Ribbon, Miss Green's The 
 Leavenworth Case, and Mrs. Prentice's Stepping 
 Heavenward, all American copyrighted books, well 
 printed on good paper, well bound in paper covers, 
 and selling at twenty-five cents apiece, are fair sam- 
 ples of what will take place along the whole line 
 of American fiction if this bill becomes a law. This 
 law will have no effect on the literature of the past. 
 
 PATENT INSIDES. 
 
 It is sometimes urged that country newspapers 
 will, if such a bill as this becomes a law, be cut off 
 from culling from foreign newspapers and periodi- 
 cals. Such an effect is not possible ; it is not prac- 
 tically possible to copyright foreign newspapers and 
 periodicals under the proposed law ; it requires that 
 the two copies to be deposited with the Librarian 
 of Congress on or before the day of publication 
 shall be printed from type set in this country, or 
 from plates made therefrom ; that provision practi- 
 cally cuts off foreign newspapers and periodicals 
 from American copyright, and our newspapers will 
 remain free to cull from them at pleasure. 
 
 ADVOCATES OF INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 In 1837 a Senate committee composed of Clay, 
 Webster, Buchanan, Preston, and Ewing, of Ohio,
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 10$ 
 
 made a report upon international copyright contain- 
 ing the following language : 
 
 That authors and inventors have, according to the practice among 
 civilized nations, a property in the respective productions of their 
 genius is incontestable, and that this property should be protected as 
 effectually as any other property is by law, follows as a legitimate 
 consequence. Authors and inventors are among the greatest bene- 
 factors of mankind. They are often dependent exclusively upon 
 their own mental labors for the means of subsistence, and are fre- 
 quently from the nature of their pursuits, or the constitution of their 
 minds, incapable of applying that provident care to worldly affairs 
 which other classes of society are in the habit of bestowing. These 
 considerations give additional strength to their just title to the pro- 
 tection of the law. 
 
 It being established that literary property is entitled to legal pro- 
 tection, it results that this protection ought to be afforded wherever 
 the property is situated. A British merchant brings or transmits to 
 the United States a bale of merchandise, and the moment it comes 
 within the jurisdiction of our laws they throw around it effectual 
 security. But if the work of a British author is brought to the 
 United States it may be appropriated by any resident here and 
 republished without any compensation whatever being made to the 
 author. We should be all shocked if the law tolerated the least 
 invasion of the rights of property in the case of the merchandise, 
 whilst those which justly belong to the works of authors are exposed 
 to daily violation without the possibility of their invoking the aid of 
 the laws. 
 
 The committee think that this distinction in the condition of the 
 two descriptions of property is not just, and that it ought to be 
 remedied by some safe and cautious amendment of the law. 
 
 Now follows the expressions of some of the per- 
 sons and organizations who are asking for interna- 
 tional copyright to-day. The list includes: (i) Pres- 
 ident Harrison ; (2) Ex-President Cleveland ; (3) 
 144 leading American authors ; (4) Western authors ; 
 (5) Southern authors ; (6) American musical com-
 
 106 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 posers ; (7) 60 colleges ; (8) Leading educators ; (9) 
 200 leading librarians ; (10) The American Publish- 
 ers' Copyright League; (11) The American news- 
 paper publishers; (12) The International Typo- 
 graphical Union; (13) American employing printers; 
 (14) The Electric Club of New York; (15) The 
 Chicago Copyright League ; (16) The International 
 Copyright Association, of New England ; (17) Car- 
 dinal Gibbons ; (18) Dr. Weir Mitchell ; (19) George 
 Ticknor Curtis; (20) Gladstone; (21) The Ameri- 
 can magazines unanimously; (22) 281 leading news- 
 papers. 
 
 president Harrison's recommendation. 
 
 President Benjamin Harrison, in his message to 
 Congress, December 3, 1889, wrote as follows: 
 
 The subject of an international copyright has been frequently 
 commended to the attention of Congress by my predecessors. The 
 enactment of such a law would be eminently wise and just. 
 
 EX-PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND FAVORS THE 
 BILL. 
 
 New York, December 6, 1889. 
 My Dear Mr. Johnson : I hope that I need not assure you how 
 much I regret my inability to be with you and other friends and 
 advocates of international copyright in this hour. It seems to me 
 very strange that a movement having so much to recommend it to 
 the favor of just and honest men should languish in the hands of 
 our law-makers. It is not pleasant to have forced upon one the 
 reflection that perhaps the fact that it is simply just and fair is to its 
 present disadvantage. And yet I believe, and I know you and the 
 others engaged in the cause believe, that ultimately and with contin- 
 ued effort, the friends of this reform will see their hopes realized.
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 107 
 
 Then it will be a great satisfaction to know and feel that success wa3 
 achieved by force of fairness, justice, and morality. 
 
 Grover Cleveland. 
 Mr. R. U. Johnson, Secretary. 
 
 PETITION OF AUTHORS. 
 
 The undersigned American citizens, who earn 
 their living in whole or in part by their pen, and 
 who are put at disadvantage in their own country 
 by the publication of foreign books without pay- 
 ment to the author, so that American books are 
 undersold in the American market, to the detriment 
 of American literature, urge the passage by Con- 
 gress of an International Copyright Law, which will 
 protect the rights of authors, and will enable Ameri- 
 can writers to ask from foreign nations the justice 
 we shall then no longer deny on our own part. 
 
 [Signed by 144 of the leading American authors, 
 as follows:] 
 
 Henry Abbey. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. 
 
 Lyman Abbott. R. R. Bowker. 
 
 Charles Kendall Adams. Francis F. Browne. 
 
 Henry C. Adams. Oliver B. Bunce. 
 
 Herbert B. Adams. H. C. Bunner. 
 
 Oscar Fay Adams. Frances Hodgson Burnett. 
 
 Louisa May Alcott. Edwin Lassetter Bynner. 
 
 Thomas Bailey Aldrich. G. W. Cable. 
 
 Edward Atkinson. Lizzie W. Champney. 
 
 Leonard W. Bacon. S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain). 
 
 Hubert H. Bancroft. Titus Munson Coan. 
 
 Charles Barnard. Robert Collyer. 
 
 Amelia E. Barr. Clarence Cook. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher. George Willis Cooke. 
 
 Edward Bellamy. J. Esten Cooke. 
 
 William Henry Bishop. A. Cleveland Coxe.
 
 io8 
 
 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 George William Curtis. 
 
 Charles De Kay. 
 
 Eugene L. Didier. 
 
 John Dimitry. 
 
 Nathan Haskell Dole. 
 
 Maurice Francis Egan. 
 
 Edward Eggleston. 
 
 George Gary Eggleston. 
 
 Richard T. Ely. 
 
 Edgar Fawcett. 
 
 Charles Gayarre. 
 
 Richard Watson Gilder, 
 
 Arthur Gilman. 
 
 James R.Gilmore (Edmund Kirke) 
 
 Washington Gladden. 
 
 Parke Godwin. 
 
 Robert Grant. 
 
 F. V. Greene. 
 
 Edward Greey. 
 
 William Elliot Griffis. 
 
 Hattie Tyng Griswold. 
 
 W. M. Griswold. 
 
 Louise Imogen Guiney. 
 
 John Habberton. 
 
 Edward E. Hale. 
 
 J. Hall. 
 
 William A. Hammond. 
 
 Marion Harland. 
 
 Joel Chandler Harris. 
 
 Miriam Coles Harris. 
 
 Wm. T. Harris. 
 
 James A. Harrison. 
 
 J. M. Hart. 
 
 Bret Harte. 
 
 Thos. Wentworth Higginson. 
 
 Edward S. Holden. 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 James K. Hosmer. 
 
 W. D. Howells. 
 
 Ernest Ingersoll. 
 
 Helen Jackson (H. H.). 
 Sara O. Jewett. 
 Rossiter Johnson. 
 Ellen Olney Kirk. 
 Thos. W. Knox. 
 Martha J. Lamb. 
 George Parsons Lathrop. 
 Henry Cabot Lodge. 
 Benson J. Lossing. 
 J. R. Lowell. 
 Hamilton W. Mabie. 
 James McCosh. 
 John Bach McMaster. 
 .Albert Mathews. 
 Brander Matthews. 
 Edwin D. Mead. 
 Donald G. Mitchell. 
 T. T. Munger. 
 Anna Katharine Green. 
 George Walton Green. 
 Harry Harland (Sidney Luska). 
 John Hay. 
 Henry F. Keenan. 
 Simon Newcomb. 
 R. Heber Newton. 
 Charles Ledyard Norton. 
 Grace A. Oliver. 
 John Boyle O'Reilly. 
 Francis Parkman. 
 James Parton. 
 P. Y. Pember. 
 Thomas S. Perry. 
 Ben Perley Poore. 
 David L. Proudfit. 
 Isaac L. Rice. 
 Charles F. Richardson. 
 E. P. Roe. 
 J. T. Rothrock. 
 Philip Schaff. 
 James Schouler.
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. IO9 
 
 Horace E. Scudder. David A. Wells. 
 
 Eugene Schuyler. Horace White. 
 
 Isaac Sharpless. William D. Whitney. 
 
 Albert Shaw. John G. Whittier. 
 
 George William Sheldon. Constance Fenimore Woolson. 
 
 E. V. Smalley. John Burroughs. 
 
 Ainsworth R. Spofford. Rose Elizabeth Cleveland. 
 
 Edmund C. Stedman. Mary Mapes Dodge. 
 
 Frederic J. Stimson. Henry George. 
 
 Frank R. Stockton. W. Hamilton Gibson. 
 
 R. H. Stoddard. Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert 
 
 Maurice Thompson. Craddock). 
 
 Moses Coit Tyler. Harriet Prescott Spofford. 
 
 Francis H. Underwood. Walt Whitman. 
 
 William Hayes Ward. Adeline D. T. Whitney. 
 
 Susan Hayes Ward. George Bancroft. 
 
 Chas. Dudley Warner. 
 
 WESTERN AUTHORS FAVOR THE BILL. 
 
 The following resolution was adopted by the 
 Western Association of Writers, in convention, 
 June, 1886, and was re-adopted in 1889-90: 
 
 Resolved, That this convention earnestly presents to the considera- 
 tion and urges the importance, justice, and feasibility of Interna- 
 tional Copyright upon our members of Congress and United States 
 Senators ; and that we hold the establishment of just and permanent 
 relations with England and other friendly nations upon the subject 
 of copyright to be a necessity to the best success of American author- 
 ship. 
 
 In addition to this resolution, the members of the 
 association petitioned Congress for the passage of 
 the bill. 
 
 In an address, dated February 28, 1890, the ex- 
 ecutive committee of the association says: 
 
 A good international copyright law, so long hoped for from Con- 
 gress, will insure protection to foreign authors in our own land and
 
 IIO THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 to American authors in foreign lands. It will do more. It will 
 place the books of American writers on an equal footing financially 
 with those of their foreign contemporaries, will tend to increase the 
 sale of American books, and will encourage the greatest mental 
 activity of American thinkers. From this may be expected the 
 greatest benefit to our republican government. For American books 
 embodying American ideas will then gain, probably, at least as wide 
 a hearing as foreign books clothing foreign ideas. 
 
 PETITION OF SOUTHERN AUTHORS. 
 
 To the Honorable the Af embers of the House of Representatives from 
 the Southern States : 
 
 The undersigned, writers connected with Southern literature or 
 journalism, respectfully invoke your hearty aid in behalf of the 
 Chace-Breckinridge International Copyright bill, now on the calen- 
 dar of the House of Representatives. We believe this bill to be 
 both just in principle and necessary to the normal development of 
 American literature, and that, instead of increasing the price of 
 books, as has been feared, it will tend to the opposite effect by 
 reason of the larger editions which publishers, thus secured in their 
 legitimate market, will be enabled to put forth. Since it cannot be 
 retroactive, it will in no way affect the price of any volume which 
 shall have been printed up to the date at which it will go into opera- 
 tion. In other words, the present literature of the world will be 
 open to as cheap republication after the passage of the bill as before. 
 We particularly desire to call your attention to the revival of literary 
 activity in the South. No portion of the country is more interested 
 in the fullest security of literary property, for in no portion will the 
 development of literature be more greatly aided by this bill. Its 
 passage will remove from our country the national disgrace of tolerat- 
 ing literary piracy. 
 
 Signed by Thomas Nelson Page, Ame'lie Rives Chanler, Joel 
 Chandler Harris, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mary N. Mur- 
 free, Charles H. Jones, George W. Cable, Rachael J. Phil- 
 brick, Col. Richard M. Johnston, Marion Harland, F. H. 
 Richardson, Will Wallace Harney, Charles H. Smith, William 
 H. Hayne, Augusta Evans Wilson, Elizabeth Bisland, R. T. 
 W. Duke, Jr., James A. Harrison, M. G. McClelland, A. C. 
 Gordon, Charles Washington Coleman, Jr., Frances Cour-
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. I 1 1 
 
 tenay Baylor, Constance Cary Harrison, M. Elliot Seawell, 
 H. S. Edwards, Clifford Lanier, Marion A. Baker, Page M. 
 Baker, Grace King, William Miller Owen, Robert Burns 
 Wilson, James Lane Allen, George William Brown, B. L. 
 Gildersleeve, and eighty other writers of note in the South. 
 
 AMERICAN COMPOSERS FAVOR THE BILL. 
 
 As may be seen from the following extracts from 
 many expressions published in the Century Maga- 
 zine, American musicians strongly favor an interna- 
 tional copyright bill : 
 
 As to an international copyright law, I should hail it with joy. 
 At this stage of the world's progress such a legal protection should 
 be everywhere recognized as an author's inalienable right. 
 
 Dudley Buck. 
 
 The absence of an international copyright law is working directly 
 to the grave injury of our native composers. 
 
 Julius Eichberg. 
 
 Justice and expediency alike demand an international copyright, 
 and every educated person in the country should ask for it. 
 
 Arthur Foote. 
 
 It seems to me that there is no honorable defence for our present 
 thievish attitude on the subject of international copyright. 
 
 B. J. Lang. 
 
 Let us have an international copyright law by all means, and the 
 
 sooner the better. 
 
 Louis Maas. 
 
 It seems to me that the arguments in favor of international copy- 
 right, as regards works of literature, apply with equal force to musi- 
 cal compositions. 
 
 William Mason. 
 
 The present state of the law is an inducement to swindling, and 
 is degrading to us as a nation. An international copyright law that
 
 112 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 would compel American publishers to pay foreign composers for 
 their works might also prove an encouragement to home talent by 
 giving our own composers an equal chance with others. 
 
 Theodore Thomas. 
 
 I am most decidedly in favor of an international copyright law, 
 
 by which musical composers and authors in other arts and sciences 
 
 will be protected against the outrageous doings of many publishers 
 
 in America and in Europe. 
 
 Carl Zerrahn. 
 
 There must be an international copyright, and that without delay, 
 
 or American music will sink into oblivion. 
 
 Eugene Thayer. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE COLLEGES. 
 
 The following colleges, through their representa- 
 tive officers, petitioned Congress in favor of the 
 Chace-Breckinridge bill: 
 
 Adelbert, Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 A. & M. College of Texas, College Station, Texas. 
 
 Amity College, College Springs, Iowa. 
 
 Beloit, Beloit, Wis. 
 
 Bethel, Russellville, Ky. 
 
 Bowdoin, Brunswick, Me. 
 
 Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio. 
 
 Carleton College, Northfield, Minn. 
 
 Central Tennessee College, Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Central Wesleyan College, Warrington, Me. 
 
 Christian University, Canton, Wis. 
 
 Dartmouth, Hanover, N. H. 
 
 Davidson, Davidson, N. C. 
 
 Doane College, Crete, Nebr. 
 
 Duray College, Springfield, Miss. 
 
 Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. 
 
 Franklin College, Franklin, Ind. 
 
 Frederick College, Frederick, Md. 
 
 Haverford, Haverford, Pa. 
 
 Heidelberg, Tiffin, Ohio.
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. H3 
 
 Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y. 
 
 Maryland Agricultural College, College Station, Md. 
 
 Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. 
 
 Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Kentucky State University, Lawrence, Ky. 
 
 King College, Bristol, Tenn. 
 
 Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis. 
 
 Lebanon Valley College, Lebanon, Pa. 
 
 Milton College, Wisconsin. 
 
 Mississippi College, Clinton, Miss. 
 
 Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio. 
 
 Northwestern University, Naperville, 111. 
 
 Northwestern University, Scranton, 111. 
 
 Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. 
 
 Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 Otterbein University, Westerville, Ohio. 
 
 Princeton College, Princeton, N. J. 
 
 Racine College, Racine, Wis. 
 
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N. Y. 
 
 Richmond College, Richmond, Va. 
 
 Ripon, Ripon, Wis. 
 
 Rochester University, Rochester, N. Y. 
 
 Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. 
 
 South Carolina, Columbia, S. C. 
 
 State Normal School, Emporia, Kan. 
 
 State University, Iowa City, Iowa. 
 
 Trinity College, Trinity College, North Carolina. 
 
 Tulane University, New Orleans, La. 
 
 University of California, Berkeley, Cal. 
 
 University of Dakota, Grand Forks, Dak. 
 
 University of Denver, Denver, Col. 
 
 University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. 
 
 University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss. 
 
 University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 
 
 Upper Iowa University, Fayette, Iowa. 
 
 Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Vassar, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
 
 Wells College, Aurora, N. Y. 
 
 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. 
 
 Western University of Pennsylvania, Allegheny, Pa.
 
 114 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 The faculties of many other colleges are known to 
 favor the bill. 
 
 SUPPORT FROM LEADING EDUCATORS. 
 
 At the meeting of the superintendents of the 
 National Educational Association, held in New 
 York city February 19, 1890, the following resolu- 
 tion, on motion of William E. Sheldon, chairman 
 of the committee on copyright, was unanimously 
 adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the department of superintendence 
 of the National Educational Association hereby record our sympathy 
 with American authors in the effort they are now making to obtain 
 from Congress an international copyright law ; and we cannot too 
 strongly express our sense of the necessity of such a measure, both 
 as an obligation of justice and as a stimulus to American literature 
 and to the spread of American ideas abroad. 
 
 In addition to this general resolution the following 
 petition was signed : 
 
 The Honorable the Senators and Representatives of the Congress of 
 the United States : 
 The undersigned, officers and members of the National Educa- 
 tional Association, respectfully petition you to support the inter- 
 national copyright bill now pending in both Houses of Congress, 
 believing that the proposed law would stimulate American literature ; 
 would promote the sciences and useful arts ; would raise the standard 
 of reading and give it a better and more national character, and 
 would be in the interest of the whole people. 
 
 W. T. Harris, Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C; 
 John Eaton, ex-Commissioner of Education of the United 
 States ; L. W. Day, Superintendent of Instruction, Cleve- 
 land, O. ; W. B. Powell, Superintendent of Schools, Wash- 
 ington, D. C. ; James MacAlister, Superintendent of Public 
 Schools, Philadelphia ; Wm. M. Griffin, Cook County Normal
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 1 1 5 
 
 School, Chicago ; L. H. Jones, Superintendent of Schools, 
 Indianapolis, Ind. ; Richard G. Boone, Professor of Peda- 
 gogics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. ; A. S. Draper, 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of New York ; 
 Edwin C. Hewett, President State Normal University, 
 Normal, 111. ; E. E. White, ex-President Purdue Univer- 
 sity ; Geo. Howland, Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, 
 111. ; J. M. Greenwood, Superintendent of Schools, Kansas 
 City, Mo. ; Aaron Gove, Superintendent of Schools, Denver, 
 Col. ; W. H. Bartholomew, State Board of Education of 
 Kentucky ; J. A. B. Lovett, editor Teacher at Work, Hunts- 
 ville, Ala. ; Edwin P. Seaver, Superintendent of Public 
 Schools, Boston, Mass. ; T. J. Morgan, Commissioner Indian 
 Affairs, Washington, D. C. ; Chas. R. Skinner, Deputy 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction, State of New York ; 
 Henry A. Wise, Superintendent of Instruction, Balti- 
 more, Md. ; Alex. Forbes, Chicago, 111. ; J. A. Shawan, 
 Superintendent of Schools, Columbus, O. ; George P. 
 Brown, editor Public School Journal, Bloomington, 111. ; 
 John Hancock, State Commissioner of Common Schools, 
 Ohio ; M. A. Newell, State Superintendent of Public In- 
 struction, Maryland ; John MacDonald, Western School 
 Journal, Topeka, Kan. ; John M. Bloss, Superintendent 
 of Schools, Topeka, Kan. ; George B. Lane, State Super- 
 intendent of Public Instruction, Nebraska, and about sixty 
 others. 
 
 In addition to the above lists, petitions in favor 
 of the bill from 467 superintendents and teachers in 
 Indiana, Missouri, Idaho, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, 
 Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota have been re- 
 ceived and forwarded to Congress : 
 
 PETITION FROM LIBRARIANS. 
 
 The undersigned, librarians in public, college, and circulating 
 libraries, etc., respectfully request the passage of the pending inter- 
 national copyright bill, believing, from our practical knowledge of 
 the reading public, that the proposed law would stimulate American
 
 Il6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 literature, would promote the sciences and the useful arts, would 
 raise the standard of reading and give it a better and a more national 
 tone, and would be in the interest of the whole people. 
 
 Signed by Mr. A. R. Spofford and two hundred of the leading 
 librarians of the country, representing thirty States — the custodians 
 of the nation's literary treasures, and to a considerable extent the 
 guides of the people's reading. Among these are librarians of 
 public and circulating libraries of the cities of New York, Phila- 
 delphia, Brooklyn, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, Indianapolis, Co- 
 lumbus, Detroit, San Francisco, Buffalo, Albany, St. Paul, Providence, 
 Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Rockford, 111. ; Springfield, Ohio ; 
 Macon, Ga., and many other cities. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' 
 COPYRIGHT LEAGUE, ADOPTED JANUARY 21, 1 888. 
 
 Resolved, That the Chace copyright bill, with the amendments 
 now recommended by your executive committee, appears fairly to 
 meet the several requirements of American writers, readers, manu- 
 facturers, and sellers of books, domestic and foreign, and has the 
 approval of this league ; and our executive committee is hereby 
 instructed to take such action as it may find requisite to secure the 
 passage of the bill with these amendments. 
 
 Resolved, That, recognizing from the history of previous attempts, 
 and from the statement of the present obstacles, the difficulty of 
 securing any legislation on international copyright (an undertaking 
 in which such a variety of interests are involved, and in connection 
 with which such diverse views are being pressed upon Congress), our 
 executive committee is hereby authorized, in the event of its proving 
 impracticable to secure the adoption of the bill in the precise form 
 in which it is now recommended to them, to support on behalf of 
 the league this bill, or a bill on the general lines of this bill, with 
 such modifications as may prove requisite to secure the necessary 
 Congressional support : Provided, always, That no modifications be 
 accepted that fail to provide for the printing in this country of 
 foreign books securing American copyright. 
 
 The league, which cordially indorses the pending 
 bill, embraces the following publishing houses:
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 117 
 
 Amer. Publishing Co. (Frank E. Bliss, president), Hartford, Conn. 
 
 Armstrong, A. C, & Son, 714 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Alden, John B., 393 Pearl street, New York. 
 
 Appleton, D., & Co., 1 and 3 Bond street, New York. 
 
 Barnes, A. S., & Co., Ill William street, New York. 
 
 Baker & Taylor Co., The, 9 Bond street, New York. 
 
 Bovvker, R. R., 330 Pearl street, New York. 
 
 Bugbee, David & Co., Bangor, Me. 
 
 Carter & Bros., Robert, 530 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Cushings & Bailey, Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Century Company, 33 East 17th street, New York. 
 
 Clarke & Co., Robert, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 Crowell, T. Y., & Co., 13 Astor Place, New York. 
 
 Clark & Maynard, 771 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Dutton & Co., E. P., 21 West 23d street, New York. 
 
 Ditson, Oliver & Co., Boston, Mass. 
 
 Dodd, Mead & Co., 755 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Dillingham, G. W., 31 West 23d street, New York. 
 
 Estes & Lauriat, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 30 Lafayette Place, New York. 
 
 Flexner & Staadeker, Louisville, Ky. 
 
 Gebbie & Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Ginn & Co., 743 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Harper & Bros., Franklin Square, New York. 
 
 Hubbard Bros., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Holbrook, M. L., 25 Bond street, New York. 
 
 Holt, Henry, & Co., 27 West 23d street, New York. 
 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, Mass. 
 
 International Copyright Association, Boston. 
 
 Ivison, Blakeman & Co., 753 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Kirchner & Co., Geo., 17 Union Square, New York. 
 
 Lovell Co., John W., 14 Vesey street, New York. 
 
 Lothrop & Co., D., Boston, Mass. 
 
 Lippincott Co., The J. B., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass. 
 
 Lee & Shepard, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Lockwood, Geo. R., & Son, 812 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Little, J. J., & Co., 10 Astor Place, New York. 
 
 Munro, Geo., 17 Vandewater street, New York. 
 
 McClurg & Co., A. C, Chicago, 111.
 
 Il8 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Nims & Knight, Troy, N. Y. 
 
 Pomeroy, Mark M., 234 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Putnam's Sons, G. P., 27 and 29 West 23d street, New York. 
 
 Phillips & Hunt, Fifth ave. and 20th street, New York. 
 
 Pott & Co., Jas., 14 Astor Place, New York. 
 
 Putnam, Davis & Co., Worcester, Mass. 
 
 Roberts Bros., Boston, Mass. 
 
 Randolph, A. D. F., & Co., 38 West 23d street, New York. 
 
 Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago, 111. 
 
 Stokes & Bros., F. A., 182 Fifth ave., New York. 
 
 Scribner's Sons, Chas. , 743 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Street & Smith, 31 Rose street, New York. 
 
 Sheldon & Co., 724 Broadway, New York. 
 
 St. Paul Book & Stationery Co., St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 Ticknor&Co., Boston, Mass. 
 
 Tainlor Bros. & Co., 18 Astor Place, New York. 
 
 Trow Printing & Bookbinding Co. , New York. 
 
 Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 Van Nostrand, D., estate of, 23 Murray street, New York. 
 
 Webster, Chas. L., & Co., 3 East 14th street. New York. 
 
 Whittaker, Thos., 2 Bible House, New York. 
 
 Wood & Co., Wm., 56 Lafayette Place, New York. 
 
 Wiley, John, & Sons, 15 Astor Place, New York. 
 
 White & Allen, 94 Wall street, New York. 
 
 Young, E. & J. B., & Co., 6 Cooper Union, New York. 
 
 AMERICAN NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS. 
 
 The American Newspaper Publishers' Associa- 
 tion, in convention February 13, 1890, adopted the 
 following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That the American Newspaper Publishers' Association is 
 in hearty sympathy with the efforts now being made by American 
 authors to obtain from Congress a fuller security for literary property, 
 and we believe the proposed International Copyright Bill to be in 
 the interest of the national honor and welfare. 
 
 THE PRINTERS' UNIONS. 
 
 At the Denver session of the International Typo-
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 119 
 
 graphical Union, in June, 1889, the following pre- 
 ambles and resolution were adopted : 
 
 Whereas the measure known as the " Chace International Copy- 
 right Bill " failed to become a law through lack of consideration 
 in the House of Representatives of the Fiftieth Congress ; and 
 
 Whereas said bill will be reintroduced in both houses of the Fifty- 
 first Congress and put upon its passage at an early date ; and 
 
 Whereas said bill contains a clause which guarantees absolutely 
 that all books copyrighted in this country shall be printed from type 
 set within the limits of the United States : Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That the International Typographical Union heartily 
 indorses the "Chace International Copyright Bill," and urges it as a 
 duty upon subordinate unions and union printers everywhere to use 
 all honorable means to further the passage of said bill. 
 
 In accordance with this resolution, over two 
 hundred local unions, representing all sections of 
 the country and comprising 40,000 members, have 
 strongly indorsed the pending bill, and have urged 
 its passage upon members of Congress, through a 
 committee consisting of John L. Kennedy, De Witt 
 C. Chadwick, and H. S. Sutton. 
 
 THE EMPLOYING PRINTERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 At the third annual meeting of the United Ty- 
 pothetae of America, held at St. Louis, Mo., October 
 8, 9, and 10, 1889, the following resolution was pre- 
 sented to the convention from the committee on 
 copyright, consisting of Messrs. Theodore L. De 
 Vinne, W. J. Gilbert, and P. F. Pettibone, and was 
 adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the association appoint a delegate to the next meet- 
 ing of the American Copyright League, to be held in New York 
 city, and that we here record our approval of the general principle
 
 120 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 of international copyright, and especially of the provision that all 
 books copyrighted shall be printed in the United States. 
 
 THE STRONGEST PATENT CLUB IN THE COUNTRY. 
 
 New York, February 20, 1890. 
 Resolved, That the Electric Club of New York is in hearty sym- 
 pathy with the present efforts of American authors, publishers, em- 
 ploying printers, and workmen in the printing trades to obtain from 
 Congress a just recognition of the rights of intellectual property, and 
 it hails with satisfaction the prospect of an early passage of the 
 International Copyright Bill. 
 
 ACTION OF THE CHICAGO COPYRIGHT LEAGUE. 
 
 Chicago, February 25, 1890. 
 Resolved, That this meeting unanimously indorses the efforts of 
 Congressman George E. Adams of Chicago toward securing the 
 enactment of the Chace-Breckinridge international copyright bill in 
 the United States House of Representatives, and urges upon Con- 
 gress the necessity for the immediate passage of said bill. 
 
 Among the supporters of this resolution were A. 
 C. McClurg, Franklin McVeagh, Joseph Kirkland, 
 David Swing, C. L. Hutchinson, Hobart C. Taylor, 
 Franklin H. Head, William F. Poole, Marshall 
 Field, Edward G. Mason, Slason Thompson, and 
 many others. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT ASSOCIATION OF 
 NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 The bill was indorsed as follows at the last annual 
 meeting of this association, composed of authors, 
 publishers, paper-makers, printers, book-binders, edu- 
 cators, jurists, professional men, merchants, bank- 
 ers, and others, including Charles Francis Adams,
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 121 
 
 Nathan Appleton, Edward Atkinson, George 
 Bancroft, Edwin Booth, Samuel Bowles, Jonathan 
 Chace, James Freeman Clarke, Richard H. Dana, 
 Bancroft C. Davis, Samuel Adams Drake, Charles 
 W. Eliot, William Endicott, Jr., O. B. Frothing- 
 ham, Joseph R. Hawley, George F. Hoar, Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes, John D. Long, Henry Cabot 
 Lodge, Frederick Law Olmsted, Henry L. Pierce, 
 Noah Porter, Frederick O. Prince, Alexander H. 
 Rice, John C. Ropes, Francis A. Walker, and hun- 
 dreds of others. 
 
 Resolved, That this association approves the bill granting copy- 
 right to foreign authors and artists now before Congress, and warmly 
 urges its prompt passage, in the interest of the principles of equity 
 and justice and to the end that our own authors and artists may re- 
 ceive a proper recognition and reward for their works. 
 
 The Washington, D. C, association and leading 
 citizens of St. Louis have indorsed the bill in similar 
 terms. 
 
 CARDINAL GIBBONS ON COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Cardinal Gibbons has written the following let- 
 ter: 
 
 My Dear Sir : I desire to say that I am in entire sympathy with 
 those distinguished authors in the earnest efforts they are making to 
 secure from Congress an international copyright law. 
 
 Intellectual labor is the highest and noblest occupation of man, 
 and there is no work to the fruit of which a man has a higher claim 
 than to the fruit of mental labor. Many authors have reason to 
 complain in almost the words of the Gospel : " We have labored and 
 others have entered into our labors." 
 
 It seems to me eminently just that adequate protection should be
 
 122 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 afforded to authors, so as to secure them against what is conceived to 
 be a manifest violation of their rights. 
 
 I am, my dear sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 James, Card. Gibbons. 
 February 15, 1890. 
 
 Robert U. Johnson, Esq., 
 
 Secretary American Copyright League. 
 
 AN AUTHORITATIVE VOICE FROM THE MEDICAL 
 PROFESSION. 
 
 January 20, 1S90. 
 
 Dear Sir : Perhaps few persons, certainly none in the medical 
 profession of this country, could show a record which would better 
 prove the need of an international copyright than could I. I once 
 pointed out to a member of Congress in my library, a copy of one of 
 my books translated into French, two translations of the same in Ger- 
 man, one in Russian, and another work of mine translated into 
 French. For none of these had I ever received a cent. It is true 
 that two of these translations were authorized by me when my con- 
 sent was asked, but, of course, it would not have been given without 
 some financial return to me if the law had been otherwise than it is, 
 since any one could at will take the book and translate it without the 
 slightest references to the wishes of the author. A great many Ameri- 
 can medical books have been translated into the European languages 
 with or without the assent of the authors, but I have never heard 
 that for any of these did our authors ever receive a penny. My own 
 case is, I fancy, the strongest, and I have no objection to your 
 printing this statement if it will further the purposes of the League. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 Weir Mitchell. 
 
 Secretary of Copyright League, 
 
 New York City. 
 
 THE OPINION OF A DISTINGUISHED CONSTITU- 
 TIONAL LAWYER. 
 
 Hon. George Ticknor Curtis, one of the earliest 
 and ablest advocates of an international copyright
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 1 23 
 
 law, has written the following letter in support of 
 
 the pending bill : 
 
 114 East Thirtieth Street, 
 
 New York, April 18, 1890. 
 
 Dear Sir : . . . It seems to me, as an American author and 
 a citizen of the United States, in common with many other Ameri- 
 can authors and citizens, that our wishes ought to receive careful 
 attention at the hands of Congress. It is no longer possible to deny 
 the justice and expediency of an international copyright law, such 
 as is proposed in the pending bill. While it will benefit foreign, and 
 especially English, authors, to American authors it is certain to 
 operate as a measure that will secure to them fruits of their labors 
 which they are entitled to enjoy. I have myself failed to receive rev- 
 enue from publications that ought to have yielded me revenue in 
 England as well as in this country ; publications of which English 
 publishers have availed themselves without making me the slightest 
 remuneration. This wrong can be corrected by Congress for Ameri- 
 can authors in regard to future publication without the slightest dis- 
 advantage to readers, publishers, bookmakers, or printers, by passing 
 the pending bill. 
 
 I may not have personal influence with those who are to decide 
 this great measure of right and justice, but I feel that I have reason 
 to do everything I can in its favor. 
 
 Very truly, your obedient servant, 
 
 George Ticknor Curtis. 
 
 Robert U. Johnson, Esq., 
 
 Secretary American Copyright League. 
 
 MR. GLADSTONE'S ATTITUDE. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone having been quoted by the op- 
 ponents of the international copyright bill, not only 
 as a partisan of the royalty or stamp copyright 
 scheme, which the friends of the bill strongly oppose, 
 but also as an opponent of the bill itself, the secre- 
 tary of the American Copyright League recently 
 addressed him a letter of inquiry on the subject, to 
 which the subjoined reply has been received :
 
 124 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 House of Commons Library, March 25, 1890. 
 My Dear Sir : I set so high a value upon the recognition by the 
 United States of the principle of international copyright, a principle 
 which has been now almost universally adopted in Europe, that al- 
 though I regret some of the provisions of the bill now before Con- 
 gress, I cannot refuse to express my sympathy with the efforts which 
 American authors have so perseveringly made to procure legal pro- 
 tection for the rights of foreign authors, and my hope that these 
 efforts maybe speedily crowned with success. Imperfect as the pres- 
 ent bill is, it will, if I rightly read its provisions, place both Ameri- 
 can and non-American authors in a more equitable position than 
 they have hitherto occupied. 
 
 It is quite erroneous to suppose that I have formed any opinion in 
 favor of the royalty scheme as against this bill. 
 
 I remain, my dear sir, faithfully yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 R. U. Johnson, Esq., 
 
 Secretary American Copyright League. 
 
 THE MAGAZINES UNANIMOUS. 
 
 In response to a circular inquiry addressed to 
 forty leading monthly periodicals, the following 
 authorized the use of their names as strongly in 
 favor of the pending bill. Not one unfavorable 
 reply was received : 
 
 Atlantic Monthly. Forum. 
 
 Andover Review. Magazine of American History. 
 
 Art Amateur. Godey's Lady's Book. 
 American Journal of Education. Home-Maker. 
 
 Arena. Hall's Journal of Health. 
 
 Book-Buyer. Hamilton Review. 
 
 Belford's Magazine. Harper's Magazine. 
 
 Book Chat. Lippincott's Magazine. 
 
 Century Magazine. Lend a Hand. 
 
 Cosmopolitan. Lookout and New England Mag- 
 Current Literature. azine. 
 
 " Dixie." Northwest Magazine. 
 
 Dial. New England Magazine.
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 125 
 
 New Englander and Yale Review. Popular Science Monthly. 
 
 No Name Magazine. 
 
 North American Review. 
 
 Our Country Home. 
 
 Outing. 
 
 Political Science Quarterly. 
 
 Frank Leslie's Weekly. 
 
 St. Louis Magazine. 
 Scribner's Magazine. 
 St. Nicholas. 
 Statesman. 
 Writer. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE PRESS. 
 
 Following is a partial list of the American news- 
 papers and weekly periodicals which have given 
 the proposed copyright legislation cordial support. 
 Very many others are also known to favor it : 
 
 Boston Beacon. 
 
 Boston Congregationalism 
 
 Boston Advertiser. 
 
 Boston Journal. 
 
 Boston Journal of Education. 
 
 Boston Herald. 
 
 Boston National Journalist. 
 
 Boston Pilot. 
 
 Boston Post. 
 
 Boston Transcript. 
 
 Boston Traveller. 
 
 Zion's Herald (Boston). 
 
 New Haven (Conn.) News. 
 
 American Bookseller (New York), 
 
 American Economist (New York). 
 
 American Hebrew (New York). 
 
 Bradstreet's (New York). 
 
 Christian Union (New York). 
 
 Critic (New York). 
 
 Current Literature (New York). 
 
 Electrical World (New York). 
 
 Dramatic Mirror (New York). 
 
 Epoch (New York). 
 
 Evangelist (New York). 
 
 Examiner (New York). 
 
 Financier (New York). 
 
 Harper's Weekly (New York). 
 
 Home Journal (New York). 
 
 Independent (New York). 
 
 Life (New York). 
 
 Nation (New York). 
 
 Observer (New York). 
 
 Publishers' Weekly (New York). 
 
 Puck (New York). 
 
 Judge (New York). 
 
 Voice (New York). 
 
 Witness (New York). 
 
 New York Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 New York Courrier des Etats- 
 
 Unis. 
 New York Evening Post. 
 New York Evening Telegram. 
 New York Herald. 
 New York Morning Journal. 
 New York Mail and Express. 
 New York Press. 
 New York -Star. 
 New York Times.
 
 126 
 
 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 New York Tribune. 
 
 New York World. 
 
 Scranton (Pa.) Times. 
 
 Pottsville(Pa.) Evening Chronicle. 
 
 Bridgeport (Conn.) Standard. 
 
 Jersey City (N. J.) Evening Jour- 
 nal. 
 
 Newburyport (Mass.) Herald. 
 
 Springfield (Mass.) Republican. 
 
 Peoria (111.) Journal. 
 
 Newark (N. J.) Morning Press. 
 
 Dayton (Ohio) Herald. 
 
 Chattanooga (Tenn.) Republican. 
 
 Columbus (Ohio) Sunday Morning 
 News. 
 
 Springfield (Mo.) Dailyand Week- 
 ly Herald. 
 
 New York Financial Times. 
 
 Watkins (N. Y.) Herald. 
 
 Chicago National Journalist. 
 
 Brookville (Ind.) American. 
 
 Leoti (Kansas) Western Farmer. 
 
 Buffalo Courier. 
 
 Albany (N. Y.) Times. 
 
 Cincinnati (Ohio) Post. 
 
 Springfield (111.) Journal. 
 
 Milwaukee (Wis.) Evening Wis- 
 consin. 
 
 Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-Eye. 
 
 Lakewood (N. J.) Times and 
 Journal. 
 
 Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial. 
 
 Washington (D. C) National View. 
 
 Boston Courier. 
 
 Portland (Me.) Transcript. 
 
 Boston Commonwealth. 
 
 Buffalo Mercantile Review. 
 Dayton (Ohio) Journal. 
 New York Electrical Review. 
 Cambridge (Mass.) Press. 
 
 Greenfield (Mass.) Gazette and 
 Courier. 
 
 Buffalo Milling World. 
 
 Buffalo Lumber World. 
 
 Buffalo Iron Industry Gazette. 
 
 New York Family Story Paper. 
 
 New York Golden Hours. 
 
 New Hampshire (Keene, N. H.) 
 Sentinel. 
 
 Binghamton (N. Y.) Republican. 
 
 Jamestown (N. Y.) Journal. 
 
 Greensburg (Pa.) Press. 
 
 Des Moines (Iowa) Iowa State 
 Register. 
 
 Cambridge (Mass.) Tribune. 
 
 Cambridge (Mass.) Chronicle. 
 
 Columbus (Ga.) Inquirer. 
 
 Boston Youths' Companion. 
 
 Rochester (N. Y.) Union and Ad- 
 vertiser. 
 
 Newark (N. J.) Sunday Call. 
 
 Memphis (Tenn.) Sunday Times. 
 
 Brooklyn Standard Union. 
 
 Kingston (N. Y.) Freeman. 
 
 Little Falls (N. Y.) Times. 
 
 Rochester Post-Express. 
 
 American Rural Home(Rochester.) 
 
 Erie (Pa.) Herald. 
 
 Erie (Pa.) Morning Dispatch. 
 
 Friends' Intelligencer and Journal 
 (Philadelphia). 
 
 Golden Days (Philadelphia). 
 
 National Baptist (Philadelphia). 
 
 Telephone (Philadelphia). 
 
 Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 Philadelphia North American. 
 
 Philadelphia Press. 
 Philadelphia Public Ledger. 
 Watertown (N. Y.) Times. 
 
 Williamsport (Pa.) Sun.
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 127 
 
 Pittsburgh (Pa.) Commercial Ga- 
 zette. 
 
 New Bedford (Mass.) Daily Mer- 
 cury. 
 
 New London (Conn.) Morning 
 Telegraph. 
 
 Newark (N. J ) Daily Advertiser. 
 
 Lowell (Mass.) Daily Courier. 
 
 Baltimore (Md.) Sun. 
 
 Paterson (N. J.) Press. 
 
 Wilmington (Del.) Every Evening. 
 
 Haverhill (Mass.) Gazette. 
 
 Bridgeport (Conn.) Farmer. 
 
 Harrisburg (Pa.) Morning Call. 
 
 Pittsfield (Mass.) Evening Journal. 
 
 Waterbury (Conn.) American. 
 
 Utica (N. Y.) Daily Press. 
 
 Philadelphia Record. 
 
 Omaha (Nebr.) Republican. 
 
 Buffalo Tidings. 
 
 Baltimore Telegram. 
 
 Winona (Minn) Daily Republican. 
 
 Davenport (Iowa) Democrat. 
 
 Mandan (N. Dak.) Pioneer. 
 
 Hartford (Conn ) Courant. 
 
 Willimantic (Conn.) Journal. 
 
 New Haven (Conn.) Register. 
 
 Our Youth (New York). 
 
 New Orleans (La) Daily City Item. 
 
 St. Joseph (Mo.) Daily News. 
 
 Redfield (S. Dak.) Observer. 
 
 Belfast (Me.) Republican Journal. 
 
 Portsmouth (N. H.) Daily Prog- 
 ress. 
 
 Portland (Me ) Sunday Times. 
 
 Providence (R. I.) Telegram. 
 
 Hudson (N. Y ) Daily Register. 
 
 Omaha (Nebr.) Bee. 
 
 Pittsburgh (Pa.) Dispatch. 
 
 Wilkesbarre (Pa.) Record. 
 
 Public Opinion (Washington, D.C.). 
 
 Kate Field's Washington. 
 
 Washington (D. C.) Critic. 
 
 Washington (D. C.) Evening Star. 
 
 Richmond Times. 
 
 West Point (Va.) Virginian. 
 
 Danville (Va.) Times. 
 
 Wheeling (W. Va.) Letter. 
 
 Charleston (S. C.) News and 
 Courier. 
 
 Charleston (S. C.) World. 
 
 Columbia (S. C.) Register. 
 
 Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution. 
 
 Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle. 
 
 Macon (Ga.) Telegraph. 
 
 New Orleans Times-Democrat. 
 
 Dallas (Tex.) Christian Advocate. 
 
 Fort Worth (Tex.) Gazette. 
 
 Houston (Tex.) Post. 
 
 Louisville Courier-Journal. 
 
 National Publisher and Printer 
 (Louisville). 
 
 Memphis (Tenn.) Avalanche. 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterian (Nash- 
 ville). 
 
 Gospel Advocate (Nashville). 
 
 Western Christian Advocate (St. 
 Louis). 
 
 St. Louis Republican. 
 
 Cleveland Leader. 
 
 Baptist Journal and Register (Cin- 
 cinnati). 
 
 Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. 
 
 Jackson (Ohio) Herald. 
 
 Indianapolis Journal. 
 
 Indianapolis Sentinel. 
 
 America (Chicago). 
 
 Christian Worker (Chicago). 
 
 Chicago Journal. 
 
 Chicago Journal of Commerce.
 
 128 
 
 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Chicago News. 
 Chicago Standard. 
 Chicago Times. 
 Chicago Indicator. 
 Chicago Evening Mail. 
 Chicago Occident. 
 Galena (111.) Press. 
 Harvard (111.) Independent. 
 Clearwater (Minn.) Sun-Wave. 
 Uuluth (Minn.) Tribune. 
 Minneapolis Journal. 
 Minneapolis Tribune. 
 St. Paul Pioneer Press. 
 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Republican. 
 Des Moines (Iowa) Leader. 
 Burlington (Kansas) Republican. 
 Wichita Eagle. 
 Denver (Colo.) Republican. 
 Denver (Colo.) Times. 
 Banning (Cal.) Herald. 
 Oakland (Cal.) Tribune. 
 Sacramento (Cal.) Record-Union. 
 San Francisco News Letter. 
 Seattle (Wash.) Journal. 
 Seattle (Wash.) Post Intelligencer. 
 Troy (N. Y.) Observer. 
 Philadelphia(Pa) Taggarts' Times. 
 Detroit (Mich.) Journal. 
 Chelsea (Mass.) Gazette. 
 Springfield (Mass.) New England 
 
 Homestead. 
 Springfield (Mass.) Farm and 
 
 Home. 
 Springfield (Mass.) Springfield 
 
 Homestead. 
 New York American Agriculturist. 
 Newton (Mass.) Journal. 
 The Banner Weekly (New York). 
 Syracuse (N. Y.) Standard. 
 Norwalk (Conn.) Hour. 
 
 Red Wing (Minn.) Republican. 
 
 Wilmington (Del.) Sunday Star. 
 
 Bradford (Pa.) Era. 
 
 Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post. 
 
 Wall Street (N. Y.) Daily News. 
 
 Hartford (Conn.) Evening Post. 
 
 Cape Cod (Yarmouthport, Mass.) 
 Item. 
 
 Birmingham (Ala.) Age-Herald. 
 
 Dead wood (S. Dak.) Pioneer. 
 
 Syracuse (N. Y.) Herald. 
 
 Vicksburg (Miss.) Post. 
 
 Duluth (Minn.) Herald. 
 
 Mt. Joy (Pa.) Herald. 
 
 Merchants and Manufacturers' 
 Journal (Baltimore). 
 
 Salt Lake Herald. 
 
 Sioux Falls (S. Dak.) Argus- 
 Leader. 
 
 Munsey's Weekly (New York). 
 
 Portland (Me.) Press. 
 
 Portland (Me.) Express. 
 
 Staunton (Va.) Spectator. 
 
 Tarboro (N. C.) Southerner. 
 
 Bloomington (111.) Leader. 
 
 New Albany (Ind.) Ledger. 
 
 Kentucky State Journal (New- 
 port, Ky.). 
 
 Bismarck (N. Dak.) Tribune. 
 
 Chicago Citizen. 
 
 Lafayette (Ind.) Sunday Times. 
 
 Wilson (N. C.) Advance. 
 
 Arkansaw Traveler (Chicago). 
 
 Spirit of the Valley (Harrison- 
 burgh, Va.). 
 
 Paris (Texas) News. 
 
 St. Louis (Mo.) Age of Steel. 
 
 St. Louis (Mo.) Critic. 
 
 Anniston (Ala.) Hot Blast. 
 
 Henderson (Ky.) Gleaner.
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 129 
 
 Colorado Springs Gazette. Northern Christian Advocate 
 
 Leadville (Colo.) Evening Chron- (Syracuse, N. Y.). 
 
 icle. The Churchman (New York). 
 
 Leadville (Colo.) Herald-Demo- Cincinnati Journal and Messen- 
 
 crat. ger. 
 
 Buffalo Christian Advocate. Troy (N. Y.) Catholic Weekly. 
 
 Topeka (Kans.) Lance. Racine (Wis.) Slavie. 
 
 Spokane Falls (Wash.) Review. Winston (N. C.) Western Sentinel. 
 Rhode Island Democrat (Provi- Boston Morning Star. 
 
 dence, R. I.). Notre Dame (Ind.) Ave Maria. 
 
 Christian Intelligencer (New Virginia City (Nev.) Evening 
 
 York). Chronicle. 
 
 Weekly Union and Catholic Times New London (Conn.) Day. 
 
 (New York). St. Louis (Mo.) Spectator. 
 
 Woman's Journal (Boston). Prescott (Arizona) Journal-Miner. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 The intelligent voice of the whole country asks 
 for the passage of a measure substantially the same 
 as this ; authors, publishers, printers, musical com- 
 posers, colleges, educators, librarians, newspapers, 
 and magazines join in the prayer. Clay and Web- 
 ster favored such a thing in the past ; Gladstone, 
 Harrison, Cleveland, and Cardinal Gibbons favor it 
 to-day. Our term of copyright is shorter than that 
 sanctioned by the verdict of the civilized world. 
 
 Substantially all the world, except Great Britain 
 and the United States, treat foreigner and citizens 
 alike in the matter of copyright ; Great Britain per- 
 mits copyright to foreigners on the same basis as 
 citizens, if the foreigner be at the time of publication 
 on British soil ; the Queen is empowered by law to 
 establish reciprocity with us if we will permit it, 
 and we stand alone in rejecting and refusing over- 
 tures. A hundred international copyright agree-
 
 ISO THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 ments have been signed ; the name of the United 
 States is in no one of them. 
 
 It is shown that an author has a natural exclusive 
 right to his intellectual productions : that the com- 
 mon law of England always recognized that right, 
 and that the common law of America necessarily 
 recognizes that right ; that our present procedure 
 represses authorship by putting the products of the 
 labor of American authors into untrammeled com- 
 petition with the products of English labor, for 
 which nothing is paid ; that our present procedure 
 deprives American authors of the advantages of the 
 British market ; that our present procedure vitiates 
 the education and tastes of American youth ; that 
 our present procedure bars our people from the 
 benefits of the good literature of England, and that 
 our present procedure prevents the cheapening of 
 good and desirable books in the United States. It 
 cannot be possible that the American Congress will, 
 with full knowledge, permit the present procedure 
 to continue.
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE PLATT-SIMONDS COPYRIGHT ACT, 
 OF MARCH, 1891. 
 
 An Act to amend Title Sixty, Chapter Three, of the Revised 
 Statutes of the United States, Relating to Copyrights. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 United States of America in Congress assembled, That section forty- 
 nine hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes be, and the same 
 is hereby, amended so as to read as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4952. ' The author, inventor, designer, or proprietor of any 
 book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, cut, 
 print, or photograph or negative thereof, or of a painting, drawing, 
 chromo, statue, statuary, and of models or designs intended to be 
 perfected as works of the fine arts, and the executors, administrators, 
 or assigns of any such person shall, upon complying with the pro- 
 visions of this chapter, have the sole liberty of printing, reprinting, 
 publishing, completing, copying, executing, finishing, and vending 
 the same ; and, in case of dramatic composition, of publicly per- 
 forming or representing it or causing it to be performed or repre- 
 sented by others ; and authors or their assigns shall have exclusive 
 right to dramatize and translate any of their works for which copy- 
 right shall have been obtained tinder the laws of the United States." 
 
 Sec. 2. That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-four of the 
 Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read 
 as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4954. The author, inventor, or designer, if he be still liv- 
 ing, 2 or his widow or children, if he be dead, shall have the same 
 exclusive right continued for the further term of fourteen years, 
 
 1 Omits: " Any citizen of the United States or resident therein, 
 who shall be " 
 
 2 Omits ; " And a citizen of the United States or resident therein,"
 
 132 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 upon recording the title of the work or description of the article so 
 secured a second time, and complying with all other regulations in 
 regard to original copyrights, within six months before the expiration 
 of the first term ; and such persons shall, within two months from 
 the date of said renewal, cause a copy of the record thereof to be 
 published in one or more newspapers printed in the United States 
 for the space of four weeks." 
 
 Sec. 3. That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-six of the Revised 
 Statutes of the United States be, and the same is hereby, amended 
 so that it shall read as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4956. No person shall be entitled to a copyright unless he 
 shall, on or before the day of publication in this or any foreign coun- 
 try, deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress, or deposit in 
 the mail within the United States, addressed to the Librarian of 
 Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, a printed copy of 
 the title of the book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, 
 engraving, cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a description of 
 the painting, drawing, statue, statuary, or a model or design for a 
 work of the fine arts for which he desires a copyright, nor unless he 
 shall also, not later than the day of the publication thereof in this or 
 any foreign country, deliver at the office of the Librarian of Con- 
 gress, at Washington, District of Columbia, or deposit in the mail 
 within the United States, addressed to the Librarian of Congress, at 
 Washington, District of Columbia, two copies of such copyright 
 book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving, 
 chromo, cut, print or photograph* or in case of a painting, drawing, 
 statue, statuary, model, or design for a work of the fine arts, a pho- 
 tograph of the same : Provided, That in the case of a book, photo- 
 graph, chromo, or lithograph, the two copies of the same required to be 
 delivered or deposited as above shall be printed fro?n type set within 
 the limits of the United States, or from plates made therefrom, or 
 from negatives, or drawings on stone made within the limits of the 
 United States, or from transfers made therefrom. During the exist- 
 ence of such copyright the importation into the United States of any 
 book, chromo, lithograph, or photograph, so copyrighted, or any edition 
 or editions thereof, or any plates of the same not made from type set, 
 negatives, or drawings on stone made within the limits of the United 
 States, shall be, and it is hereby, prohibited, except in the cases specified 
 in paragraphs 512 to 516 inclusive, in sectio7i 2 of the act entitled 
 
 1 These words replace the words " or other article,"
 
 THE ACT OF MARCH, 189I. 1 33 
 
 'An act to reduce the revenue and equalize the duties on imports and 
 for other purposes? approved Oct. 1, 1890 ; and except in the case of 
 persons purchasing for use and not for sale, who import subject to the 
 duty thereon, not more than two copies of such book at any one time ; 
 and except in the case of newspapers and magazines, not containing in 
 whole or in part matter copyrighted tinder the provisions of this act, 
 unauthorized by the author, which are hereby exempted from prohibi- 
 tion of importation : Provided, nevertheless, That in the case of boohs 
 in foreign languages, of which only translations in English are copy- 
 righted, the prohibition of importation shall apply only to the transla- 
 tion of the same, and the importation of the boohs in the original 
 language shall be permitted," 
 
 Sec. 4. That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-eight of the 
 Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so that it will 
 read as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4958. The Librarian of Congress shall receive from the 
 persons to whom the services designated are rendered the following 
 fees : 
 
 " First. For recording the title or description of any copyright 
 book or other article, fifty cents. 
 
 " Second. For every copy under seal of such record actually given 
 to the person claiming the copyright, or his assigns, fifty cents. 
 
 "Third. For recording and certifying any instrument of writing 
 for the assignment of a copyright, one dollar. 
 
 " Fourth. For every copy of an assignment, one dollar. 
 
 " All fees so received shall be paid into the Treasury of the United 
 States : Provided, That the charge for recording the title or descrip- 
 tion of any article entered for copyright, the production of a person 
 not a citizen or resident of the United States, shall be one dollar, to be 
 paid as above into the Treasury of the United States, to defray the 
 expenses of lists of copyrighted articles as hereinafter provided for. 
 
 "And it is hereby made the duty of the Librarian of Congress to 
 furnish to the Secretary of the Treasury copies of the entries of titles 
 of all books and other articles wherein the copyright has been com- 
 pleted by the deposit of two copies of such book printed from type set 
 within the limits of the United States, in accordance with the provis- 
 ions of this act and by the deposit of two copies of such other article 
 made or produced in the United States ; and the Secretary of the 
 Treasury is hereby directed to prepare and print, at intervals of not 
 more than a week, catalogues of such title-entries for disttibution to
 
 134 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the collectors of customs of the United States and to the postmasters 
 of all post-offices receiving foreign mails, and such weekly lists, as 
 they are issued, shall be furnished to all parlies desiring them, at 
 a sum not exceeding five dollars per annum ; and the Secretary and 
 the Postmaster-General are hereby empowered and required to make 
 and enforce such rules and regulations as shall prevent the importa- 
 tion into the United States, except upon the conditions above specified, 
 of all articles prohibited by this act." 
 
 Sec. 5. That section forty-nine hundred and fifty-nine of the 
 Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read 
 as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4959. The proprietor of every copyright book or other 
 article shall deliver at the office of the Librarian of Congress, or 
 deposit in the mail, addressed to the Librarian of Congress, at 
 Washington, District of Columbia, 1 a copy of every subsequent edi- 
 tion wherein any substantial changes shall be made : Provided, how- 
 ever, That the alterations, revisions, and additions made to books by 
 foreign authors, heretofore published, of 7vhich new editions shall 
 appear subsequently to the taking effect of this act, shall be held and 
 deemed capable of being copyrighted as above provided for in this act, 
 unless they form a part of the series in course of publication at the 
 time this act shall take effect." 
 
 Sec. 6. That section forty-nine hundred and sixty-three of the Re- 
 vised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as 
 follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4963. Every person who shall insert or impress such 
 notice, or words of the same purport, in or upon any book, map, 
 chart, dramatic, or musical composition, print, cut, engraving, or 
 photograph, or other article, for which he has not obtained a copy- 
 right, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars, recoverable 
 one-half for the person who shall sue for such penalty and one-half 
 to the use of the United States." 
 
 Sec. 7. That section forty-nine hundred and sixty-four of the 
 Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read 
 as follows : 
 
 "Sec. 4964. Every person, who after the recording of the title 
 
 1 Omits : " within ten days after its publication, two complete 
 printed copies thereof, of the best edition issued, or description or 
 photograph of such article as hereinbefore required, and "
 
 THE ACT OF MARCH, 189I. 135 
 
 of any book and the depositing of two copies of such book, as pro- 
 vided by this act, shall, contrary to the provisions of this act, within 
 the term limited, and without the consent of the proprietor of the 
 copyright first obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or 
 more witnesses, print, publish, dramatize, translate, or import, or 
 knowing the same to be so printed, published, dramatized, translated, 
 or imported, shall sell or expose to sale any copy of such book, shall 
 forfeit every copy thereof to such proprietor, and shall also forfeit 
 and pay such damages as may be recovered in a civil action by such 
 proprietor in any court of competent jurisdiction." 
 
 Sec. 8. That section forty-nine hundred and sixty-five of the 
 Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, so amended as to read 
 as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4965. If any person, after the recording of the title of 
 any map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, print, cut, engrav- 
 ing, or photograph, or chromo, or of the description of any painting, 
 drawing, statue, statuary, or model or design intended to be per- 
 fected and executed as a work of the fine arts, as provided by this 
 act, shall within the term limited, contrary to the provisions of this act, 
 and without the consent of the proprietor of the copyright first ob- 
 tained in writing, signed in presence of two or more witnesses, en- 
 grave, etch, work, copy, print, publish, dramatize, translate, or 
 import, either in whole or in part, or by varying the main design 
 with intent to evade the law, or, knowing the same to be so printed, 
 published, dramatized, translated , or imported, shall sell or expose 
 to sale any copy of such map or other article as aforesaid, he shall 
 forfeit to the proprietor all the plates on which the same shall be 
 copied and every sheet thereof, either copied or printed, and shall 
 further forfeit one dollar for every sheet of the same found in his 
 possession, either printing, printed, copied, published, imported, 
 or exposed for sale, and in case of a painting, statue, or statuary, 
 he shall forfeit ten dollars for every copy of the same in his pos- 
 session, or by him sold or exposed for sale ; one-half there- 
 of to the proprietor and the other half to the use of the United 
 States." 
 
 Sec. 9. That section forty-nine hundred and sixty-seven of the 
 Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read 
 as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4967. Every person who shall print or publish any manu- 
 script whatever without the consent of the author or proprietor first
 
 I36 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 obtained, 1 shall be liable to the author or proprietor for all damages 
 occasioned by such injury." 
 
 Sec. 10. That section forty-nine hundred and seventy-one of the 
 Revised Statutes be, and the same is hereby, repealed. 2 
 
 Sec. 11. That for the purpose of this act each volume of a book 
 in two or more volumes, when such volumes are published separately 
 and the first one shall not have been issued before this act shall take 
 effect, and each number of a periodical shall be considered an inde- 
 pendent publication, subject to the form of copyrighting as above. 
 
 Sec. 12. That this act shall go into effect on the first day of July, 
 anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-one. 
 
 Sec. 13. That this act shall only apply to a citizen or subject of a 
 foreign state or nation when such foreign state or nation permits to 
 citizens of the United States of America the benefit of copyright on 
 substantially the same basis as its own citizens ; 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 of America may, at its pleasure, become a 
 party to such agreement. The existence of either of the conditions 
 aforesaid shall be determined by the President of the United States by 
 proclamation made from time to time as the purposes of this act may 
 require. 
 
 The following are the sections of the Tariff act 
 bearing on the bill ; 
 
 512. Books, engravings, photographs, bound or unbound, etch- 
 ings, maps, and charts, which shall have been printed and bound or 
 manufactured more than twenty years at the date of the importation. 
 
 513. Books and pamphlets printed exclusively in languages other 
 than English ; also books and mnsic in raised print, used exclusively 
 by the blind. 
 
 514. Books, engravings, photographs, etchings, bound or un- 
 
 1 Omits : " if such author or proprietor is a citizen of the United 
 States, or resident therein," 
 
 5 Sec. 4971 is as follows : " Nothing in this chapter shall be con- 
 strued to prohibit the printing, publishing, importation, or sale of 
 any book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, print, cut, 
 engraving, or photograph, written, composed or made by any person 
 not a citizen of the United States nor resident therein."
 
 THE ACT OF MARCH, 189I. I37 
 
 bound, maps and charts imported by authority or for the use of the 
 United States, or for the use of the Library of Congress. 
 
 515. Books, maps, lithographic prints and charts especially im- 
 ported, not more than two copies in any one invoice in good faith, 
 for the use of any society incorporated for educational, philosophical, 
 literary, or religious purposes, or for the encouragement of the fine 
 arts, or for the use or by order of any college, academy, school, or 
 seminary of learning in the United States, subject to such regulations 
 as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe. 
 
 516. Books, or libraries, or parts of libraries and other household 
 effects of persons or families from foreign countries, if actually used 
 by them not less than one year, and not intended for any other per- 
 son or persons, nor for sale. 
 
 (In the text as above given, the changes from the existing law are 
 printed in italics, and the omissions are specified in the foot-notes.) 
 
 Note. — Section 4953 of the Revised Statutes, which prescribes 
 twenty-eight years as the first term of copyright, being left unchanged, 
 is not given in the present act. For its wording, see text of the 
 Act of 1870, p. 108.
 
 IX. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE PROVISIONS OF 
 THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF 1891. 
 
 The purport of the Chace-Breckinridge-Adams- 
 Simonds-Platt Copyright Act may be briefly sum- 
 marized as follows : 
 
 A. — Works of Literature. 
 
 1. Copyright is granted to authors, whether res- 
 ident or non-resident, for a term of twenty-eight 
 years. A further term of fourteen years (making 
 forty-two years in all) is granted to the author if at 
 the expiration of the first term he is still living, or 
 to his widow or children if he be dead. Unless the 
 author survive the first term or leave widow or 
 children, the copyright is limited to twenty-eight 
 years. 
 
 2. It is made a condition of such copyright for 
 all authors, whether resident or non-resident, that 
 all the editions of the works so copyrighted must 
 be entirely manufactured within the United States; 
 the term including the setting of the type, as well 
 as the printing and binding of the books. 
 
 This provision was instituted in the new act at the 
 instance of the Typographical Unions, and was in- 
 sisted upon by them as essential. The Unions were
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF 1 89 1. 1 39 
 
 under the apprehension that if international copy- 
 right should be established without such condition 
 of American manufacture, a large portion of the 
 book manufacturing now done in this country would 
 be transferred across the Atlantic, to the injury of 
 American type-setters and printers, and of the other 
 trades employed in the making of books. 
 
 3. For a non-resident author, the further condi- 
 tion is attached to his American copyright that the 
 country of which he is a citizen shall concede to 
 American authors copyright privileges substantially 
 equal to those conceded by such foreign state to 
 its own authors. 
 
 4. It is also made a condition (applying to both 
 resident and non-resident authors) that the book 
 securing American copyright shall be published in 
 the United States not later than the date of its pub- 
 lication in any other country. Under the British 
 act now in force, the works of British authors must, 
 in order to preserve their British copyright, be pub- 
 lished in Great Britain not later than the date of 
 their publication in any other country. It will, 
 therefore, be necessary for English authors to make 
 arrangements with their English and American pub- 
 lishers for a simultaneous date of publication for 
 both sides of the Atlantic. 
 
 With the present facilities for the manifolding 
 and typewriting of manuscripts, for the transmit- 
 ting across the Atlantic in a week's time advance 
 proofs or advance sheets, and for making final 
 arrangements by cable, there need be, for the great 
 majority of books likely to be reprinted, no material
 
 I4-0 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 difficulties in the way of securing this simultaneous 
 publication. 
 
 The provision was believed by many to be an 
 essential part of the condition that all editions of 
 books securing an American copyright must be 
 manufactured in this country. It was argued 
 that, if a term of twelve months or of six months 
 were to be allowed to a foreign author within 
 which to complete arrangements for his American 
 editions, the importation of the foreign editions 
 during such term must be either prohibited or 
 permitted. In the former case, American readers 
 might, for an indefinite period, be prevented from 
 securing any copies at all of new English books, a 
 delay which would certainly bring about popular 
 indignation. In the second case, the American 
 market could be to some extent supplied with Eng- 
 lish editions before any American editions were in 
 readiness, and by the time the English author was 
 ready to sell his American copyright, he would find 
 that such copyright possessed very little market 
 value. 
 
 The status of the foreign book during such inter- 
 regnum must in any case be an anomalous one, and 
 would be likely to cause complications. 
 
 The assertion has been made that the provision 
 for simultaneous publication was inserted by the 
 publishers with the malicious purpose of prevent- 
 ing the less known British authors, who might not 
 be in a position to make advance arrangements for 
 their American editions, from securing under the 
 act any American copyright.
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF 189I. 141 
 
 It is evident, however, that the publishers who 
 were interested in framing the bill were not ac- 
 tuated by any such Machiavellian intentions. It 
 had been made clear that international copyright 
 was expected to prove a business advantage to all 
 the legitimate publishers engaged in reprinting 
 English books, for the simple reason that larger 
 profits could be secured by controlling the market 
 for authorized editions (even when these were sold 
 at the lowest popular prices) than by dividing the 
 market with a number of unauthorized editions. 
 This being the case, it was of course to the interest 
 of the publishers to secure the protection of Ameri- 
 can copyright for as many foreign works as possible, 
 and the throwing over of any books to the un- 
 authorized reprinters would entail loss upon pub- 
 lishers as well as upon authors. 
 
 It was, however, the belief of the publishers, in 
 accepting this provision with the other typograph- 
 ical conditions, that there need be no difficulty in 
 arranging to protect the works of new authors as 
 well as those of the well-known writers. 
 
 It seems probable, also, taking into account all 
 the considerations, that the provision for simultane- 
 ous publication is unavoidable as long as the other 
 restrictions in the act are retained. When these can 
 be spared, the International Copyright Law of the 
 United States can properly be brought under the 
 provisions of the Berne Convention. 
 
 5. The regulations previously in force for making 
 the entries of copyright are continued, and two 
 copies of the book, together with one copy of its
 
 1^2 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 printed title-page, are to be delivered, on or before 
 the day of publication, at the office of the Librarian 
 of Congress, together with a fee for the entry of the 
 title, such fee being, in the case of an American 
 author, fifty cents, and in the case of a foreign 
 author one dollar. 
 
 6. While the importation, during the existence of 
 the American copyright, of editions of the books so 
 copyrighted, whether the authors of the same be 
 American or foreign, is prohibited, the importation 
 of such books is permitted to the extent of not to 
 exceed two copies in any one invoice, said copies 
 being certified to be " for use and not for sale." 
 Buyers of foreign books which have secured an 
 American copyright, who may prefer for their libra- 
 ries the foreign editions of such books, are, under 
 this provision, enabled to import, either direct or 
 through an importer, not to exceed two copies of 
 such editions. This provision apparently permits the 
 importation (not exceeding two copies in any one 
 shipment) of unauthorized as well as of authorized 
 foreign editions of books which have been copy- 
 righted in the United States. 
 
 7. Foreign periodicals of which there are no 
 American editions " printed from type set in the 
 United States," cannot secure for their contents an 
 American copyright. The importation of such peri- 
 odicals is left unrestricted, except for such numbers 
 as may contain unauthorized reprints of material 
 which has already in some other form secured an 
 American copyright. 
 
 An English author who copyrights and publishes
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF 189I. 143 
 
 in the United States a volume, some chapters of 
 which have previously been printed in an English 
 magazine, will probably not be in a position to pre- 
 vent the reprinting in the United States of an un- 
 authorized issue of the material contained in such 
 chapters. For this portion of his volume no Amer- 
 ican copyright can, under the present act, be secured. 
 In case all the chapters in the volume have already 
 appeared in a foreign periodical, its American copy- 
 right has probably been forfeited. 
 
 8. For the purpose of enforcing the prohibition 
 of the importation of editions of books securing 
 American copyright, weekly lists of the books of 
 which the copyright has been completed are to be 
 furnished by the Librarian of Congress to the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, and by the Secretary to 
 the various customs officers concerned. 
 
 The non-importation provision makes the status 
 of books by foreign authors, which have secured an 
 American copyright, practically identical with that 
 heretofore in force for copyrighted American works, 
 the importation of foreign editions of which has 
 of necessity always been prohibited. The whole 
 theory of copyright rests on the exclusive control 
 by the author of a specific territory. An author to 
 whom, under domestic or international law, such a 
 control has been conceded, has something to sell 
 for which he can convey a clear title, and for which, 
 therefore, he is in a position to secure a price rep- 
 resenting the full market value of his production. 
 An author who can convey to his publisher, in place 
 of an exclusive territory, only the right to compete
 
 144 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 with an indefinite number of other publishers of the 
 same work, has no real " copyright " to sell, and the 
 compensation that he can secure will be of necessity 
 comparatively inconsiderable. 
 
 The so-called Sherman amendment, which was 
 discussed at some length during the consideration 
 of the present act, authorized the importation of 
 foreign editions of works by foreign authors securing 
 American copyright. It was finally rejected on the 
 several grounds: that it was incompatible with the 
 other sections of the act, which provided for the 
 American manufacture of all books securing Ameri- 
 can copyright ; that it was inconsistent with the 
 purpose of the act to place on a uniform status all 
 books copyrighted here, whether of American or 
 foreign origin ; and that it was inconsistent with the 
 essential condition of " copyright," which stands for 
 an exclusive right to the " copy " for a specific ter- 
 ritory and for a specific term. The opponents of 
 the amendment cited, as an instance of territorial 
 copyright, the case of the authorized Tauchnitz and 
 Asher editions of the books of British authors, 
 which, while copyright on the continent, would, if 
 imported into Great Britain, be infringements, and 
 the importations of which into Great Britain had, 
 therefore, always been prohibited. 
 
 The Sherman amendment, in its original form, 
 authorized the importation of foreign editions of 
 books by American as well as by foreign authors, and 
 did not even stipulate for the permission of the 
 authors; and in this form it would of necessity have 
 rendered null and void domestic as well as inter-
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF 189I. 145 
 
 national copyright. While such a result was doubt- 
 less not the intention of the mover, Senator Sher- 
 man of Ohio, or of Senators Hale, Plumb, Carlisle, 
 Daniels and the others who supported him, this 
 original amendment was actually carried in the 
 Senate by a vote of 25 to 24. It was rescinded 
 three days later, after its actual purport had been 
 made clear by outside criticism. In its corrected 
 shape, in which it authorized the importation of 
 foreign editions of books by foreign authors only, 
 it was finally defeated by the vote of 21 to 28. The 
 whole episode was a noteworthy instance of slovenly 
 and hap-hazard legislation. 
 
 9. The foreign author possesses under the act the 
 same control over translations of his books as has 
 previously been possessed by the American author, 
 and such translations can hereafter be issued only 
 under his authorization. This provision gives, 
 namely, to German and French authors the control 
 of the issue in this country of English versions of 
 their books, and to English authors a similar control, 
 not only over a reprint in English, but over one 
 made, for instance, in German. There is, however, 
 no prohibition of the importation of an edition of a 
 book printed in a language other than that in which 
 it has secured its American copyright. 
 
 B.— Works of Art. 
 
 Foreign artists and designers are accorded the 
 same term or terms of copyright as those given to 
 foreign authors (and to domestic artists). 
 
 The condition of American manufacture is at- 
 tached to the copyright of reproductions in the
 
 146 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 form of chromos, lithographs, or photographs. 
 American manufacture was, however, not made a 
 condition of the more artistic forms of reproduc- 
 tions, and foreign artists are, therefore, now in a 
 position to control the American copyright of en- 
 gravings or photogravures of their productions, 
 whether these engravings, etc., are " manufactured " 
 in Europe or in the United States. This provision 
 is held by the artists and art publishers of France, 
 who have in the past years suffered severely from 
 American " appropriations " of their productions, 
 to be of special importance. 
 
 C. — Music. 
 
 Musical compositions by foreign composers are 
 accorded the same terms of American copyright as 
 those given to American compositions, and for pro- 
 ductions of this class American manufacture is not 
 made a condition of the copyright. 
 
 The condition of reciprocity applies to the copy- 
 right of both music and art. 
 
 The act goes into effect July 1st, 1891, but its 
 provisions become actually operative between the 
 United States and any foreign state only when the 
 president has made announcement, by proclama- 
 tion, that the necessary conditions of reciprocity 
 have been fulfilled by such state. 
 
 The above suggestions concerning the purpose 
 and probable operation of the provisions of the new 
 act are submitted with all deference to the opinions 
 of better authorities, and will very probably be 
 subject to correction in one respect or another after
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF 189I. 147 
 
 the act has come into effect. It is very probable 
 that some questions will arise which cannot be def- 
 initely settled without the interpretation of the 
 courts. 
 
 G. H. P. 
 
 March 25, 1891.
 
 X. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECHES OF 
 SENATORS PLATT AND EVARTS, 
 IN THE COPYRIGHT DEBATE IN 
 THE SENATE. 
 
 February 10, 1891. — Mr. Platt, in calling up 
 the Copyright Bill, said : " Mr. President, I do 
 not wish to take the time of the Senate in any 
 lengthy explanation of this bill. We have now 
 waited fifty-three years for this moment, when an 
 international copyright law could be enacted. Fif- 
 ty-three years ago, Henry Clay made a report which, 
 in the estimation of thoughtful men, thoroughly 
 demonstrated not only the expediency, but the 
 duty of extending the right of copyright to foreign- 
 ers by the passage of an international copyright law. 
 
 " I will simply say that the bill proceeds upon one 
 broad fundamental principle, and that is that what 
 a man fashions by his brain, his genius, his imagina- 
 tion, or his ingenuity is property, just as much 
 as what he fashions by his hands, or acquires by 
 manual or other labor; and that, being property, it 
 should be property the world over, and should be 
 recognized as such. If an American writes a book, 
 the right to publish that book should be recognized 
 as property not only in this country, as it now is 
 under the Constitution, but as property everywhere. 
 If a citizen of another country writes a book, the
 
 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. I49 
 
 right to publish that book should be as much 
 property in this country as in his own country. 
 
 " That is the broad principle on which this bill 
 rests — the protection of property, for which gov- 
 ernments are instituted. The principle has been 
 recognized in the case of patents, and not a little of 
 the growth and prosperity of the country is due to 
 the fact of the recognition by this government, that 
 a foreigner who invents a new machine or discovers 
 a new process shall be entitled to secure a patent 
 for the same in this country. 
 
 " The Constitution puts authors first, in saying 
 that Congress may secure to them exclusive rights ; 
 it puts them before inventors ; but the legislation 
 of the country has extended the provisions of the 
 Constitution in the matter of inventions very much 
 further than it has in the matter of authorship, and 
 those who come in under the generic term of 
 authors. 
 
 " I believe myself no measure before this Congress 
 is so calculated to enhance not only the intellectual, 
 but the material growth of this country, as this 
 copyright bill, and I trust it will pass without 
 amendment. 
 
 " As I said, we have waited fifty-three years for 
 this opportunity, and this opportunity may be 
 wholly lost if at this time amendments should be 
 pressed in the Senate. 
 
 " I do not know that I should call this a perfect 
 bill, but it is a bill which has had long considera- 
 tion by committees of the Senate and of the House 
 of Representatives. It comes to us from the House,
 
 I50 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 and now is our opportunity to obtain the passage of 
 such a law. If there is anything in it which needs 
 further examination, which would call for further 
 legislation, the way for the people who desire 
 international copyright to obtain it is to pass this 
 bill while we have the opportunity to pass it, and to 
 establish the principle of copyright in this country 
 for aliens, and copyright in Europe for Americans. 
 Then, if the provisions of the act may be found to 
 need modification, you can trust to the future that 
 justice will be done." . . . 
 
 February 14. — Mr. Piatt said (replying to Mr. 
 Allison and Mr. Sherman) : 
 
 . . . " The fundamental idea of a copyright 
 is the exclusive right to vend, and the prohibition 
 against importation from a foreign nation is neces- 
 sary to the enjoyment of that right. It is the right 
 to vend within the country where the copyright 
 is granted that gives value to the work of the 
 author. . . . 
 
 " I was saying that the very essence of copyright 
 is the privilege of controlling the market. That is 
 the only way in which it can be reached ; it is the 
 only way in which the right can be vindicated ; it is 
 the only way in which a man's property in the work 
 of his brain, or his imagination, or his genius, can be 
 assured. I am sorry to say that I apprehend a good 
 deal of this contention arises from the lack of a 
 desire to protect a man in that species of property ; 
 and I am afraid the idea, so prevalent, and so in- 
 creasing in the country in these days, that property 
 rights generally are not so very sacred, has to
 
 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 151 
 
 some extent affected the consideration of this sub- 
 ject. 
 
 " Of course the right is exclusive. It is exclusive 
 in this country under our laws, and it is exclusive in 
 every country which has copyright of any kind, 
 national or international. The man who has a 
 copyright in England, and also in Germany, cannot 
 import his books from Germany into England, or 
 his engravings from Germany into England, unless 
 he be the proprietor in England of the copyright ; 
 nor can the English proprietor of the copyright 
 export his books, his engravings, or whatever be the 
 subject of his copyright into Germany unless he is 
 the proprietor of the copyright in both countries. 
 
 " There, of course, the consent of the proprietor 
 is not required ; but without the consent of the 
 proprietor of the copyright, whether he be the 
 publisher himself, or whether the person to whom 
 the author has transferred his right is the publisher, 
 exportation and importation are prohibited. The 
 right is exclusive, and it must be. It is in the 
 essential nature and characteristic of the property 
 that it should be thus protected. Why should not 
 a man's property in his work be protected ? Why 
 should anybody want to import from a foreign 
 country a work when the United States has given 
 to the person of this country its sole market for the 
 work ? 
 
 " Mr. President, I insist that geographical divis- 
 ions ought not in any way to affect the question of 
 copyright. Having once laid the foundation, that 
 it rests upon the essential and inherent right of a
 
 152 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 man to be protected in his property, it does not 
 make any difference whether the owner of it be an 
 American or a foreigner. If the author or the artist 
 in this country, being an American citizen, is entitled 
 to be protected in the reproduction of his work in 
 this country, there is nothing in the fact that a sea 
 divides us from another country which would war- 
 rant us in saying that our country should have a 
 right to appropriate the work of the foreign au- 
 thor or of the foreign artist. It is appropriation 
 that people are after when they seek to limit copy- 
 right to a single country, and to the citizens of a 
 single country." . . 
 
 February 10. — Mr. Evarts said, referring more 
 particularly to the Sherman amendment : " Mr. 
 President, I rise for the purpose of speaking to the 
 amendments proposed, but I will submit a few ob- 
 servations brought out by the treatment given to this 
 subject by the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Sherman). 
 
 "The Senator seems to misconceive the nature of 
 copyright or patent protection. 
 
 " We perfectly understand it in our application 
 under our Constitution and our laws to the copy- 
 rights and the patent rights which we grant here to 
 our citizens. It has nothing to do with the question 
 whether there should or should not be any profit or 
 tax of importation or otherwise, or any excise upon 
 printing books which may fall under this or that 
 interest of Congress in its revenue system. So it is 
 in regard to any foreign patent or any foreign author. 
 
 "The sole question for us is what we shall do 
 concerning something which is the essential nature
 
 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 1 53 
 
 of copyright and patent protection, namely, monop- 
 oly. It does not touch the question whether there 
 shall be taxation here or there on the general prop- 
 erty of the country, or on general importations into 
 the country. It is this one direct proposition, as 
 correctly expressed in the Constitution as the most 
 careful phrase that could be adopted. It is to en- 
 courage these advantages to the world, that is, this 
 world of ours, in this country, so that we can draw 
 into the service of the community what is, as orig- 
 inated, the private possession of inventors and writ- 
 ers. 
 
 " It is a monopoly with them before they make 
 their composition or invention open, and it is simply 
 a contract which has been thought wise for the 
 public welfare that we shall say to the author or 
 inventor, ' for a limited period you shall have a 
 monopoly under certain conditions of public use 
 while your monopoly exists, and afterwards it shall 
 be free.' 
 
 "So no confusion of ideas should be introduced 
 into this debate, based on the fact that we are now 
 proposing to make the same treaty of monopoly 
 with a foreign author that we make habitually with 
 our own authors. We have led the way, in regard 
 to patent rights, by which we have drawn into the 
 advantage of this country patent inventions upon 
 the principle of monopoly equivalent to our own ; 
 and the question then as to whether we should be 
 at liberty to import also the manufactured inven- 
 tions on a duty or because one would like to have 
 an article that was made by a Sheffield manufacturer
 
 154 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 instead of by a Lowell manufacturer is wholly out- 
 side of the question of monopoly. 
 
 " It has no proper application to the case. It is 
 an invasion of the principle. If you do not wish to 
 give a monopoly then do not give it, but do not say 
 with one word, ' we give you a monopoly, provided, 
 however, that such monopoly can be evaded by the 
 importation of manufactures produced abroad. 
 
 PUBLISHERS AND THE COPYRIGHT BILL. 
 
 The passage on the last day of Congress of the 
 International Copyright Bill was preceded by an 
 interesting debate in the Senate over the report of 
 the Conference Committee. Apropos of the charges 
 that the bill contained undue restrictions by reason 
 of "the greed of the publishers," it is interesting to 
 read the remarks on this point of Senator Piatt and 
 of Senator Hiscock, who were both members of 
 the Senate Conference Committee. 
 
 According to the report of the debate in the Con- 
 gressional Record, Senator Piatt said : 
 
 " I think the Senator from Delaware hardly does 
 the publishers of this country justice in the state- 
 ment which he has just made. I think, so far as the 
 publishers are concerned, they would be willing, and 
 have been willing, to accept a good many modifica- 
 tions of the bill ; but the people who do the work, 
 the printers, have insisted, and I think with a great 
 deal of justice, that if we are going to allow to a 
 foreigner the exclusive market for his work we 
 ought at least to couple with it a provision that the
 
 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES. 1 55 
 
 work shall be done in this country, inasmuch as, 
 practically, if an American goes abroad to obtain a 
 copyright in a foreign country the work on his book 
 will be done in that country." 
 
 Senator Hiscock said (also in reply to Senator 
 Gray) : 
 
 "The Senator certainly should not insinuate in any 
 way, or charge that as against the proposition we 
 have been pressed by the publishers, or that they 
 have thronged the lobby in opposition to it. I say 
 to him that in my opinion that the proposition 
 (z. e., the Sherman amendment) will be entirely 
 acceptable to the publishers. But there is an 
 interest that is entitled to be heard upon this 
 great question, the printers ; and they have been 
 heard. In their judgment a bill ought not to pass 
 here, the effect of which might be to transfer the 
 publication of books, either of this country or of 
 foreign authors to be sold here, to England, Ger- 
 many, France, or the islands of the sea. The argu- 
 ments which they have urged against it, the necessi- 
 ties which they have urged, were controlling upon 
 the House conferees, and I do not hesitate to say 
 that they have controlled my action in this matter. 
 Do not lay it, therefore, to the publishers ; they may 
 be eliminated ; and place the blame, the fault, if 
 there is any, precisely where it belongs. I do not 
 believe it to be a fault, or that they are to blame 
 for it." 
 
 This evidence from the two men who were best 
 acquainted with the facts shows clearly the real 
 attitude of the publishers in relation to the bill.
 
 THE VOTE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRE- 
 SENTATIVES, DECEMBER 3, 1890, BY 
 WHICH THE COPYRIGHT BILL WAS 
 PASSED. 
 
 Yeas. 
 
 Nays. 
 
 Adams. 
 
 Abbott. 
 
 Allen, Mich. 
 
 Atkinson, Pa. 
 
 Andrew. 
 
 Barnes. 
 
 Arnold. 
 
 Bergen. 
 
 Atkinson, W. Va. 
 
 Bland. 
 
 Baker. 
 
 Blount. 
 
 Banks. 
 
 Breckinridge, Ark, 
 
 Bartine. 
 
 Brewer. 
 
 Bayne. 
 
 Brickner. 
 
 Beckwith. 
 
 Brookshire. 
 
 Belden. 
 
 Brown, Ind. 
 
 Belknap. 
 
 Buchanan, Va. 
 
 Bingham. 
 
 Candler, Ga. 
 
 Boothman. 
 
 Cannon. 
 
 Boutelle. 
 
 Clements. 
 
 Breckinridge, Rv. 
 
 Cobb. 
 
 Brosius. 
 
 Cooper, Ind. 
 
 Brunner. 
 
 Crisp. 
 
 Buchanan, N. J. 
 
 De Lano. 
 
 Burrows. 
 
 Dibble. 
 
 Burton. 
 
 Dockery. 
 
 Butterworth. 
 
 Dolliver. 
 
 Bynum. 
 
 Edmunds. 
 
 Caldwell. 
 
 Enloe. 
 
 Campbell. 
 
 Finley. 
 
 Carter. 
 
 Flick. 
 
 Caswell. 
 
 Forman. 
 
 Cheadle. 
 
 Forney.
 
 VOTE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1 57 
 
 Yeas. 
 Cheatham. 
 Chipman. 
 Clancy. 
 Clark, Wyo. 
 Cogswell. 
 Coleman. 
 Comstock. 
 Cooper, Ohio. 
 Covert. 
 Craig. 
 
 Culbertson, Pa. 
 Cummings. 
 Cutcheon. 
 Dalzell. 
 Dargan. 
 Darlington. 
 Dingley. 
 Dorsey. 
 Dunnell. 
 Dunphy. 
 Evans. 
 Farquhar. 
 Fitch. 
 Flower. 
 Geissenhainer. 
 Gibson. 
 Greenhalge. 
 Grout. 
 
 Hansbrough. 
 Harmer. 
 Hemphill. 
 Hermann. 
 Houk. 
 Ketcham. 
 Kinsey. 
 La Follette. 
 Laidlaw. 
 Langston. 
 Lansing. 
 
 Nays. 
 Fowler. 
 Gest. 
 
 Goodnight. 
 Hare. 
 Hatch. 
 Haugen. 
 Hays, Iowa. 
 Haynes. 
 Heard. 
 
 Henderson, 111. 
 Henderson, Iowa. 
 Henderson, N. C. 
 Herbert. 
 Holman. 
 Hooker. 
 Kelley. 
 Kerr, Iowa 
 Kilgore. 
 Lacey. 
 Lane. 
 Lanham. 
 Lester, Va. 
 Mansur. 
 Martin, Ind. 
 Martin, Texas. 
 McClellan- 
 McCreary. 
 McMillan. 
 McRae. 
 Mills. 
 
 Montgomery. 
 Moore, Texas. 
 Morrill. 
 Norton. 
 Oates. 
 O'Ferrall. 
 O'Neill, Ind. 
 Owens, Ohio. 
 Paynter.
 
 153 
 
 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 H. 
 
 Yeas. 
 Lawler. 
 Laws. 
 Lee. 
 
 Lester, Ga. 
 Lodge. 
 Magner. 
 Maish. 
 McAdoo. 
 McCarthy. 
 McComas. 
 McDuffie. 
 McKenna. 
 McKinley. 
 Miles. 
 Miller. 
 Moffitt. 
 Moore, N 
 Morey. 
 Morrow. 
 Morse. 
 Mudd. 
 Mutchler. 
 O'Donnell. 
 O'Neil, Mass. 
 O'Neil, Pa. 
 Osborne. 
 Owen, Ind. 
 Payne. 
 Penington. 
 Post. 
 Price. 
 
 Quackenbush. 
 Quinn. 
 Randall. 
 Reilly. 
 Reyburn. 
 Rusk. 
 Russell. 
 Sawyer. 
 
 Nays. 
 Pay son. 
 Peel. 
 Perkins. 
 Perry. 
 Peters. 
 Pierce. 
 Ray. 
 
 Reed, Iowa. 
 Richardson. 
 Rockwell. 
 Rogers. 
 Sayers. 
 Skinner. 
 Smith, 111. 
 Smith, W. Va. 
 Springer. 
 Stewart, Texas. 
 Stone, Ky. 
 Sweney. 
 Taylor, Ohio. 
 Thomas. 
 Turner, Ga. 
 Wheeler, Ala. 
 Whitelaw. 
 Whiting. 
 Wike. 
 
 Williams, 111. 
 Wilson, Mo. 
 Republicans 25, Democrats 70, 
 in all 95.
 
 VOTE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. I 59 
 
 Yeas. 
 Scull. 
 Sherman. 
 Shively. 
 Simonds. 
 Smyser. 
 Snider. 
 Spinola. 
 Spooner. 
 Stephenson. 
 Stewart, Vt. 
 Stivers. 
 Stone, Pa. 
 Sweet. 
 Tarsney. 
 Taylor, Tenn. 
 Taylor, Ohio. 
 Townsend, Colo. 
 Townsend, Pa. 
 Tracey. 
 Tucker. 
 Vandever. 
 Van Schaick. 
 Vaux. 
 Waddill. 
 Wade. 
 Walker. 
 Wallace, N. Y. 
 Wiley. 
 Willcox. 
 Williams, Ohio. 
 Wilson, Wash. 
 Wilson, W. Va. 
 Yoder. 
 Republicans 96, Democrats 43, 
 in all 139.
 
 VOTE IN THE SENATE MARCH 4, 1891, 
 BY WHICH THE COPYRIGHT BILL 
 WAS PASSED. 
 
 (At 2 o'clock in the Morning.) 
 
 Yeas. 
 
 Nays. 
 
 Aldrich. 
 
 Bate. 
 
 Allen. 
 
 Berry. 
 
 Chandler. 
 
 Call. 
 
 Dawes. 
 
 Carlisle. 
 
 Dixon. 
 
 Casey. 
 
 Dolph. 
 
 Coke. 
 
 Edmunds. 
 
 Cullom. 
 
 Farwell. 
 
 Daniel. 
 
 Frye. 
 
 Faulkner. 
 
 Hawley. 
 
 Gorman. 
 
 Hiscock. 
 
 Gray. 
 
 Hoar. 
 
 Ingalls. 
 
 Jones of Nevada. 
 
 Kenna. 
 
 McMillan. 
 
 Morgan. 
 
 Morrill. 
 
 Pettigrew. 
 
 Pasco. 1 
 
 Plumb. 
 
 Pierce. 
 
 Ransom. 
 
 Piatt. 
 
 Sherman. 
 
 Sawyer. 
 
 Walthall. 
 
 Shoup. 
 
 Republicans 6, Democrats 
 
 Spooner. 
 
 in all 19. 
 
 Stanford. 
 
 
 Stewart. 
 
 
 13. 
 
 1 Voted first with the opponents : then changed his vote for 
 the purpose of moving reconsideration.
 
 VOTE IN THE SENATE. l6l 
 
 Yeas. 
 Warren. 
 Washburn. 
 Wilson of Iowa. 
 Wolcott. 
 Republicans 26, Democrats I, 
 in all 27. 
 11
 
 XL 
 
 RESULTS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW. 
 
 Reprinted from the Forum for January, 1894. 
 
 The Copyright Act which became law March 4, 
 1 89 1, and the provisions of which went into effect 
 July 1st of the same year, did not constitute a new 
 statute, but comprised simply amendments to cer- 
 tain sections of the statute relating to copyright, 
 which had been in force since July, 1870. 1 
 
 It is not practicable to state with precision what 
 the effects of the law have been during the three 
 years of its operation, as there is a lack of trust- 
 worthy statistics concerning literary or publishing 
 conditions either for the period prior to the act or 
 for the present time. In arriving at any approxi- 
 mate estimate of these effects, it is in order, I judge, 
 to consider: first, the results secured by authors, 
 
 1 The most important changes in the law (omitting from present 
 consideration a few matters of technical detail) were as follows. 
 First : Its provisions, previously limited to the works of authors 
 (under which term I include for convenience artists and composers) 
 who were " residents of the United States," were extended to cover 
 the productions of non-residents on condition that such non-resident 
 author was a resident of a country which should concede to American 
 authors similar privileges. Second : All editions of the works copy-
 
 RESULTS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW. 1 63 
 
 American or foreign ; second, the results for Ameri- 
 can readers ; and, third, the effect on American pub- 
 lishing conditions. 
 
 The most important results of the new copyright 
 policy are naturally to be looked for in the literary 
 relations between the United States and Great Bri- 
 tain, relations which the supporters of international 
 copyright naturally had particularly in view. 
 
 Before the Copyright Act, the more reputable of 
 the English publishers who were not willing to 
 " appropriate " American books were deterred from 
 arranging for authorized editions by the certainty 
 that, if the books found favor with the English pub- 
 lic, "piracy" editions would promptly appear. The 
 appearance of many American titles in the lists of 
 the leading English publishers, and the increased 
 importance of the publishing done by American 
 firms through their branch houses in London, are 
 evidence that satisfactory arrangements with Ameri- 
 can authors are now being made, and that there 
 must be a substantial increase in the returns from 
 their English editions. It is probable, nevertheless, 
 that these English returns are less considerable than 
 were hoped for. Certain authors who have assumed 
 
 righted must be entirely manufactured in the United States. This 
 provision imposed a new restriction upon American authors, who had 
 previously been at liberty to have their books manufactured on either 
 side of the Atlantic. Third : The book, to secure American copy- 
 right, must be published in the United States not later than the date 
 of its publication in any other country. The provisions of the act 
 became operative between the United States and any foreign state 
 only when the President had made announcement, by proclamation, 
 that the necessary conditions of reciprocity had been fulfilled by such 
 State.
 
 164 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 that the lack of international copyright was the only 
 obstacle that prevented a transatlantic success have 
 learned that there are other difficulties in the way. 
 The English public is conservative. Scholarly read- 
 ers are not easily convinced of the scholarly trust- 
 worthiness or importance of works " from the States," 
 while in light literature, and particularly in fiction, 
 the supply from English pens is more than sufficient 
 to meet the demand. It is further the case that for 
 the last two years, and particularly during the year 
 1893, there has been a continual depression in the 
 book-trade of Great Britain, and the English book- 
 sellers have been less willing and less able to invest 
 in " new and experimental lines of literature," to 
 which class, in their opinion, books by transatlantic 
 writers would necessarily belong. The sales in Eng- 
 land of authorized editions of "average" American 
 books have therefore increased less rapidly than was 
 hoped. There has, however, been a steady growth 
 in these sales, and it may be confidently predicted 
 that the near future will witness a more rapid devel- 
 opment. The gains, on the other hand, in the case 
 of authors who can command a public, have doubt- 
 less been very substantial. American authors whose 
 names have become known in England are begin- 
 ning also to secure some receipts from Paris, Leip- 
 sic, Berlin, and Stuttgart, but for some time to 
 come such Continental receipts can hardly be 
 considerable. 
 
 American publishers are now in a position to give 
 to American fiction a larger measure of favorable 
 attention than was possible when such volumes had
 
 RESULTS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW. l6$ 
 
 to compete with English stories that had not been 
 paid for ; and the removal of this disturbing factor 
 must have proved a definite advantage to American 
 novelists, and especially to the newer writers. This 
 advantage has, however, been lessened or delayed 
 by the fact that during the last year large stocks of 
 " remainders " of the novels issued by the " reprint- 
 ing " firms that have become bankrupt have been 
 crowded upon the book-stands and offered at nomi- 
 nal prices. 1 The disappointment of English authors 
 with the results of the copyright law has been keener 
 than that of their American brethren, because their 
 expectations were so much larger. During the half- 
 century in which international copyright has been 
 talked about, many statements had been put into 
 print and talked over in English literary circles, set- 
 ting 1 forth the enormous circulation secured in " the 
 States" for unauthorized editions of English books, 
 and particularly of English fiction ; and large esti- 
 mates were arrived at as to the great fortunes that 
 were being made out of these editions by the pirati- 
 cal publishers. The writers whose names were 
 known on this side of the Atlantic, and who, after 
 arranging for authorized American editions, had re- 
 ceived the honor of being pirated, convinced them- 
 selves — not unnaturally — that, when this piratical 
 competition was removed, the payments from their 
 authorized publishers could be very greatly in- 
 creased. The authors who had secured neither the 
 
 1 Since the writing of this article, the competition of the increasing 
 group of ten cent and five cent magazines is exerting a serious influ- 
 ence on the circulation of fiction in book form. March, 1896.
 
 l66 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 tangible advantage of an authorized edition nor the 
 empty compliment of a piratical one, felt in many 
 cases equally assured that it was only the lack of 
 copyright protection which prevented American pub- 
 lishers from paying large sums for the privilege of 
 introducing their books to the American public. 
 With both groups of authors the phrase " the mill- 
 ions of American readers " was likely to be used. I 
 have myself heard the phrase " the sixty-five millions 
 of American readers." It was inevitable that the 
 results should bring disappointment to such glowing 
 expectations. As Mrs. Todgers plaintively remarked 
 of her trials in keeping a London boarding-house : 
 "A joint won't yield — a whole animal would n't 
 yield — the amount of gravy the young gentlemen 
 expect each day at dinner." 
 
 There has been, nevertheless, a substantial ad- 
 vance. The authors of the first rank (using the term 
 simply for commercial importance) have certainly 
 very largely increased the receipts from their Ameri- 
 can sales, while for authors of the second grade there 
 has doubtless also been a satisfactory gain. I think 
 it probable — though on such a point exact statistics 
 are unobtainable — that in one division of literature, 
 that of third-class or lower grade fiction, there has 
 been a decrease in the supply taken from England 
 for American readers. There never had been any 
 natural demand in America for English fiction of 
 this class, and it had been purveyed or " appropri- 
 ated " chiefly in order to supply material for the 
 weekly issues of the cheap " libraries." The lessen- 
 ing of the supply of this class of literary provender
 
 RESULTS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW. 167 
 
 may be classed as one of the direct gains from inter- 
 national copyright. 
 
 English authors have to-day the satisfaction that 
 they are able to place their books before their 
 American readers with a correct and complete text. 
 Before the amended Copyright Law, English books 
 had to be reprinted on what might be called a 
 " scramble system." It was often not practicable to 
 give to the printing of the authorized editions sufri- 
 cent time and supervision to ensure a correct typo- 
 graphy, while the unauthorized issues were not 
 infrequently — either through carelessness or for the 
 sake of reducing the amount and the cost of the 
 material — seriously garbled. The transatlantic au- 
 thor, who was then helpless to protect himself, can 
 now, of course, arrange to give at his leisure an 
 " author's reading " to his proofs. 
 
 The copyright law has, in my opinion, secured 
 substantial advantages for American book-buyers. 
 In one class of literature only have the prices in- 
 creased. The cheapest issues of current new fiction 
 sell at forty cents or fifty cents, in place of fifteen 
 cents or twenty-five cents. It is to be borne in 
 mind, however, that these prices do not stand for 
 the same amount or for the same quality of material. 
 The fifteen-cent "quarto " of the " libraries," hastily 
 and often carelessly printed, was an offence to the 
 eye and probably not infrequently an injury to the 
 sight. It was not, in the proper sense of the term, a 
 book, and could not be preserved as one. It was 
 usually bought for railroad reading, notwithstanding 
 the unsuitableness of its typography for such a pur-
 
 l68 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 pose, and was often thrown away at the end of the 
 journey. The decently printed half-dollar novel of 
 to-day gives much better value for its cost, and may 
 be preserved to be of service to many readers. 
 
 It is the case also that the fifteen-cent and twenty- 
 five cent " libraries " were not crushed out by the 
 copyright law, but for some time before the passage 
 of the law were rapidly coming to an end, as, even 
 with the aid of pirated material, they could not be 
 published at a profit. A large number of new con- 
 cerns, impressed with the belief that money was to 
 be made in the publishing of pirated fiction, had gone 
 into the " reprint " business shortly before the pass- 
 age of the Copyright Act. Their cut-throat compe- 
 tition speedily destroyed the very inconsiderable 
 possibility of profit in the business. Books availa- 
 ble for reprinting became exhausted, so that it was 
 difficult to secure enough of material to keep up the 
 weekly issues required to secure periodical postage 
 rates, and, as one result, the stuff used for the weekly 
 issues became more and more " rubbishy." Even 
 before the act, there had been not a few failures 
 among these " reprint " publishers. There have been 
 more important failures since, and the " bargain " 
 departments in the dry-goods shops are still working 
 off the remainders of the bankrupt stock, much of it, 
 like many other " bargains," dear at any price. 
 
 Except in this class of cheap fiction, there has 
 been with copyrighted foreign books a steady ten- 
 dency to lower prices. Before, it was the frequent 
 practice of the publisher of a higher-grade book 
 (knowing that if it secured for itself a preliminary
 
 RESULTS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW. 1 69 
 
 success, he would have to contend later with pirati- 
 cal competition) to secure for his first edition the 
 highest price that the market would bear. In the 
 cases in which there was no second edition, this high 
 price remained the only price to the readers who had 
 to have the book. Now, the American edition of 
 such a work is planned at once for the widest possi- 
 ble market, and to this end is issued at a popular 
 price. The publisher knows that, when he can con- 
 trol the market, a wide sale at the low price demanded 
 by the requirements of American readers secures in 
 the end the most remunerative results. The prices, 
 therefore, of literature other than fiction — that is, of 
 history, biography, science, and the like — are lower 
 than before. On this point I will cite the testimony 
 of Mr. Spofford, the Librarian of Congress, who is in 
 a position to know : 
 
 " The first great benefit of international copyright has been the 
 gradual decline in the price of standard foreign works. Before the 
 passage of the act, — when, for instance, an English publishing house 
 could not be protected in its editions of important medical and scien- 
 tific works by foreign authors, — the only course to pursue was to 
 charge a very high selling-price for a limited market, which rarely 
 extended beyond Great Britain. Works of this class are now, how- 
 ever, planned to secure a market on both sides of the Atlantic, and 
 the result is much larger sales at popular prices. This brings a sub- 
 stantial advantage to the more scholarly readers of the community, 
 who are able to secure, at lower prices than heretofore, editions of 
 scientific works which have been carefully printed to meet their own 
 special requirements. The dread that the bill would create publish- 
 ing monopolies proves to have been entirely unfounded. One of the 
 most noteworthy results of the law, from the American standpoint, 
 has been the cleansing effect upon the character of reprinted fiction. 
 By far the larger proportion of the cheap novels of an undesirable 
 character with which the market has been flooded during the past
 
 170 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 fifteen years were the work of English or French authors. A group 
 of publishing houses in the United States, which made a specialty of 
 cheap books, vied with each other in the business of appropriating 
 English and Continental trash, and printed this under villainous 
 covers, in type ugly enough to risk a serious increase of ophthalmia 
 among American readers." 
 
 There is a noteworthy increase in the number of 
 international undertakings, works, or series, the con- 
 tributions to which are written by the best authori- 
 ties on special subjects, the writers for which are 
 secured from this country, from England, or from 
 the Continent, wherever the best men happen 
 to be. Such international publications existed be- 
 fore the copyright, but were then carried on at a 
 special disadvantage. Now, the editorial work can 
 be done with proper deliberation, and the publishers 
 can afford to pay the best writers for the best work. 
 The cost of the authorship (and of the illustrations, 
 if any are required) being divided between two or 
 more markets, publishers are able to give to the 
 readers, at a moderate price, the best material in a 
 satisfactory and attractive form. Publications of 
 this class often require several years for their prepa- 
 ration, and two years is not a long enough period to 
 enable this phase of the results of copyright to be 
 fairly tested. With an adequate protection of prop- 
 erty in literary productions, irrespective of political 
 boundaries, we can confidently expect in the near 
 future a large development of such international 
 undertakings, — a development which will prove of 
 direct service to both writers and readers and to the 
 work of higher education.
 
 RESULTS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW. 171 
 
 While the artists of the Continent, whose creations, 
 reproduced in the form of engravings or photogra- 
 vures, are available for sale in the United States, are 
 deriving from the law, if not as large returns as were 
 at first hoped for, yet substantial advantage, the 
 Continental authors have been very seriously disap- 
 pointed, and seem to have legitimate grounds for 
 their disappointment and for their criticism. These 
 authors complain that they have been invited to a 
 " barmecide feast," and that they have " thanked us 
 for nothing." The condition that the work, to be 
 protected by American copyright, must be manufac- 
 tured in this country and that the American edition 
 must be published not later than the edition in the 
 country of origin, causes inconvenience and diffi- 
 culty to the authors of England ; but it is prac- 
 tically prohibitory in the cases of works originally 
 issued in a foreign language. It is almost impos- 
 sible for a French or German author to arrange 
 to issue his book in this country (either in the 
 original or in a translation) simultaneously with 
 its publication abroad. The resetting in the origi- 
 nal language, for such limited sales as could be 
 looked for here, would be unduly expensive, while 
 time is required for the preparation of a satisfac- 
 tory translation. As a result of this restriction, 
 but few French or German authors have been able 
 to secure the protection of the act, and the French 
 Society of Authors, to whose initiative and efforts 
 were chiefly due the international copyright system 
 now in force throughout Europe, has found occasion 
 to criticise very sharply the procedure of the Ameri-
 
 172 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 cans in granting literary copyright in form while 
 withholding it in fact. 
 
 While the Copyright Act is defective as well in its 
 bearing upon the interests of Continental authors as 
 in sundry other respects, and ought in my judgment 
 certainly to be amended, I am of opinion that it 
 would be unwise at this time to make any effort to 
 secure such amendments. The public opinion which 
 creates and directs legislative opinion is not yet suf- 
 ficiently assured in its recognition of the rights of 
 literary producers, to be trusted to take an active or 
 intelligent interest in securing more satisfactory pro- 
 tection for such producers. There would be grave 
 risk that, if the copyright question were reopened in 
 the present Congress, we might, in place of develop- 
 ing or improving the copyright system, take a step 
 backward, and lose the partial measure of interna- 
 tional copyright that it has taken the efforts of half 
 a century to secure. 
 
 The provision establishing international copyright 
 is only a clause in the general Copyright Act, and 
 the whole act ought before many years to be care- 
 fully revised. Work of this kind, instead of being 
 referred at the outset to a Congressional committee 
 whose interest in the subject or ability to consider it 
 intelligently could not with certainty be depended 
 upon, ought to be entrusted to a Commission of 
 experts selected for the purpose, which should be 
 instructed to take evidence and to submit a report 
 to serve as a basis for legislation. This is the system 
 that has been pursued with the copyright legislation 
 of England, France, Germany, and Italy, and is what
 
 RESULTS OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW. 1 73 
 
 might be termed the scientific method of arriving at 
 satisfactory legislation on subjects of intricacy or 
 complexity. 
 
 Among the recommendations that would be placed 
 before such a Commission would be one for the 
 lengthening of the term of copyright. The present 
 term (twenty-eight years, with a right of renewal to 
 an author, to his widow, or to his children, for. four- 
 teen years) is shorter than that of any civilized 
 country. The British term is forty-two years, or the 
 life of the author and seven years, whichever term be 
 the longer ; the German, the life of the author and 
 thirty years ; the French, the life of the author and 
 fifty years. The amended British law now pending 
 in Parliament (the Monkswell bill) accepts the Ger- 
 man term, the life of the author and thirty years. 
 Under the American law, an author may see his 
 earlier productions pirated during his own lifetime, 
 as happened to Longfellow, and, more recently, to 
 Donald G. Mitchell. 
 
 By the time an amended copyright bill is in shape 
 for consideration, it is probable that the typograph- 
 ical unions will have convinced themselves that they 
 do not require the aid of the " manufacturing " pro- 
 vision forbidding the importation of foreign type or 
 plates for copyrighted books. Such a provision has 
 no logical connection with copyright, but belongs 
 rather with the prohibitory division of a tariff act, 
 such as that which now forbids, as equally dangerous 
 and undesirable, the importation of obscene litera- 
 ture and of ships. When, with a developed public 
 opinion and a more robust condition of mind on the
 
 174 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 part of the typographers, the conclusion has been 
 reached that the manufacturing condition can be 
 spared from the Copyright Act, the United States 
 will be free to unite with the other civilized nations 
 of the world in accepting the world-wide copyright 
 of the Berne Convention. 
 
 G. H. P.
 
 XII. 
 
 CASES AND DECISIONS SINCE THE ACT 
 OF 1891, THE ISSUES OF WHICH HAVE 
 INVOLVED QUESTIONS OF INTERNA- 
 TIONAL COPYRIGHT. 1 
 
 Fraudulent Reproduction of Works of Art. 
 
 U. S. Circuit Court, New York City. Townsend, Judge. 
 Fishel, Adler &° Schwarz vs. Lueckel, Unger e^ Co. 
 
 In re reproduction, by photogravure, of certain works of art, which 
 had been duly copyrighted in Washington. The reproductions omitted 
 the tint, title, and platemark. They were stamped "made in Ger- 
 many," and were exported for sale in Europe. 
 
 Judgment for plaintiffs for $750, amount of alleged profits. Pho- 
 tographic negatives to be delivered to plaintiffs. Perpetual injunc- 
 tion granted. (Dec, 1892). 
 
 Copyright Requirements for a Work of Art Originating 
 Abroad. 
 
 U. S. Circuit Court, of Mass. in Boston. Putnam, Judge. 
 Werckmeister {on behalf of the Photographische Geselhchaft of Berlin) 
 vs. Pierce and Bushnell of New Bedford. 
 The plaintiffs were the owners of the exclusive rights of reproduc- 
 tion of the design of a painting by G. Naujok, a resident of Ger- 
 
 1 For information concerning the cases here cited, I desire to ex- 
 press my acknowledgments to the following counsel, who are regarded 
 as authorities in questions of copyright law : Samuel J. Elder of 
 Boston, and Rowland Cox, D. G. Thompson, Roger Foster, A. T. 
 Gurlitz, Everett P. Wheeler, and Arthur von Briesen, of New York.
 
 176 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 many, entitled " Die Heilige Cecilia." They entered for copyright in 
 Washington the design of this painting, filing with the entry a repro- 
 duction in photograph. The defendants were offering for sale unau- 
 thorized reproductions (taken by a photographic process) of the same 
 work. Judgment in favor of plaintiffs. Injunction granted August, 
 1893. In September, 1894, this decision was, on appeal, affirmed. 
 
 January, 1S96, the above decision was reversed by the U. S. Circuit 
 Court of Appeals for the first circuit of Mass., opinion of Judges 
 Colt and Nelson, Judge Webb dissenting. The injunction against 
 original defendants was under this decision dissolved, the copyright 
 claimed by them being adjudged invalid. 
 
 The conclusion presented in the dissenting opinion of Judge Webb 
 is worded as follows: " I cannot concur with either the reasoning 
 or the conclusions of the majority of the Court, but am of the opinion 
 that the judgment of the Circuit Court (Judge Putnam's) should be 
 affirmed." 
 
 The case turned, 1st, upon the requirement of the Act for the 
 inscription upon the original design (in this case an oil painting) 
 of the notice required by law, and 2d, upon the question whether the 
 plaintiff ought not to have based his claim for copyright upon the 
 photograph produced by him, which he could properly have entered 
 for copyright, and have limited his claim to the control of such pho- 
 tographs, in place of setting up a claim to control the design of the 
 painting, concerning which the copyright requirements had not been 
 fulfilled : and 3d. Whether the public exhibition of the painting 
 constituted a publication in the sense of the law. 
 
 The court held that the failure to place on the painting the notice 
 of copyright constituted a fatal defect to the American copyright, 
 even though said painting had not been brought to the country, the 
 painting itself being the original design for which copyright was 
 claimed ; and held, further, that the public exhibition of the painting 
 constituted a publication. 
 
 The affirmative points decided under the several decisions above 
 presented are stated by the plaintiff to be as follows : 
 
 1. That the right to reproduce photographic copies from paintings 
 painted abroad by foreigners could be assigned to the " Photograph- 
 ische Gesellschaft," of Berlin, 
 
 2. That it was proper and legal for the photographic reproductions 
 of such paintings to be marked "Copyright, 1892, by Photographische 
 Gesellschaft,"
 
 CASES AND DECISIONS. 1 77 
 
 3. That the " Photographische Gesellschaft," as the owner of the 
 copyright upon such painting, is protected against all unauthorized 
 reproductions of the same in any form, 
 
 4. That it was not necessary for the " Photographische Gesell- 
 schaft " photographs to be printed from negatives or transfers made 
 within the limits of the United States. 
 
 The case will be appealed to the Supreme Court. If this highest 
 authority should confirm the decision arrived at by the majority of 
 the Massachusetts Circuit Court, it will put very serious difficulties 
 in the way of securing American copyright for works of art originat- 
 ing abroad, — and will give ground for fresh attacks upon the Act 
 of 1891, on the part of Germany, France, and Italy. 
 
 The Britannica Cases. 
 
 The Britannica Cases, i8jg-i8gj. 
 
 The first of the series of cases which had to do with the unau- 
 thorized issues of the ninth edition of the " Encyclopedia Britannica " 
 was initiated twelve years before the enactment of the International 
 Copyright Act, and the latest of the series, while decided in 1893, 
 was not based in any way upon the provisions of that Act. These 
 cases involved, however, certain issues that could be described as 
 international, and as the final decision was arrived at within the term 
 specified for this chapter, I think it in order to present a summary of 
 the series. 
 
 The first case, that of Black et al. vs. Stoddart, had been initiated 
 in 1879, in the U. S. Circuit Court for the Eastern Dist. of Penna. 
 The plaintiffs, A. and C. Black, of Edinburgh, were the publishers 
 of the " Encyclopedia Britannica," the ninth edition of which was 
 at that time in course of publication. 
 
 This edition was imported into the United States by Little, Brown 
 & Co. , of Boston, who acted as agents for the publishers. The de- 
 fendants, J. M. Stoddart & Co., of Philadelphia, had undertaken 
 the production of an unauthorized reprint, and of this reprint 
 they had issued the first seven or eight volumes. There was no 
 ground under which the owners of the work or their American agents
 
 178 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 could claim American copyright in the material contained in these 
 earlier volumes. Before the publication of the set had progressed 
 beyond the seventh volume, the Blacks arranged with Charles Scrib- 
 ner's Sons, of New York, to publish a cheaper edition of the " Encyclo- 
 pedia " from duplicate sets of plates which were sent from Edinburgh 
 for the purpose. It was the intention, in planning this popular edi- 
 tion, to render unprofitable the competition of such unauthorized 
 reprints as that of the Stoddarts, and also to secure a wider sale for 
 the work than could be looked for for the higher-priced imported vol- 
 umes. With the view to making certain divisions of the material 
 more valuable for the requirements of American readers, articles from 
 American contributors were secured for the tenth volume and for 
 certain succeeding volumes. For the purpose of testing the practica- 
 bility of protecting the volume as an entirety, that is to say, of pre- 
 venting a literal reprint, two or three of the American contributions 
 to the tenth volume were issued in pamphlet form as separate publi- 
 cations, which were duly entered for copyright. 
 
 Plaintiffs sought an injunction to restrain the defendants from 
 including these copyrighted articles in their reprint of the tenth 
 volume. Judge Butler, in denying the injunction, rather went out 
 of his way (as if for the purpose of foreshadowing the opinion of the 
 court on the main issue, and thus of discouraging the further prose- 
 cution of the suit) to characterize the proceedings as an attempt on 
 the part of aliens to interfere with a legitimate American industry. 
 The plaintiffs were discouraged at this attitude of the court and were 
 unwilling to authorize their American representatives to continue 
 the suit. The Stoddart edition of the ' ' Encyclopaedia " was completed, 
 but it was itself interfered with by the competition of one or two 
 still cheaper reprints, for one of which the plates were reproduced 
 by the new photographic process. The Stoddart undertaking proved 
 in the end unremunerative, and the publishers failed. 
 
 In 1889, two suits were brought in the U. S. Circuit Court for the 
 Southern District of New York, by Black et a/, against the Henry 
 G. Allen Co. 
 
 One of these suits was brought upon an article by Francis A. Walker, 
 entitled" United States, Part III, Political Geography and Statistics," 
 which had been duly copyrighted ; and the other upon an article 
 by Alexander Johnston, entitled " United States, Part I, History 
 and Constitution," which also had been duly copyrighted and had 
 been published in separate form. These articles were later included
 
 CASES AND DECISIONS. 1/9 
 
 in the twenty-third volume cf the "Cyclopedia." The defendants 
 interposed demurrers to these bills of complaint. The demurrers 
 came on for argument before Judge Shipman, who decided that the 
 copyright of these two articles was valid and that the defendant*' 
 demurrers should be overruled and the defendants compelled to 
 answer the bills. On the issues raised by such demurrers, the Judge 
 says : " There is no vital difference in regard to the infringement of 
 an author's copyright whether it be printed in a separate volume or 
 in connection with authorized material. If the author has a valid 
 copyright, it is valid against any unpermitted reprint of his books ; 
 and the fact that his book is bound up in a volume with fifty other 
 books, each of which is open to the public, is immaterial." 
 
 Judge Shipman further held that while a non-resident foreigner 
 was not (in 18S9) within our copyright law, he could take and hold 
 by assignment a copyright granted to one of our citizens. 
 
 2. That a copyright can be assigned not only as a whole, but in 
 sub-divisions, and that the copyright may become the individual 
 property of joint owners. 
 
 3. That there is no vital difference in regard to the infringement 
 of an author's copyright whether it be printed in a separate volume 
 or in connection with material which belongs to the public domain. 
 
 4. That the fact that these American articles had been prepared 
 for the volume for the purpose of securing for the work some measure 
 of protection against appropriation, could not constitute any ground 
 for refusing to the plaintiffs the benefit of such remedies as they are 
 entitled to under the law. 
 
 Another suit by Black et al. vs. Isaac K. Funk et al. was brought 
 in June, 1890, in the U. S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of 
 New York, upon the Walker article. 
 
 This suit, and the two suits against the Henry G. Allen Co., were 
 argued together at final hearing, upon full proofs, before Judge 
 Townsend, who rendered his decision in April, 1893, in favor of the 
 plaintiffs. 
 
 The cases turned upon the appropriation on the part of the defend- 
 ants, for use in their unauthorized edition of the "Encyclopaedia," 
 of certain material of which Walker and Johnston were the authors. 
 This material had been duly copyrighted, and the Johnston article 
 had been issued in book form, and had, later, been included by 
 Black, under assignment from the authors, in the twenty-third vol- 
 ume of the ninth edition of the " Encyclopaedia." This volume
 
 l8o THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 contained other copyrighted American material which had in like 
 manner been appropriated by the defendants, but these two articles 
 were selected as a convenient test of the question of the practicability 
 of protecting the volume through the including of American articles. 
 The main issues in the cases were as follows : 
 
 The right of the authors to assign their copyright to an alien. 
 
 The precise fulfilment of the provisions of the law in regard to the 
 depositing, within ten days of publication, two copies of the volume 
 containing the articles. 
 
 The difference between the titles of the articles as originally en- 
 tered for copyright, and the titles as printed in the " Encyclopaedia." 
 
 The legality of a copyright remaining vested in one party while 
 another party holds under contract or assignment a beneficial interest 
 in it. 
 
 The validity of the copyright of a single article, bound up in a 
 volume the bulk of which is publici juris, against any authorized re- 
 print of the entire work. 
 
 These several points were decided by the court in favor of the 
 plaintiffs, and an injunction was granted. The decision followed 
 closely upon the lines of the previous decision, rendered by Judge 
 Shipman (in 1890), overruling the demurrers of the defendants in the 
 Allen cases. 
 
 In 1890, suit was brought by Black el al. vs. Samuel W. Ehrich 
 et al. in the U. S. Circuit Court for the southern district of N. Y. 
 Defendants, constituting the firm of Ehrich Brothers, of New 
 York, were, in conjunction with R. S. Peale and Co., of Chicago, 
 circulating a reprint of the " Britannica," which had been pre- 
 pared from plates produced in facsimile by a photographic process. 
 The Peale reproduction omitted the copyrighted American articles. 
 The contention of the plaintiffs rested therefore not on an infringe- 
 ment of copyright, but on an infringement of trade-mark. The de- 
 fendants called their work the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," "an exact 
 reproduction of the Edinburgh edition of 1890." Their book was 
 advertised at $1.50 per volume, the price of the authorized work being 
 $5.00 per volume. The court held that the plaintiffs' contention was 
 not well founded and an injunction was accordingly denied. 
 
 I have omitted from the above summary a number of the points 
 and decided which were more or less technical or which, on other 
 grounds, were less important. The decisions on the main issues and 
 on the essential points, and the attitude and utterances of the judges
 
 CASES AND DECISIONS. l8l 
 
 before whom these later cases were brought, give ground for the 
 conclusion that during the fourteen years between 1879 and 1S93, 
 there had been a development of public opinion and of the opinion 
 of the courts in the direction of a more assured and more extended 
 recognition of the property rights of literary producers and their 
 assigns. The passage of the Act of 1891 and the discussions in re- 
 gard to copyright which preceded that Act are undoubtedly to be 
 credited with a large share in this education of the opinion of the 
 public and of the courts. 
 
 The Protection of Lectures. 
 
 U. S. Circuit Court, Phila. Dallas, Judge. 
 Drummond, Henry, vs. Allemus & Co. 
 
 In re Lectures of plaintiff entitled " The Ascent of Man." Lec- 
 tures delivered in Boston ; announcement made in due course that 
 lecturer " reserved all publication rights." Lecturer was under con- 
 tract with his authorized publishers, Jas. Pott & Son, of New York, 
 to issue the material (when revised) in book form. Defendant pub- 
 lished an unauthorized edition of a book under the same title, made 
 up from incomplete and fragmentary newspaper reports of the lec- 
 tures. Plaintiff, a British subject, temporarily resident in the 
 United States, claimed protection under the provisions of copyright 
 protecting lecturers, and also under the common law protecting un- 
 published material. 
 
 Injunction granted (January, 1894) : — The Court took the ground 
 that " the subject of copyright " was " not directly involved." The 
 volume printed by the defendant did not present the lectures cor- 
 rectly, but with omissions and additions which materially altered their 
 purport. This constituted a personal wrong to the author, and inci- 
 dentally a fraud upon the purchasers. If the defendant had confined 
 his action to reprinting only that portion of the lectures which had 
 appeared in the British Weekly, and his volume had correctly de- 
 scribed its contents, the plaintiff would have been without remedy. 
 The complainant's right to restrain the present publication has, how- 
 ever been fully made out.
 
 1 82 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Does the Requirement of the U. S. Law Concerning the 
 Printing of the Notice of Copyright Apply to the For- 
 eign as Well as to the American Editions ? 
 
 U. S. Circuit Court of New Jersey. 
 
 Haggard {Rider), of London, and Longmans, Green &* Co., of Lon- 
 don, &■ New York, vs. The Waverly Publishing Company. 
 
 In regard to Haggard's " Nada the Lily." Plaintiffs were the 
 author and the authorized publishers of said book, which had been 
 duly copyrighted under the Act of 1891. The action was brought 
 (in April, 1S94), to restrain the publication of an unauthorized edition 
 issued by the defendants. The defence was based in substance on 
 two contentions : 
 
 1st. That the Act of 189 1 was unconstitutional, because it gave to 
 the President a discretionary or judicial power, not within the consti- 
 tutional functions of an Executive, to determine the status of copy- 
 right law in foreign states, and to concede (or to withhold) copyright 
 relations with such states. 
 
 2nd. That the U. S. Act of 1870 (which in this respect was not 
 modified by that of 1891), required the printing of the United States 
 copyright notice in all editions and in all copies issued of a work 
 claiming U. S. copyright : — that the plaintiffs had not ventured to 
 contend that such notice had been printed in all the editions issued of 
 " Nada the Lily," and had submitted with their complaint and as evi- 
 dence of this copyright entry, only copies of certain editions printed 
 in the United States : that, as a matter of fact, editions had been 
 printed in Melbourne and elsewhere which did not contain this entry 
 of U. S. copyright, and that a copy of one of these editions had been 
 utilized for the printing of the American edition issued by the de- 
 fendant. 
 
 The Court sustained on this point, in substance, the contention of 
 the plaintiffs, overruling the demurrer of the defendants. Leave 
 was given to the plaintiffs to amend their bill of complaint so as to 
 plead that while in the foreign editions of " Nada " the United States 
 copyright notice had been omitted, the fact of such omission, in edi- 
 tions issued outside of the territory of the United States, and by 
 parties not amenable to the authority of the United States, could not
 
 CASES AND DECISIONS. 183 
 
 invalidate the protection of American copyright for editions issued 
 within the United States, and for which the requirement of the law 
 had been complied with. The judge admitted, that he regarded the 
 question as " a close one," which could be decided finally only upon 
 a full hearing of the case on its merits. The preliminary injunction 
 was denied, for the purpose apparently of securing a decision on the 
 main question at issue. It is understood that the case will be carried 
 to the Supreme Court. The defendant's contention in regard to the 
 unconstitutionality of the Act will, I understand, probably be 
 dropped. The issue raised in regard to the requirement of the print- 
 ing of the United States copyright entry in all the editions issued of 
 a book claiming American copyright, is evidently one of far-reaching 
 importance. If the failure to secure such entry in all editions, 
 whether authorized or unauthorized, issued in countries which may 
 not even be in copyright relations with the United States, is to in- 
 validate American copyright, there is of course no copyright protec- 
 tion under the Act of 1891, either for foreign authors or for Americans, 
 and there has in fact been no defensible copyright fur American 
 authors under the Act of 1S70. 
 
 The decision of the Supreme Court in the " Nada" case will there- 
 fore be awaited with interest. 
 
 The Control of a Copyrighted Title. 
 
 U. S. Circuit Court. 
 Harper vs. Ranous. 
 
 67 Fed. Rep. 904. 
 
 In re title of " Trilby." 
 
 Plaintiffs are the owners, under assignment from the author, 
 Du Maurier, of the copyright, for the United States, of the book 
 "Trilby." Defendants utilize this title for a dramatic perform- 
 ance which does not present scenes from the story nor borrow its 
 material. Plaintiffs attempt to prevent this use of their title. The 
 Court held that the copyright protects the name only in conjunction 
 with the book, and not the name alone, and refused to enjoin the 
 performance. (May, 1894.)
 
 1 84 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Musical Compositions and the Manufacturing Requirement. 
 
 U. S. Circuit Court, Dist. of Mass., Boston. Colt, Judge. 
 
 Littleton, on behalf of Novello, Ewer &= Co. of London, 
 vs. The Oliver Ditson Company of Boston. 
 
 In regard to the music composed for " Lead Kindly Light," and 
 to certain other musical compositions. Music printed in London 
 and published simultaneously in London and New York ; entered for 
 copyright in Washington. Case decided in June, 1894, by Judge Colt, 
 who granted an injunction in favor of plaintiff. The chief question 
 at issue in the suit was whether music compositions originating in 
 Europe, must, in order to secure copyright in the United States, be 
 printed from type set up or from plates engraved in the States. This 
 involved the question whether the definition of a " book" within the 
 meaning of the manufacturing clause included a musical composition 
 in sheet form. Both of these questions were decided by Judge Colt in 
 the negative. 
 
 It was admitted that the music was published in book form, and 
 had been printed from lithographic stones not produced in the United 
 States ; but the contention was upheld that musical publications were 
 not included in the list of articles specified in Sect. 3 of the Act 
 ("book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph") required to be manu- 
 factured in this country. 
 
 62 Fed. Rep. 597, Oct., 1894. 
 
 Affirmed in Court of Appeals, April, 1895. 67 Fed. Rep. 905. 
 
 Copyright of a Musical Composition. — What Constitutes 
 Publication ? 
 
 Carte vs. Duff. 
 
 25 Fed. 183. 
 
 Carte, an alien, purchased from Gilbert & Sullivan, British sub- 
 jects, their right of public representation in the United States of the 
 comic opera " The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu," of which Gilbert
 
 CASES AND DECISIONS. 1 85 
 
 was the author of the literary parts, and Sullivan the author of the 
 musical parts. They employed one Tracy, a citizen of the United 
 States, to come to London and prepare a piano-forte arrangement 
 from the original orchestral score, with a view to copying the same 
 in the United States. After Tracy made the piano arrangement, 
 proceedings were taken to copyright it as a new and original compo- 
 sition in the United States ; and Carte purchased of Gilbert, Sulli- 
 van, and Tracy the title to such copyright. After the recording in 
 the Library of Congress of the title of this arrangement, the libretto 
 and vocal score of the opera and piano-forte arrangement of Tracy 
 were published and sold in England, with the consent of Gilbert & 
 Sullivan. The orchestral score was never published, but was kept 
 by Gilbert and Sullivan for their own use and for that of licencees 
 to perform the opera. Duff purchased in England a copy of the 
 libretto, vocal score, and piano-forte arrangement, and procured a 
 skilful musician to make an independent orchestration from the vocal 
 and the piano score, and was about to produce the opera in New 
 York City, with the words and voice parts substantially the same as 
 those of the original and with scenery, costumes, and stage business 
 in imitation of the original, and with the orchestration which he had 
 procured to be made, and without claiming that he employed the 
 orchestration of the original opera. Carte sought to enjoin the public 
 representations proposed by Duff. 
 
 Held, that the publication of the libretto and vocal score of the 
 opera in England with the consent of the authors was a dedication of 
 their playright, or of the entire dramatic property in the opera to the 
 public, notwithstanding their retention of the orchestral score in the 
 manuscript, and that the public representation in the United States 
 could, therefore, not be enjoined. 
 
 Carte vs. Evans, 
 
 27 Fed. 861. 
 
 The title as filed was : " Piano-forte arrangement of the comic 
 opera, " The Mikado, or the Town of Titipu," by W. S. Gilbert and 
 Sir Arthur Sullivan, by George L. Tracy." 
 
 The title as published was : " Vocal Score of the Mikado, or the 
 Town of Titipu." An arrangement for the piano-forte, by George 
 L. Tracy (Boston, U. S. A.) of the above-named opera by W. S. 
 Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. 
 
 Held, that the variance did not prejudice the title.
 
 1 86 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Burden of Proof concerning American Manufacture. 
 
 U. S. Circuit Court, Eastern Div. Eastern Judicial District. 
 Adams, Judge. 
 
 Osgood vs. A. S. Aloe Instrument Co. 
 
 69 Fed. Rep. 291. 
 
 This case decided merely a question of pleading, viz. : that the fact 
 that the copyright is invalid because the books were not printed from 
 plates made in this country is a matter of affirmative defence, and 
 should be set up and proved by the alleged infringing party. Inci- 
 dentally, the case decided that the two copies of the copyrighted work 
 deposited in Washington need not contain the copyright notice, but 
 that this notice must contain the name of the copyrighting party (June, 
 1895). - 
 
 The Control of a Title as Trade Mark connected with 
 Copyrighted Material. 
 
 U. S. Circuit Court, Southern District of New York. 
 
 Mac Laren Cases. 
 
 Dodd, Mead & Co. of New York have instituted suits against the 
 publishers and the distributors of unauthorized editions of volumes 
 of sketches by the author John Watson, who writes under the name 
 of Ian Mac Laren. These suits have at this time of writing (February, 
 1896) not been sufficiently advanced to be matters of record. It is 
 understood, however, that the contention of the plaintiffs will be based 
 on copyright and also on trade-mark. The volumes complained of 
 contain certain sketches, which were collected, arranged, revised, 
 and completed by the author to constitute a continuous and integral 
 book, and for this copyright is claimed. The author had, moreover, 
 selected for his American volumes distinctive titles, ("Beside the 
 Bonnie Brier Bush" "A Doctor of the Old School") and he also 
 claims protection for the body of material associated with these 
 titles, that is, for the volume as put together by him and for the titles 
 as of trade-marks placed upon the material. 
 
 It is the further contention of the plaintiffs that the volumes printed
 
 CASES AND DECISIONS. 1 87 
 
 by the defendants contain incomplete and incorrect material which 
 being sold under the titles associated by the public with the authorized 
 and complete book, is calculated (and intended) to deceive or mislead 
 the public. 
 
 Later. (March 1S96). Since the above paragraph was put into 
 type, a decree has been secured in the U. S. District Court for the 
 Southern District of New York (Judge Lacombe), against the de- 
 fendants in one of the above suits, sustaining in substance the con- 
 tention of the complainants.
 
 XIII. 
 
 ABSTRACT OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW OF 
 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 The following are the dates and titles of the laws 
 constituting the existing copyright law of Great 
 Britain : 
 
 DOMESTIC COPYRIGHT. 
 
 8 Geo. 2. c. 13. An Act for the encouragement of the arts of de- 
 signing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints by vesting 
 the properties thereof in the inventors and engravers during the time 
 therein mentioned. 
 
 7 Geo. 3. c. 38. An Act to amend and render more effectual an 
 Act made in the eighth year of the reign of King George the Second 
 for encouragement of the arts of designing, engraving, and etching 
 historical and other prints ; and for vesting in and securing to Jane 
 Hogarth, widow, the property in certain prints. 
 
 15 Geo. 3. c. 53. An Act for enabling the two universities in Eng- 
 land, the four universities in Scotland, and the several colleges of 
 Eton, Westminster, and Winchester, to hold in perpetuity their copy- 
 right in books given or bequeathed to the said universities and col- 
 leges for the advancement of useful learning and other purposes of 
 education ; and for amending so much of an Act of the eighth year 
 of the reign of Queen Anne as relates to the delivery of books to the 
 warehouse keeper of the Stationers' Company for the use of the 
 several libraries therein mentioned. 
 
 17 Geo. 3. c. 57. An Act for more effectually securing the property 
 of prints to inventors and engravers by enabling them to sue for and 
 recover penalties in certain cases. 
 
 54 Geo. 3. c. 56. An Act to amend and render more effectual an 
 Act of His present Majesty for encouraging the art of making new
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 189 
 
 models and casts of busts and other things therein mentioned, and 
 for giving further encouragement to such arts. 
 
 3 Will. 4. c. 15. An Act to amend the laws relating to dramatic 
 literary property. 
 
 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 65. An Act for preventing the publication of 
 lectures without consent. 
 
 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 59. An Act to extend the protection of copyright 
 in prints and engravings to Ireland. 
 
 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45. An Act to amend the law of copyright. 
 
 25 & 26 Vict. c. 68. An Act for amending the law relating to 
 copyright in works of the fine arts, and for repressing the commis- 
 sion of fraud in the production and sale of such works. 
 
 38 & 39 Vict. c. 53, in part. An Act to give effect to an Act of the 
 Parliament of the Dominion of Canada respecting copyright. Sec- 
 tion 4 only repealed. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 7 & 8 Vict. c. 12. An Act to amend the law relating to interna- 
 tional copyright. 
 
 15 & 16 Vict. c. 12, in part. An Act to enable Her Majesty to 
 carry into effect a convention with France on the subject of copy- 
 right ; to extend and explain the International Copyright Acts ; and 
 to explain the Acts relating to copyright in engravings. Repeal not 
 to extend to section 14. 
 
 38 Vict. c. 12. An Act to amend the law relating to international 
 copyright. 
 
 The following is the Digest of these laws, pre- 
 pared by Sir James Stephen, Q.C., and presented in 
 the Report of the Royal Copyright Commission, 
 1878, as the most authoritative statement of British 
 copyright law : 
 
 Article i. 
 Copyright in Private Documents. 
 
 The author or owner of any literary composition or work of art 
 has a right, so long as it remains unpublished, to prevent the publi- 
 cation of any copy of it by any other person.
 
 1 9° THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Article 2. 
 
 Effects of Limited Publication of Private Documents. 
 
 The publication of any such thing as is mentioned in the last arti- 
 cle for a special and limited purpose, under any contract, or upon 
 any trust express or implied, does not authorize the person to whom 
 such thing is published to copy or reproduce it, except to the extent 
 and for the purposes for which it has been lent or intrusted to him. 
 
 Article 3. 
 
 Letters. 
 
 A person who writes and sends a letter to another retains his copy- 
 right in such letter, except in so far as the particular circumstances 
 of the case may give a right to publish such letter to the person ad- 
 dressed, or to his representatives, but the property in the material 
 on which the letter is written passes to the person to whom it is 
 sent, so as to entitle him to destroy or transfer it. 
 
 Article 4. 
 No other Copyright except by Statute. 
 
 There is (probably) no copyright after publication in any of the 
 things mentioned in Article 1, except such copyright as is given by 
 the express words of the statutes hereinafter referred to. 
 
 Publication in this article means in reference to books (as defined 
 in the next article) publication for sale. It is doubtful whether in 
 relation to works of art it has any other meaning. There is (it seems) 
 no copyright in dramatic performances except by statute. 
 
 Article 5. 
 Book defined — Law of Copyright in Books. 
 
 In this chapter the word "book" means and includes every vol- 
 ume, part or division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of letter-press, 
 sheet of music, map, chart, or plan, separately published. 
 
 The word " copyright " means the sole and exclusive liberty of 
 printing, or otherwise multiplying copies of any subject to which 
 the word is applied. 
 
 When a book is published in the lifetime of its author, the copy- 
 right therein is the personal property of the author and his assigns
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 191 
 
 from the date of such publication, for whichever may be the longer 
 of the two following terms, that is to say : 
 
 (1) A term of 42 years from publication. 
 
 (2) The life of the author, and a term of 7 years, beginning from 
 
 his death. 
 
 If the publication takes place after the author's death, the propri- 
 etor of the author's manuscript and his assigns have copyright in his 
 book for a term of 42 years from its first publication. 
 
 If one person employs and pays another to write a book on the 
 terms that the copyright therein shall belong to the employer, the 
 employer has the same copyright therein as if he had been the author. 
 
 If the publisher or proprietor of any encyclopedia, review, maga- 
 zine, or periodical work, or work published in parts or series, em- 
 ploys and pays persons to compose any volume, part, essay, article, 
 or portion thereof, on the terms that the copyright therein shall 
 belong to such publisher or proprietor, such publisher or proprietor 
 has upon publication the same rights as if he were the author of the 
 whole work (with the following exceptions) : 
 
 1. After 28 years from the first publication of any essay, article, 
 
 or portion in any review, magazine, or other periodical work 
 of a like nature [not being an encyclopaedia], the right of pub- 
 lishing the same in a separate form reverts to the author for 
 the remainder of the term for which his copyright would have 
 endured if the same had been originally published by him 
 elsewhere. 
 
 2. During the said term of 28 years the publisher or proprietor 
 
 may not publish any such essay, article, or portion, separately 
 or singly, without the consent of the author or his assigns. 
 
 The author of any such magazine as aforesaid may, by contract 
 with any such publisher or proprietor, reserve the right of publishing 
 any work, his composition, in a separate form, and if he does so he 
 is entitled to copyright in such composition when so published for 
 the same term as if such publication were the first publication, but 
 without prejudice to the right of the publisher or proprietor to pub- 
 lish the same as part of such periodical work. 
 
 In order to provide against the suppression of books of importance 
 to the public, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are em- 
 powered, on complaint that the proprietor of the copyright in any 
 book after the death of its author has refused to republish or allow
 
 I92 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the republication of the same, and that by reason of such refusal 
 such book may be withheld from the public, to grant a license to 
 such complainant to publish such book in such manner and subject 
 to such conditions as they think fit, and the complainant may publish 
 such book accordingly. 
 
 The whole of this article is subject to the limitations contained in 
 the subsequent articles of this chapter. 
 
 It applies — ■ 
 
 (a) To all books published after 1st July, 1842. 
 
 (/>) To all books published before that day in which copyright was 
 then subsisting, unless such copyright was vested in any pub- 
 lisher or other person who acquired it for any consideration 
 other than that of natural love or affection, in which case such 
 copyright endures for the term then provided for by law, unless 
 the author, if living on that day, or if he were then dead his 
 personal representative, and (in either case) the proprietor of 
 the copyright, registered before the expiration of the term of 
 copyright to which they were then entitled, consent to accept 
 the benefits of the Act 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45 in a form provided in 
 a schedule therein. 
 
 Article 6. 
 
 Who may obtain Copyright in Books. 
 
 In order that copyright in a published book may be obtained under 
 the provisions of Article 5, the book must in all cases be published 
 in the United Kingdom. The author or other person seeking to 
 entitle himself to copyright may be either — 
 
 (a) A natural born or naturalized subject of the Queen, in which 
 case his place of residence at the time of the publication of 
 the book is immaterial ; or 
 
 (6) A person who at the time of the publication of the book in 
 which copyright is to be obtained owes local and temporary 
 allegiance to Her Majesty by residing at that time in some 
 part of Her Majesty's dominions. 
 
 It is probable, but not certain, that an alien friend who publishes 
 a book in the United Kingdom while resident out of Her Majesty's 
 dominions, acquires copyright throughout Her Majesty's dominions 
 by such publication.
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1 93 
 
 Article 7. 
 Previous and Contemporary Publication out of the United Kingdom. 
 
 No copyright in a book published in the United Kingdom can be 
 obtained under Article 5, if the book has been previously published 
 by the author in any foreign country, but the contemporaneous pub- 
 lication of a book in a foreign country and in the United Kingdom 
 does not prevent the author from obtaining copyright in the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 It is uncertain whether an author obtains copyright by publishing 
 a book in the United Kingdom, after a previous publication thereof 
 in parts of Her Majesty's dominions out of the United Kingdom. 
 
 It is uncertain whether an author acquires copyright under Article 
 5 in any part of Her Majesty's dominions out of the United Kingdom 
 (apart from any local law as to copyright which may be in force there) 
 by the publication of a book in such part of Her Majesty's dominions. 
 
 Article 8. 
 
 No Copyright in immoral Publications. 
 
 No copyright can exist in anything in which copyright would other- 
 wise exist if it is immoral, irreligious, seditious, or libelous, or if it 
 professes to be what it is not, in such a manner as to be a fraud upon 
 the purchasers thereof. 
 
 Article 9. 
 
 What is Infringement of Copyright in a Book, and what not — Fair 
 Use of Books. 
 
 The owner of the copyright in a book is not entitled to prevent 
 other persons from publishing the matter contained in it if they 
 invent or collect it independently, nor to prevent them from making 
 a fair use of its contents in the composition of other books. 
 
 The question, what is a fair use of a book, depends upon the cir- 
 cumstances of each particular case, but the following ways of using 
 a book have been decided to be fair : 
 
 (a) Using the information or the ideas contained in it without 
 
 copying its words or imitating them so as to produce what 
 is substantially a copy. 
 
 (b) Making extracts (even if they are not acknowledged as such) 
 
 13
 
 194 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 appearing, under all the circumstances of the case, reason- 
 able in quality, number, and length, regard being had to 
 the object with which the extracts are made and to the sub- 
 jects to which they relate. 
 
 (c) Using one book on a given subject as a guide to authorities 
 
 afterward independently consulted by the author of another 
 book on the same subject. 
 
 (d) Using one book on a given subject for the purpose of checking 
 
 the results independently arrived at by the author of another 
 book on the same subject. 
 
 An abridgment may be an original work if it is produced by a fair 
 use of the original or originals from which it is abridged, but the re- 
 publication of a considerable part of a book is an infringement of the 
 copyright existing in it, although it may be called an abridgment, 
 and although the order in which the republished parts are arranged 
 may be altered. 
 
 Article io. 
 
 Crown Copyright. 
 
 It is said that Her Majesty and her successors have the right of 
 granting by patent from time to time to their printers an exclusive 
 right to print the text of the authorized version of the Bible, of the 
 Book of Common Prayer, and possibly the text of Acts of Parliament. 
 
 Article ii. 
 
 University Copyright. 
 
 The Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. 
 Andrew's, and Aberdeen, each college or house of learning at the 
 universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Trinity College, Dublin, and 
 the colleges of Eton, Westminster, and Winchester, have forever 
 the sole liberty of printing and reprinting all such books as have been 
 or hereafter may be bequeathed or given to them, or in trust for them 
 by the authors thereof, or by their representatives, unless they were 
 given or bequeathed for any limited term. 
 
 Article 12. 
 
 How such Right forfeited. 
 
 The exclusive right mentioned in the last article lasts so long only 
 as the books or copies belonging to the said universities or colleges
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 1 95 
 
 are printed only at their own printing presses within the said univer- 
 sities or colleges respectively, and for their sole benefit and advan- 
 tage. 
 
 If any university or college delegates, grants, leases, or sells its 
 copyright or exclusive right of printing books granted by 15 Geo. 3. 
 c. 53, or any part thereof, or allows or authorizes any person to print 
 or reprint the same, the privilege granted by the said Act becomes 
 void and of no effect, but the universities or colleges may sell the 
 copyrights bequeathed to them as for the terms secured to authors by 
 the 8 Anne c. 19. 
 
 Article 13. 
 
 Term of Copyright in Dramatic Pieces. 
 
 The author, or the assignee of the author, of any tragedy, comedy, 
 play, opera, farce, or any other dramatic piece or entertainment, or 
 musical composition not printed and published by such author or 
 assignee, has, as his own property, the sole liberty of representing or 
 causing to be represented or performed, any such dramatic piece or 
 musical composition at any place of dramatic entertainment whatever 
 in Her Majesty's dominions (possibly in perpetuity, but more proba- 
 bly for) whichever is the longer of the two following terms, viz. — 
 
 (1) Forty-two years from the first public representation of such 
 
 dramatic piece or musical composition. 
 
 (2) The life of the author and a further term of seven years begin- 
 
 ning from his death. 
 
 The singing of a single song of a dramatic character in a dramatic 
 manner may amount to a dramatic entertainment within the meaning 
 of this article. 
 
 Anyplace at which a dramatic entertainment is given [? for profit] 
 on any particular occasion is a place of dramatic entertainment within 
 the meaning of this article. 
 
 Article 14. 
 Condition of Copyright in Dramatic Pieces. 
 
 The exclusive right of representing or performing a dramatic piece 
 or musical composition cannot be gained if such dramatic piece or 
 musical composition has been printed and published as a book before 
 the first representation thereof.
 
 I96 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Or, if it has been publicly represented or caused to be represented 
 by the author or his assigns in any place out of Her Majesty's domin- 
 ions before it was publicly represented in them, except under the 
 International Copyright Act. 
 
 Articlk 15. 
 
 Copyright in and Representation 0/ Dramas. 
 
 Copyright in a book containing or consisting of a dramatic piece 
 or musical composition is a right distinct from the right to represent 
 such dramatic piece or musical composition on the stage, and no as- 
 signment of the copyright of any such book conveys to the assignee 
 the right of representing or performing such dramatic piece or mu- 
 sical composition unless an entry of such assignment is made in the 
 registry book mentioned in Article 23, expressing the intention of 
 the parties that such right should pass. 
 
 Article 16. 
 
 Representation of a Drama no Infringement of Copyright, 
 
 A dramatic piece or musical composition published as a book may 
 (it seems probable) be publicly represented without the consent of 
 the author or his assigns. 
 
 Article 17. 
 
 Dramatization of Novels. 
 
 The public representation of a dramatic piece constructed out of a 
 novel is not an infringement of the copyright of the author of the 
 novel or his assigns, but the printing and publication as a book of 
 such dramatic piece so represented may be such an infringement. 
 
 If two persons independently of each other convert a novel into a 
 dramatic piece, each has an exclusive right of representing his own 
 dramatic piece, though one of them may be the author of the novel 
 so dealt with and though the two pieces may have parts in common. 
 
 Article 18. 
 
 Infringement of Copyright in a Musical Composition. 
 
 Copyright in a musical composition is infringed when a substantial 
 portion of the music in which copyright exists is reproduced either 
 without any alteration or with such alterations as are required to
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 197 
 
 adapt it to a different purpose or instrument, the alterations being of 
 such a character that the substantial identity between the original and 
 the altered version can be recognized by the ear. 
 
 Article 19. 
 Copyright in Lectures. 
 
 The author of any lecture, or his assign, has by statute the sole 
 right of publishing any lecture, of the delivery of which notice in 
 writing has been given to two justices living within five miles from 
 the place where such lecture is delivered two days at least before it 
 is delivered, unless such lecture is delivered in any university, pub- 
 lic school, or college, or on any public foundation, or by any person 
 in virtue of or according to any gift, endowment, or foundation. 
 
 The author of any lecture has [probably] at common law the same 
 right as by statute, without giving such notice as is required by 
 statute, but he cannot recover the penalties provided by the Act and 
 specified in Article 35, for an infringement of his copyright. 
 
 Article 20. 
 
 Copyright in Sculpture. 
 
 Every person who makes or causes to be made any new and original 
 sculpture, or model, or copy, or cast, . . . : has the sole right 
 therein for the term of 14 years from first putting forth or publishing 
 the same, provided that the proprietor causes his name, with the date, 
 to be put on every such thing before it is published. If the proprietor 
 be living at the end of the term of 14 years, his right returns to him 
 for a further term of 14 years, unless he has divested himself thereof. 
 
 Article 21. 
 
 Copyright in Paintings and Photographs. 
 
 The author, being a British subject or resident within the domin- 
 ions of Her Majesty, of any original painting, drawing or photo- 
 graph, not having been sold before the 29th July, 1862, has the sole 
 
 1 Here is a reference to a note, scheduling the usual subjects of 
 sculpture, but explaining that the section of the law here concerned 
 " is a miracle of intricacy and verbosity" and involves much doubt.
 
 198 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 and exclusive right of copying, engraving, reproducing, and multi- 
 plying such painting or drawing, and the design thereof, or such 
 photograph and the negative thereof, by any means or of any size, 
 whether made in the Queen's dominions or not, for the term of his 
 life and seven years after his death, but this right does not affect the 
 right of any other person to represent any scene or object represented 
 by any such painting. 
 
 If any painting or drawing, or the negative of any photograph, 
 hereinbefore mentioned, is made by the author for or on behalf of 
 any other person for a good or valuable consideration, such person is 
 entitled to copyright therein. 
 
 If any such thing is, after the 29th July, 1862, for any such con- 
 sideration transferred for the first time by the owner to any other 
 person, the owner may, by an agreement in writing signed at or be- 
 fore the time of such transfer by the transferee, reserve the copy- 
 right to himself, or he may, by an agreement in writing signed by 
 himself or by his agent duly authorized, transfer the copyright to 
 such transferee. (If no such agreement in writing is made, the 
 copyright in such painting ceases to exist.) 
 
 Article 22. 
 Copyright in Engravings. 
 
 Every one has for 28 years from the first publishing thereof the 
 sole right and liberty of multiplying, by any means whatever, copies 
 of any print of whatever subject which he has — 
 
 (a) Invented or designed, graved, etched, or worked in mezzotinto 
 
 or chiaro-oscuro ; or which he has — 
 (a) From his own work, design, or invention, caused or procured 
 
 to be designed, engraved, etched, or worked in mezzotinto 
 
 or chiaro-oscuro ; or which he has — 
 (V) Engraved, etched, or worked in mezzotinto or chiaro-oscuro. or 
 
 caused to be engraved, etched, or worked from any picture, 
 
 drawing, model, or sculpture, either ancient or modern : 
 
 Provided that such prints are truly engraved with the name of the 
 proprietor on each plate and printed on every print. 
 
 Prints taken by lithography and other mechanical processes are 
 now upon the same footing as engravings.
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 199 
 
 Article 23. 
 The Registration of Books. 
 
 A book of registry must be kept at Stationers' Hall, in which the 
 proprietor of copyright in any book, or of the right of representation 
 of any dramatic piece or musical composition, whether in manuscript 
 or otherwise, may upon the payment of a fee of $s. enter in the reg- 
 ister the particulars stated in the form given in the foot-note. 1 
 
 The proprietor of the copyright in any encyclopaedia, review, 
 magazine, or periodical work, or other work published in a series, is 
 entitled to all the benefit of registration on entering in the book of, 
 registry the title of such work, the time of publishing the first volume 
 or part, and the name and place of abode of the proprietor and pub- 
 lisher when the publisher is not also the proprietor. 
 
 Every such registered proprietor may assign his interest or any 
 portion of his interest by making an entry in the said book of such 
 assignment in the form given in the foot-note. 2 
 
 Licenses affecting any such copyright may also be registered in 
 the said register. 
 
 Any person aggrieved by any such entry may apply to the High 
 Court, or any judge thereof, to have such entry expunged or varied, 
 and the court may make such order for that purpose as it thinks just. 
 
 1 (a) Or 
 
 ginal Entry of 
 
 Proprietorship 
 
 of Copyright of 
 
 a Book. 
 
 Time of mak- 
 ing the En- 
 tries. 
 
 Title of the 
 Book. 
 
 Name of the 
 Publisher and 
 Place of Publi- 
 cation. 
 
 Name and 
 Place of Abode 
 of the Proprie- 
 tor of the Copy- 
 right. 
 
 Date of First 
 Publication. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s {6) Form of Entry of Assignment of Copyright in any Book previously 
 registered. 
 
 Date of Entry. 
 
 Title of Book. 
 
 Set out the Title and refer to the 
 Page of the Registry Book in which 
 the Original Entry of the Copyright 
 thereof is made. 
 
 Assignor of Assignee of 
 Copyright. Copyright.
 
 200 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 It is a misdemeanor to make or cause to be made any false entry 
 in such book wilfully. 
 
 The officer in charge of the book is bound to give sealed and 
 certified copies of the entries contained therein on payment of a fee 
 of 5^., and such copies are prim & facie proof of the matters alleged 
 therein. 
 
 The fee for the registration of university copyrights and for copies 
 of them is 6d., and they may be inspected without fee. 
 
 Article 24 
 Effect of Registration in case of Books. 
 
 No proprietor of copyright in any book can take any proceedings 
 in respect of any infringement of his copyright unless he has, before 
 commencing such proceedings, caused an entry to be made in the 
 said register under the last article. 
 
 The omission to make such entry does not affect the copyright in 
 any book, but only the right to sue or proceed in respect of the 
 infringement thereof. 
 
 Article 25. 
 Registration in respect of Dramatic Copyright. 
 
 The remedies which the proprietor of the sole liberty of represent- 
 ing any dramatic piece has under Article 32 are not prejudiced by 
 an omission to make any entry respecting such exclusive right in the 
 said register. 
 
 Article 26. 
 Registration of Copyright in Paintings, etc. 
 
 A book entitled the Register of Proprietors of Copyright in Paint- 
 ings, Drawings, and Photographs, must be kept at the Hall of the 
 Stationers' Company. 
 
 A memorandum of every copyright to which any person is entitled 
 under Article 21, and of every subsequent assignment of any such 
 copyright, must be entered therein ; such memorandum must contain 
 a statement of : 
 
 (a) The date of such agreement or assignment ; 
 
 (o) The names of the parties thereto ; 
 
 (c) The name and place of abode of the person in whom such
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 201 
 
 copyright is vested by virtue thereof, and of the author of 
 the work ; 
 (d) A short description of the nature and subject of such work, 
 and, if the person registering so desires, a sketch, outline, 
 or photograph of the work in addition thereto. 
 
 No proprietor of any such copyright is entitled to the benefit of 25 
 & 26 Vict. c. 68 until such registration, and no action can be main- 
 tained, nor any penalty be recovered, in respect of anything done 
 before registration ; but it is not essential to the validity of a regis- 
 tered assignment that previous assignments should be registered. 
 
 The three paragraphs of Article 23, relating to the correction of 
 errors in the register, the making of false entries, and the giving of 
 certificates, apply also to the book in this article mentioned. 
 
 Article 27. 
 
 Penalties for infringing Copyright in Books. 
 
 Every one is liable to an action who, in any part of the British 
 dominions — 
 
 (a) Prints or causes to be printed, either for sale or exportation, 
 
 any book in which there is subsisting copyright, without the 
 consent in writing of the proprietor ; 
 
 (b) Imports for sale or hire any such book so having been unlaw- 
 
 fully printed from parts beyond the sea ; 
 
 (c) Knowingly sells, publishes, or exposes to sale or hire, or 
 
 causes to be sold, published, or exposed to sale or hire, or 
 has in his possession for sale or hire any book so unlawfully 
 printed or imported. 
 
 The action must be brought in a Court of Record and within 
 twelve months after the offence. 
 
 Article 28. 
 
 Special Penalty for unlawfully importing Copyright Books. 
 
 The following consequences are incurred by every one, except the 
 proprietor of the copyright of any book, or some person authorized 
 by him, who imports or brings, or causes to be imported or brought 
 [for sale or hire], into the United Kingdom, or into any other part of 
 the British dominions, any printed book in which there is copyright,
 
 202 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 first composed, written, or printed [and published] in any part of 
 the United Kingdom, and reprinted in any country or place out of 
 the British dominions ; 
 
 Or, who knowingly sells, publishes, or exposes to sale, or lets to 
 hire, or has in his possession for sale or hire any such book, that is 
 to say : 
 
 (a) Every such book is forfeited, and must be seized by every 
 
 officer of Customs or Excise, and in that case must be 
 destroyed by such officer. 
 
 (b) The person so offending must, upon conviction before two 
 
 justices, be fined 10/. for every such offence, and double 
 the value of every copy of any such book in respect of 
 which he commits any such offence. 
 
 Provided that if the Legislature or proper legislative authorities 
 in any British possession pass an Act or make an Ordinance, which, 
 in the opinion of Her Majesty, is sufficient for the purpose of secur- 
 ing to British authors reasonable protection within such possessions, 
 Her Majesty may approve of such Act, and issue an Order in Council 
 declaring that so long as the provisions of such Act remain in force, 
 the prohibition hereinbefore contained shall be suspended so far as 
 regards such colony. 
 
 Article 29. 
 
 Pirated Copies forfeited to Registered Owner. 
 
 All copies of any book in which there is a duly registered copyright 
 unlawfully printed or imported without the consent in writing under 
 his hand of the registered proprietor of the copyright are deemed to 
 be the property of the registered proprietor of such copyright, and 
 he may sue for and recover the same, with damages for the detention 
 thereof, from any person who detains them after a demand thereof 
 in writing. 
 
 Article 30. 
 
 Copies of Books to be delivered for Public Libraries, and Penalties 
 for Non-delivery. 
 
 A copy of the first edition and of every subsequent edition contain- 
 ing additions and alterations of every book published in any part of 
 the British dominions must be delivered at the British Museum
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 203 
 
 between 10 A. m. and 4 p. m. on some week-day, other than Ash 
 Wednesday, Good Friday, or Christmas Day, within a month after 
 its publication, if it is published in London, within three months if 
 it is published in the United Kingdom elsewhere than in London, 
 and within twelve months if it is published in any other part of the 
 British dominions. 
 
 It may be delivered to any person authorized by the Trustees of 
 the British Museum to receive it, and such person must give a receipt 
 in writing therefor. 
 
 Copies of every edition of every book published must, if demanded, 
 be delivered to an officer of the Stationers' Company for each of the 
 following libraries : the Bodleian Library, the Cambridge University 
 Library, the Advocates Library at Edinburgh, and the Library of 
 Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 The demand, in writing, must be left at the place of abode of the 
 publisher, within twelve months after the publication of the book, 
 and the copies must be delivered within one month after such de- 
 mand, either to the Stationers' Company or to the said libraries, or 
 to any one authorized to receive the copies on their behalf. 
 
 The copy for the British Museum must be bound, stitched, or 
 sewed together, and upon the best paper on which the book is 
 printed. 
 
 The copies for the other libraries mentioned must be upon the 
 paper of which the largest number of copies of the book or edition are 
 printed for sale, in the like condition as the copies prepared for sale 
 by the publisher. 
 
 The copies must in each case include all maps and prints belong- 
 ing thereto. 
 
 Any publisher making default in such delivery as is hereinbefore 
 mentioned, is liable to a maximum penalty of 5/. and the value of 
 the copy not delivered. This penalty may be recovered upon sum- 
 mary proceeding before two justices of the peace, or a stipendiary 
 magistrate, at the suit of the librarian, or other officer properly 
 authorized, of the library concerned. 
 
 Article 31. 
 Penalty for Offences against University Copyright. 
 
 Every one incurs the penalties hereinafter mentioned who does any 
 of the following things with any book of which the copyright is
 
 204 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 vested in any university or college under Article n ; (that is to 
 say,) 
 
 (a) Who prints, reprints, or imports, or causes to be printed, 
 
 reprinted, or imported any such book. 
 (3) Knowing the same to be so printed or reprinted, sells, pub- 
 lishes, or exposes to sale, or causes to be sold, published, or 
 exposed to sale, any such book. 
 
 The penalties for the said offences are : 
 
 (a) The forfeiture of every sheet being part of such book to the 
 university or college to which the copyright of such book 
 belongs, which university or college must forthwith cancel 
 and make waste paper of them. 
 
 (6) One penny for every sheet found in the custody of such person 
 printing or printed, published or exposed to sale, half to go 
 to the Queen, and half to the informer. 
 
 None of the penalties aforesaid can be incurred — 
 
 Unless the title to the copyright of the book in respect of which 
 the offence was committed was registered either before 24th 
 June, 1775, or within two months after the time when the 
 bequest or gift of the copyright of any book came to the 
 knowledge of the vice-chancellor of any university or the 
 head of any college or house of learning ; 
 
 Or unless the clerk of the Stationers' Company, being duly re- 
 quired to make the entry, refuses to do so, and the univer- 
 sity advertises such refusal in the Gazette, in which case the 
 clerk incurs a penalty of 20/. to the proprietors of the 
 copyright. 
 
 The penalty must be sued for in the High Court. 
 
 Article 32. 
 
 Penalty for performing Dramatic Pieces. 
 
 Every person who, without the consent in writing of the author or 
 other proprietor first obtained, represents or causes to be represented 
 at any place of dramatic entertainment in the British dominions any 
 dramatic piece or musical composition is liable to pay to the author 
 or proprietor for every such representation an amount not less than 
 \os., or the full amount of the benefit or advantage arising from
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 20$ 
 
 such representation, or the injury or loss sustained by the plaintiff 
 therefrom, whichever may be the greater damages. 
 
 The penalty may be recovered in any court having jurisdiction in 
 such cases. 
 
 Article 33. 
 
 Penalty for Infringement of Copyright in Works of Art. 
 
 Every one (including the author, when he is not the proprietor) 
 commits an offence who, without the consent of the proprietor of 
 the copyright therein, does any of the following things with regard 
 to any painting, drawing, or photograph in which copyright exists ; 
 (that is to say,) 
 
 (a) Repeats, copies, colorably imitates, or otherwise multiplies, 
 for sale, hire, exhibition, or distribution, any such work ; 
 or the design thereof ; 
 
 (o) Causes or procures to be done anything mentioned in (a) ; 
 
 (c) Sells, publishes, lets to hire, exhibits, or distributes, offers for 
 
 any such purposes, imports into the United Kingdom any 
 such repetition, copy, or other imitation of any such work 
 or of the design thereof, knowing that it has been unlaw- 
 fully made ; 
 
 (d) Causes or procures to be done, any of the things mentioned 
 
 in (c) ; 
 
 (e) Fraudulently signs or otherwise affixes or fraudulently causes 
 
 to be signed or otherwise affixed to or upon any painting, 
 drawing, or photograph or the negative thereof, any name, 
 initials, or monogram. 
 
 (f) Fraudulently sells, publishes, exhibits, or disposes of, or 
 
 offers for sale, exhibition, or distribution, any painting, 
 drawing, or photograph, or negative of a photograph, hav- 
 ing thereon the name, initials, or monogram of a person 
 who did not execute or make such work ; 
 
 (g) Fraudulently utters, disposes of, or puts off, or causes to be 
 
 uttered or disposed of, any copy or colorable imitation of 
 any painting, drawing, or photograph, or negative of a 
 photograph, whether there is subsisting copyright therein or 
 not, as having been made or executed by the author or 
 makers of the original work from which such copy or imita- 
 tion has been taken ;
 
 206 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 (//) Makes or knowingly sells, publishes, or offers for sale, any 
 painting, drawing, or photograph which after being sold or 
 parted with by the author or maker thereof, has been altered 
 by any other person by addition or otherwise, or any copy 
 of such work so altered, or of any part thereof, as the 
 unaltered work of such author or maker during his life and 
 without his consent. 
 
 Every one who commits any of the offences (a), (6), (<•), or (d), 
 forfeits to the proprietor of the copyright for the time being a sum 
 not exceeding 10/. , and all such repetitions, copies, and imitations 
 made without such consent as aforesaid, and all negatives of photo- 
 graphs made for the purpose of obtaining such copies. 
 
 Every one who commits any of the offences (e), (/), (g), or (A) 
 forfeits to the person aggrieved a sum not exceeding 10/., or double 
 the price, if any, at which all such copies, engravings, imitations, 
 or altered works were held or offered for sale, and all such copies, 
 engravings, imitations, and altered works are forfeited to the person 
 whose name, initials, or monogram is fraudulently signed or affixed, 
 or to whom such spurious or altered work is fraudulently or falsely 
 ascribed ; provided that none of the last-mentioned penalties are 
 incurred unless the person to whom such spurious or altered work is 
 so fraudulently ascribed, or whose initials, name, or monogram is so 
 fraudulently or falsely ascribed, was living at or within 20 years next 
 before the time when the offence was committed. 
 
 The penalties hereinbefore specified are cumulative, and the per- 
 son aggrieved by any of the acts before mentioned may recover 
 damages in addition to such penalties, and may in any case recover 
 and enforce the delivery to him of the things specified, and recover 
 damages for their retention or conversion. 
 
 The penalties may be recovered either by action or before two 
 justices or a stipendiary magistrate. 
 
 Article 34. 
 
 Importation of pirated Works of Art prohibited. 
 
 The importation into the United Kingdom of repetitions, copies, 
 or imitations of paintings, drawings, or photographs wherein, or iq 
 the design whereof, there is an existing copyright under 25 & 26 
 Vict. c. 68, or of the design thereof, or of the negatives of photo-
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 207 
 
 graphs, is absolutely prohibited, except by the consent of the pro- 
 prietor of the copyright or his agent authorized in writing. 
 
 Article 35. 
 Penalty for pirating Lectures. 
 
 Every person commits an offence who, having obtained or made a 
 copy of any lecture, prints or otherwise copies and publishes the 
 same, or causes it to be so dealt with without the leave of the author 
 or his assigns ; 
 
 Or, who, knowing it to have been printed or copied or published 
 without such consent, sells, publishes, or exposes it to sale or causes 
 it to be so dealt with ; 
 
 Every person who commits such offence forfeits such printed or 
 copied lectures, together with one penny for every sheet thereof 
 found in his custody, half to the Queen and half to the informer. 
 
 The printing and publishing of any lecture in any newspaper 
 without leave is an offence within the meaning of this article. 
 
 This section does not apply to the publication of lectures which 
 have been printed and published as books at the time of such pub- 
 lication. 
 
 The penalty must be sued for in the High Court. 
 
 Article 36. 
 Penalty for pirating Sculptures. 
 
 Every person is liable to an action for damages who makes or 
 imports, or causes to be made or imported, or exposed to sale, or 
 otherwise disposed, anything of which the copyright is protected by 
 the 54 Geo. c. 56. 
 
 This article does not apply to any person who purchases the right 
 or property of anything protected by the said Act of the proprietor 
 by a deed in writing, signed by him with his own hand in the pres- 
 ence of and attested by two credible witnesses. 
 
 Article 37. 
 Penally for pirating Prints and Engravings. 
 
 Every person commits an offence who, without the consent of the 
 proprietor in writing, signed by him and attested by two witnesses —
 
 208 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 (a) In any manner copies and sells, or causes or procures to be 
 copied and sold, in whole or in part, any copyright print ; 
 or 
 
 (l>) Prints, reprints, or imports for sale any such print, or causes 
 or procures any such print to be so dealt with ; or 
 
 (<r) Knowing the same to be so printed or reprinted without the 
 consent of the proprietors publishes, sells, exposes to sale, 
 or otherwise disposes of any such print, or causes or pro- 
 cures it to be so dealt with. 
 
 Every person committing any such offence is liable to an action 
 for damages in respect thereof, and forfeits to the proprietor, who 
 must forthwith cancel and destroy the same, the plate on which any 
 such print is copied, and every sheet being part of such print, or 
 whereon such print is copied, and also five shillings for every sheet 
 found in his custody in respect of which any such offence is com- 
 mitted, half to the Queen and half to the informer. 
 
 The penalty must be sued for in the High Court within six months 
 after the offence. 
 
 Article 38. 
 
 International Copyright may be granted in certain Cases. 
 
 Copyright in books, dramatic pieces and musical compositions, 
 paintings, drawings, and photographs, sculptures, engravings, and 
 prints, first published in foreign countries, may be granted to the 
 authors of such works, in the manner, to the extent, and on the 
 terms hereinafter mentioned, if what Her Majesty regards as due 
 protection has been secured by the foreign country in which such 
 works are first published for the benefit of persons interested in 
 similar works first published in Her Majesty's dominions. 
 
 Article 39. 
 Orders in Council as to International Copyright. 
 
 Her Majesty may by Order in Council (stating as the ground for 
 issuing the same that such protection as aforesaid has been secured 
 as aforesaid) direct that the authors of all or any of the things men- 
 tioned in the last Article, being first published in any such foreign 
 country as is mentioned in that Article, shall have copyright therein 
 in Her Majesty's dominions for a term, to be specified in the Order,
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 209 
 
 not exceeding the term of copyright which authors of things of the 
 same kind first published in the United Kingdom are entitled to by 
 law at the date of the Order. 
 
 The terms so to be specified and the terms for registration and 
 delivery of copies of books as hereinafter mentioned may be different 
 for works first published in different foreign countries, and for differ- 
 ent classes of such works. 
 
 Article 40. 
 
 Term of International Copyright. 
 
 The authors of the works specified in the Order are entitled to 
 copyright therein as follows — 
 
 Under 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45, and the other Acts relating to copyright 
 in books, except the sections relating to the deposit of copies in 
 certain libraries, if the works specified in the Order are books ; 
 
 Under the Engraving Copyright Acts, the Sculpture Copyright 
 Acts, or the Paintings Copyright Act respectively, if the works 
 specified in the Order are prints, engravings, articles of sculpt- 
 ure, pictures, drawings, or photographs ; 
 
 Under the Dramatic Copyright Acts, provided that such copyright 
 does not extend 1 1 prevent fair imitations or adaptations to the 
 English stage of any dramatic piece or musical composition pub- 
 lished in any foreign country, if the works specified in the 
 Order are dramatic pieces or musical compositions, unless the 
 Order directs that it shall extend to them. 
 
 Subject in each case to such limitations as to the duration of the 
 right as may be specified in the Order, and subject also to the pro- 
 visions hereinafter contained. 
 
 Article 41. 
 No Work Copyright without Regi stration. 
 
 No author of any such work as is referred to in this chapter is en- 
 titled to any benefit under the provisions contained in it, unless such 
 work is registered, and a copy of the first edition and of every sub- 
 sequent edition containing additions or alterations, but of no other 
 editions of it, is delivered at the Hall of the Stationers' Company, 
 14
 
 210 
 
 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 within a time to be specified in the Order of Council, and in the 
 manner prescribed in the schedule in the footnote hereto. 1 
 
 The three paragraphs preceding the last paragrapli of Article 23 
 apply to such entries. 
 
 The copy so delivered must within one month of its delivery be 
 deposited in the British Museum by the officer of the Stationers' 
 Company. 
 
 Article 42. 
 No International Copyright in Newspaper Articles. 
 
 Articles of political discussion published in any newspaper, or 
 
 
 
 1 Schedule. 
 
 
 
 The register 
 must show, if 
 the work is— 
 
 The title 
 
 Name and place 
 of abode of 
 author (un- 
 less the book 
 isanonymous, 
 7 & 8 Vict. c. 
 12. s. 7). 
 
 Name and place 
 of abode of 
 proprietor of 
 copyright. 
 
 Time and 
 
 
 place 01 
 first publi- 
 cation. 
 
 Dramatic piece 
 or musical 
 composition 
 printed. 
 
 Do 
 
 Do 
 
 Do 
 
 Do. and 
 
 
 
 time and 
 place of first 
 representa- 
 tion or per- 
 formance. 
 
 Dramatic piece 
 or musical 
 composition 
 in MS. 
 
 Do 
 
 
 Do 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Do. of in- 
 ventor, de- 
 signer, or en- 
 graver. 
 
 Do 
 
 Do. First 
 
 
 
 publication 
 in foreign 
 country. 
 
 
 Descriptive title 
 
 Short descrip- 
 tion of nature 
 and subject of 
 work, and a 
 sketch outline 
 or photo- 
 graph there- 
 of, if the per- 
 son register- 
 ing pleases. 
 
 Do, of mak- 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Painting, Draw- 
 ing, or photo- 
 graph. 
 
 Name and abode 
 of author. 

 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 211 
 
 periodical, in any foreign country may, if the source from which the 
 same are taken is acknowledged, be republished or translated in any 
 newspaper or periodical in this country, notwithstanding anything 
 hereinbefore or hereinafter contained. 
 
 Articles on other subjects so published may be dealt with in the 
 same manner on the same condition, unless the author has signified 
 his intention of preserving the copyright therein, and the right of 
 translating the same, in some conspicuous part of the newspaper 
 or periodical in which the same was first published, in which case 
 such publication is to be regarded as a book within the meaning of 
 Article 5. 
 
 Article 43. 
 Translations of Foreign Books. 
 
 Her Majesty may, by Order in Council, direct that the authors of 
 books published, and of dramatic pieces first publicly represented, in 
 the foreign countries referred to in Article 38, may, for a period not 
 exceeding five years from the publication of an authorized translation 
 thereof, prevent the publication in the British dominions of any un- 
 authorized translation thereof, and, in the case of dramatic pieces, 
 the public representation of any such translation. 
 
 Upon the publication of such Order the law in force for the time 
 being for preventing the infringement of copyright, and the sole 
 right of representing dramatic pieces, in the British dominions applies 
 to the prevention of the publication of such unauthorized translation. 
 
 Provided that no such Order prevents fair imitations or adapta- 
 tions to the English stage of any dramatic piece or musical composi- 
 tion published in any foreign country. 
 
 But Her Majesty may by Order in Council direct that this proviso 
 shall not apply to the dramatic pieces protected under the original 
 Order in Council. 
 
 If a book is published in parts, each part is regarded, for the pur- 
 poses of this article, as a separate book. 
 
 Article 44. 
 
 Conditions of International Copyright in Translations. 
 
 No author, and no personal representative of any author, is en- 
 titled to the benefit of the provisions of the last preceding article 
 unless he complies with the following requisitions :
 
 212 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 (a.) The original work from which the translation is to be made 
 must be registered, and a copy thereof deposited in the United 
 Kingdom, in the manner required for original works by the 
 said International Copyright Act, within three calendar months 
 of its first publication in the foreign country : 
 
 (b.) The author must notify on the title-page of the original work, 
 or, if it is published in parts, on the title-page of the first 
 part, or, if there is no title-page, on some conspicuous part of 
 the work, that it is his intention to reserve the right of trans- 
 lating it : 
 
 (c.) The translation sanctioned by the author, or a part thereof, 
 must be published either in the country mentioned in the 
 Order in Council by virtue of which it is to be protected, or 
 in the British dominions, not later than one year after the 
 registration and deposit in the United Kingdom of the origi- 
 nal work, and the whole of such translation must be published 
 within three years of such registration and deposit : 
 
 ((/.) Such translation must be registered, and a copy thereof depos- 
 ited in the United Kingdom, within a time to be mentioned 
 in that behalf in the Order by which it is protected, and in 
 the manner provided by the said International Copyright Act 
 for the registration and deposit of original works : 
 
 (e.) In the case of books published in parts, each part of the origi- 
 nal work must be registered and deposited in this country, 
 in the manner required by the said International Copyright 
 Act, within three months after the first publication thereof in 
 the foreign country : 
 (/.) In the case of dramatic pieces the translation sanctioned by the 
 author must be published within three calendar months of the 
 registration of the original work : 
 (g.) The above requisitions apply to articles originally published in 
 newspapers or periodicals, if the same be afterward published 
 in a separate form, but not to such articles as originally pub- 
 lished. 
 
 Article 45. 
 Importation of Pirated Works. 
 
 The importation into any part of the British dominions of copies 
 of any work of literature or art, the copyright in which is protected
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW OF GREAT BRITAIN. 213 
 
 by the provisions of this chapter, and of unauthorized translations 
 thereof, is absolutely prohibited, unless the registered proprietor of 
 the copyright therein, or his agent authorized in writing, consents, 
 and the provisions of Article 28 apply to the importation of such 
 copies into any part of the British dominions. 1 
 
 1 Since the preparation by Sir James Stephen of this digest, the pro- 
 visions in the above articles referring to International Copyright have 
 been modified by the acceptance on the part of Great Britain of the 
 provisions of the Convention of Berne. This Convention was de- 
 clared to be in force between Great Britain and the other States 
 which were parties to it, by an order in Council dated December 5th, 
 1887. 
 
 The text of the Convention is given later in this volume. 
 
 Editor.
 
 XIV. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE 
 BRITISH COMMISSION APPOINTED IN 
 1878 BY THE QUEEN, FOR THE IN- 
 VESTIGATION OF THE SUBJECT OF 
 COPYRIGHT. 
 
 TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 
 
 We, Your Majesty's Commissioners, appointed to 
 make inquiry with regard to the laws and regula- 
 tions relating to Home, Colonial, and International 
 Copyright, humbly submit to Your Majesty this our 
 Report — 
 
 1. We deem it expedient to consider the Home, Colonial, and 
 International divisions of the subject, in the order in which they are 
 mentioned in Your Majesty's Commission, and thus first to notice 
 
 HOME COPYRIGHT. 
 
 2. The first object to which we directed our attention in relation to 
 Home Copyright, was to obtain a clear and systematic view of the 
 law in force upon the subject in this country. 
 
 3. We find that it relates to copyright in seven distinct classes of 
 works, namely, — 
 
 (1.) Books ; 
 
 ) Musical compositions ; 
 
 ) Dramatic pieces ; 
 
 ) Lectures ; 
 
 ) Engravings and other works of the same kind ; 
 
 ) Paintings, drawings, and photographs ; and 
 
 (7.) Sculpture.
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 21 5 
 
 4. The law as to copyright in designs did not appear to us to fall 
 within the terms of Your Majesty's Commission. It differs in many 
 important particulars from the other matters which we have men- 
 tioned, and it has been recently made the subject of legislation. 
 
 5. The law of England, as to copyright in the matters above 
 enumerated, consists partly of the provisions of fourteen Acts of 
 Parliament, which relate in whole or in part to different branches of 
 the subject, and partly of common law principles, nowhere stated in 
 any definite or authoritative way, but implied in a considerable num- 
 ber of reported cases scattered over the law reports. 
 
 6. Our colleague, Sir James Stephen, has reduced this matter to 
 the form of a Digest, which we have annexed to our Report, and 
 which we believe to be a correct statement of the law as it stands. 1 
 
 7. The first observation which a study of the existing law suggests 
 is that its form, as distinguished from its substance, seems to us bad. 
 The law is wholly destitute of any sort of arrangement, incomplete, 
 often obscure, and even when it is intelligible upon long study, it is 
 in many parts so ill-expressed that no one who does not give such 
 study to it can expect to understand it. 
 
 8. The common law principles which lie at the root of the law 
 have never been settled. The well-known cases of Millar vs. Tay- 
 lor, Donaldson vs. Becket, and Jeffries vs. Boosey, ended in a differ- 
 ence of opinion amongst many of the most eminent judges who have 
 ever sat upon the Bench. 
 
 9. The fourteen Acts of Parliament which deal with the subject 
 were passed at different times between 1735 and 1875. They are 
 drawn in different styles, and some are so drawn as to be hardly 
 intelligible. Obscurity of style, however, is only one of the defects 
 of these Acts. Their arrangement is often worse than their style. 
 Of this the Copyright Act of 1842 is a conspicuous instance. 
 
 10. The piecemeal way in which the subject has been dealt with 
 affords the only possible explanation of a number of apparently 
 arbitrary distinctions between the provisions made upon matters 
 which would seem to be of the same nature. Thus — 
 
 (a.) The term of copyright in books, and in printed and published 
 dramatic pieces and music, is the life of the author and 
 seven years after his death, or 42 years from the date of 
 publication, whichever is the longer. 
 
 1 See preceding chapter.
 
 2l6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 (6.) The term of copyright in music not printed and published but 
 publicly performed is doubtful, and may perhaps be per- 
 petual. 
 
 (c.) The term of copyright in a lecture not printed and published 
 but publicly delivered is wholly uncertain. The term of 
 copyright in a lecture printed and published is the longer of 
 the two periods of 28 years and the life of the author. It 
 may perhaps be doubted whether the term of copyright in 
 a book consisting of a collection of lectures would differ 
 from the term of copyright in other books. 
 
 (</.) The term of copyright in engravings, etc., is 28 years from 
 publication; in paintings, etc., the artist's life and seven 
 years ; in sculpture, 14 years from the first " putting forth 
 or publishing " of the work (an indefinite phrase), 14 years 
 more being given to the sculptor if he is living at the end 
 of the first term. 
 
 11. Other singular distinctions exist as to the law relating to reg- 
 istration of copyrights. No system of registration is provided for 
 dramatic copyright , or for copyright in lectures or engravings. Such 
 a system is provided for copyright in books and paintings, but its 
 effect varies. Registration must in either case precede the taking of 
 legal proceedings for an infringement of copyright, but after regis- 
 tration the owner of copyright in a book may, while the owner of 
 copyright in a painting may not, sue the persons who infringed his 
 copyright before registration. 
 
 12. The law is not only arbitrary in some points, but is incomplete 
 and obscure in others. The question whether there is such a thing 
 as copyright at common law, apart from statute, has never been 
 decided, and has several times led to litigation. Some sort of copy- 
 right has been recognized in newspapers, but it is impossible to say 
 what it is. It has been decided on the one hand that a newspaper 
 is not a "book," within the meaning of the Copyright Act of 1842, 
 and on the other hand that there is some sort of copyright in news- 
 papers, yet the courts have always leaned to the opinion that there is 
 no copyright independent of statute ;— at all events they have never 
 positively decided that there is. 
 
 13. Upon all these grounds we recommend that the law on this 
 subject should be reduced to an intelligible and systematic form. 
 This may be effected by codifying the law, either in the shape in
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 2\y 
 
 which it appears in Sir James Stephen's Digest, or in any other which 
 may be preferred ; and our first, and, we think, one of our most 
 important, recommendations is that this should be done. Such a 
 process would, amongst other things, afford an opportunity for mak- 
 ing such amendments in the substance of the law as may be required. 
 
 14. We now proceed to discuss the subject in detail, following the 
 order of the Digest, and with reference to it. In the margin of the 
 Digest we have, wherever it was practicable, noted the alterations 
 which we recommend, so that it shows both what the law in our 
 opinion is, and what in our opinion it ought to be. 
 
 Unpublished Works. 
 
 15. With respect to unpublished documents or works of art, we 
 do not suggest any alteration in the law. 
 
 Necessity for Copyright. — The Royalty System. 
 
 16. With reference to copyright generally, we do not propose to 
 enter upon the history of the Copyright Laws, nor to discuss the 
 various questions that have from time to time been raised in connec- 
 tion with the principle involved in those laws. It is sufficient for the 
 present purpose to refer to the above-mentioned cases of Millar vs. 
 Taylor, Donaldson vs. Becket, and Jeffries vs. Boosey, and to the 
 debates that have taken place in Parliament, in which the arguments 
 on one side and the other are fully set forth. Taking the law as it 
 stands, we entertain no doubt that the interest of authors and of the 
 public alike requires that some specific protection should be afforded 
 by legislation to owners of copyright ; and we have arrived at the 
 conclusion that copyright should continue to be treated by law as a 
 proprietary right, and that it is not expedient to substitute a right to 
 a royalty defined by statute, or any other right of a similar kind. 
 
 17. We make special reference to a system of royalty, because, in 
 the course of our inquiry, it has been suggested that it would be ex- 
 pedient in the interest of the public, and possibly not disadvanta- 
 geous to authors, to adopt such a system in lieu of the existing law of 
 copyright ; and although the change has hardly been seriously urged 
 upon us as a practical measure, except by one witness, it is of so im- 
 portant a character that we desire to offer a few observations upon it. 
 
 18. The royalty system may be briefly described as a system under 
 which the author of a work of literature or art, or his assignee, would 
 not have the exclusive right of publication, but any person would be 
 entitled to copy or republish the work on paying or securing to the
 
 2l8 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 owner a remuneration, taking the form of a royalty or definite sum 
 prescribed by law, payable to the owner for each copy published. 
 
 19. The principal reason urged for the adoption of this system is 
 the benefit that it is supposed would arise to the public from the 
 early publication of cheap editions. It is now the usual practice of 
 publishers of the best class of literary works to publish first an ex- 
 pensive edition, then, after a period of greater or less duration, ac- 
 cording to the sale of the work, an edition at a medium price, and 
 finally, but often a good many years later, what are called popular 
 editions, at low prices. The advocates of the royalty system say that, 
 if it were adopted, the competition that would arise would compel 
 the original publishers to publish at cheap prices ; — that thus the 
 public would be able to procure books at once which, under the pres- 
 ent system, are kept beyond their reach by high prices ; — and that 
 the advantage to authors would be as great or greater than it now is, 
 since an extended sale might be expected to follow publication at 
 lower prices, and the royalty would be paid them even though their 
 works proved failures in a commercial point of view. 
 
 20. The opponents of the system say that it is notorious that 
 where one book pays the publisher for his outlay and risk, many are 
 complete failures and never pay even the cost of publishing ; — that, 
 if the royalty system were established, no publisher would take the 
 risk of the first publication, knowing that, if the work proved suc- 
 cessful, he would immediately have his reward snatched from his 
 grasp by the numerous publishers who would republish and under- 
 sell him ; — that it would be impossible for publishers to remunerate 
 authors at the rate they do now ; — that authors would lose the fair 
 remuneration they now obtain, and would often be deterred from 
 writing ; — and that many works, especially those involving long prep- 
 aration and large cost to the author or publisher, which would be 
 published under the present system, could never be brought out, on 
 account of the increased risk that would ensue from the royalty sys- 
 tem. 
 
 21. To meet these objections it has been suggested that there 
 should be a limited period from first publication, and that during 
 such period republication by any person, other than the author and 
 publisher, should not be allowed. 
 
 22. We have thus briefly noted some of the arguments for and 
 against the royalty system, but we think it unnecessary to discuss the 
 subject in greater detail, or to point out the practical difficulties which
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 219 
 
 the introduction of such a scheme would necessarily involve, or how 
 those difficulties might possibly be more or less obviated, because we 
 are unable, after carefully considering the subject, to recommend for 
 adoption this change in the existing law. We venture to add, in con- 
 firmation of our view, that while the principle of copyright has been 
 recognized in almost every foreign State, in no one country has the 
 system of royalty been adopted, except in a modified form in Italy, 
 as pointed out in paragraph 39. 
 
 The Term of Copyright. — Books. 
 
 23. The term of copyright is the next subject to which our atten- 
 tion has been called. We have already used this as an illustration 
 of the anomalies and distinctions which have grown up in the law of 
 copyright. The term of copyright in books is for the life of the 
 author and 7 years after his death, or for 42 years from the date of 
 publication, whichever period may happen to expire last. 
 
 24. We purpose for the present to confine our remarks to copy- 
 right in books and other literary works comprehended under that 
 term — that is to say, "every volume, part or division of a volume, 
 pamphlet, sheet of letter-press, sheet of music, map, chart, or 
 plan, separately published." 
 
 25. It has been urged against the present regulations for the term 
 of copyright in books — 1st. That the period is not long enough : — 
 2dly. That copyrights in works by the same author generally ex- 
 pire at different dates : — 3dly. That, owing to the difficulty of verify- 
 ing the date of publication, it is scarcely possible to ascertain the 
 termination of the copyright. In addition to these objections, others 
 have been stated which it is needless for us to specify in this 
 place. 
 
 26. We have already stated that we consider some kind of pro- 
 tection in the nature of copyright desirable ; and it appears to us that 
 the existing terms are not more than sufficient, if indeed they are 
 sufficient, to secure that adequate encouragement and protection to 
 authors which the interests of literature, and therefore of the public, 
 alike demand from the State. We proceed, therefore, to call atten- 
 tion to the three objections above mentioned, to the present duration 
 of copyright. 
 
 27. First, the period is said not to be long enough. The chief 
 reasons for this assertion are that many works, and particularly those 
 of permanent value, are frequently but little known or appreciated
 
 220 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 for many years after they are published, and that they do not com- 
 mand a sale sufficient to remunerate the authors until a considerable 
 part of the term of copyright has expired. Some works, as, for in- 
 stance, novels by popular authors, command an extensive sale and 
 bring to the authors a large remuneration at once, but the case is 
 altogether different with others, such as works of history, books of a 
 philosophical or classical character, and volumes of poems. In some 
 instances works of these kinds have been known to produce scarcely 
 any remuneration, until the authors have died and the copyrights have 
 nearly expired, It is also urged that in the case of many authors 
 who make their living by their pens, their families are left without 
 provision shortly after their deaths, unless their works become profit- 
 able very soon after they are written. 
 
 28. These arguments and others of a like kind, which will be found 
 not only in the evidence we have taken, but in the debates in Par- 
 liament, are in our opinion of great weight, but on the other hand 
 we do not lose sight of the public interest, which, it has been urged 
 upon us, would be prejudiced by prolongation of copyright. Greater 
 freedom of trade and competition are said to be desirable, that 
 books may be more abundant in supply and cheaper in price. 
 
 29. The second objection to the present duration of copyright is, 
 that copyrights belonging to the same author generally expire at 
 different dates. That it is well founded is manifest, for if an author 
 writes several works, or one work in several volumes, which are pub- 
 lished at different times, as is frequently the case, the copyrights will 
 expire forty-two years from the respective dates of publication, unless 
 the author happens to live so long that the period of seven years 
 after his death is beyond forty-two years from the publication of his 
 latest work or volume. 
 
 30. Under the present system, moreover, copyright in an earlier 
 edition expires before copyright in the amendments in a later edition 
 of the same work. We have had evidence that in one case the first 
 and uncorrected edition of an important work was republished be- 
 fore the expiration of the copyright in the later and improved edi- 
 tions. But if the alteration in the existing term of copyright, which 
 we suggest hereafter, were adopted, namely, that it should be for the 
 life of the author and a fixed number of years after his death, all the 
 copyrights of the same author would expire at the same date, and it 
 would then be open to any publisher to put out a complete edition of 
 all the author's works, with all the improvements and emendations
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 221 
 
 which have appeared in the last edition, in a uniform shape and at a 
 uniform price. 
 
 31. The third objection to the present duration of copyright is 
 that it is frequently difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain its termi- 
 nation, owing to the fact that the expiration of the period depends 
 upon the time of publication. It is in most cases easy to ascertain 
 the date of a man's death, but frequently impossible to fix with any 
 certainty the date of the publication of a book. Under the present 
 law it is uncertain what constitutes publication ; but whatever may 
 be a publication sufficient in law to set the period of copyright run- 
 ning, it generally takes place in such a manner that the precise date 
 is not noted even if known. It is sometimes said that the date 
 printed in the title-page of a book should be considered the date of 
 publication, but books are frequently post-dated, and in many cases 
 bear no date at all. This objection is one which, in our opinion, 
 should be removed. 
 
 32. The remedy which suggests itself to us as the most likely to 
 effect all the desired objects is, that instead of the period of copyright 
 being, as at present, a certain number of years from publication, it 
 should last for the life of the author and a fixed number of years 
 after his death. 
 
 33. We have been influenced in advising this change in the law 
 by the consideration that it will have the effect of assimilating the 
 term of copyright in books to that of copyright in works of fine art, 
 the duration of which, for reasons to be hereafter stated, is for the 
 life of the author and a certain number of years after his death. And 
 further, as this mode of computing the duration of copyright has been 
 adopted by the great majority of foreign countries, the change in our 
 law may facilitate the making of international copyright arrange- 
 ments with other States. 
 
 34. Before proceeding further on this point we think it right to 
 notice a suggestion that has been made to us, on the assumption that 
 the duration of copyright would continue to be for a fixed period of 
 years. It has been proposed that, instead of the present term of 42 
 years from publication, the original right should last for 28 years 
 only, but that it should be renewable for a further period of 14 or 28 
 years by registration by the author or his personal representatives ; 
 and this is, we learn, the law in the United States and Canada. The 
 reasons advanced for this proposal are, that if copyrights are sold, 
 publishers, as a rule, will not give more for the whole of the present
 
 222 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 term of 42 years than they would if there were only 28 years that 
 they could purchase ; that authors could thus, without any pecuniary 
 loss, sell their copyrights for the first period only, and, if their works 
 proved of great and lasting value, would not have finally parted 
 with all their interest, but would be entitled to the second term of 14 
 years, by which they or their families would receive a due reward for 
 their labors. 
 
 35. There is, no doubt, considerable force in the argument, but 
 we would observe that the advantages held out by the change of law 
 would not be secured unless, first, the copyright is sold, and secondly, 
 the author is debarred by law, not only from selling, in the first 
 instance, more than the copyright in the term of 28 years, but even 
 from giving any binding undertaking to secure to the purchaser, 
 either by registration or otherwise, the advantages of the subsequent 
 term of 14 years. 
 
 36. Now, whatever may be the practice in the United States and 
 Canada, we are satisfied from the evidence that in this country many 
 authors do not sell their copyrights, and in such cases no advantage 
 would arise from the proposed change. And, with respect to the 
 second point, we are not satisfied that the advantages expected from 
 the scheme counterbalance the disadvantage of interfering by law 
 with freedom of contract. 
 
 37. Should our suggestion, that copyright in future should endure 
 for the life of the author and a fixed number of years after his death, 
 be adopted, the proposal to divide the present, or any other fixed 
 term is of course inapplicable. 
 
 38. Assuming, therefore, that the duration of copyright is to be 
 for the life of the author and a certain number of years after his 
 death, we have next to consider what the number of years should be. 
 According to the existing law, the period in the case of books is life 
 and 7 years, or 42 years from publication, if that period is the last 
 to expire ; and the period for copyright in paintings, drawings, and 
 photographs has been fixed at life and seven years. 
 
 39. We find considerable variety in the terms fixed in other coun- 
 tries, but, putting aside the United States, which seem to have 
 adopted our existing term with modifications, we find that the more 
 important nations have adopted terms longer than our own. Thus, 
 the term in France is the life of the author and 50 years ; in Belgium, 
 life and 20 years ; in Germany, life and 30 years ; in Italy, life and 
 40 years, with a second term of 40 years, during which other persons
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 223 
 
 than the proprietor may publish a work on payment of a royalty to 
 him ; in Russia, life and 50 years ; in Spain, life and 50 years ; in 
 Portugal, life and 50 years ; and in Holland, life and 20 years. 
 These terms are subject to sundry modifications and conditions which 
 it is unnecessary for us to enter into, but while we consider it expe- 
 dient that the existing term of copyright should be altered, we think 
 that the terms fixed by the nations we have referred to are in some 
 cases excessive and unnecessary. 
 
 40. Upon the whole we suggest the term adopted by Germany, 
 viz., life and 30 years, as most suitable for Your Majesty's domin- 
 ions. We are, however, of opinion that, in the event of an inter- 
 national agreement being concluded, by which a common term is 
 fixed for copyright in all countries, power should be given to Your 
 Majesty to adopt, by Order in Council, in lieu of the above term of 
 life and 30 years, the term fixed by such international arrangement. 
 
 41. We further suggest that in the case of posthumous and anony- 
 mous works and of encyclopaedias, the period should be 30 years 
 from the date of deposit for the use of the British Museum. In the 
 case of anonymous works the author should be allowed, during the 
 period of 30 years, by printing an edition with his name attached, to 
 secure the full term of life and 30 years. 
 
 42. Should these suggestions be adopted, we think that it would 
 be desirable that copyrights in existence at the time of the passing of 
 the Act should be extended, subject to a proviso like the one con- 
 tained in section 4 of the Copyright Act of 1842, guarding against 
 the alteration of existing contracts between authors and publishers. 
 In no case should the duration of existing copyrights be abbreviated. 
 
 43. One other point relating to the term of copyright remains, to 
 which we wish to call attention. It has been provided that in the 
 case of encyclopaedias, reviews, magazines, periodical works, and 
 works published in a series of books, or parts, for which various per- 
 sons are employed by the proprietor to write articles, — if the articles 
 are, written and paid for on the terms that the copyright therein shall 
 belong to the proprietor of the work, the same rights shall belong to 
 him as to the author of a book, except in one particular, in which 
 particular a difference is made between essays, articles, or portions 
 of reviews, magazines, or other periodical works of a like nature and 
 articles in encyclopaedias. In the case of the former (but not of 
 encyclopaedias) a right of separate publication of the articles reverts 
 to the author after 2S years for the remainder of the period of copy-
 
 224 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 right, and during the 28 years the proprietor of the work cannot pub- 
 lish the articles separately without the consent of the author or his 
 assigns. Authors can, however, by contract reserve to themselves 
 during the 28 years a right of separate publication of the articles they 
 write, in which case the copyright in the separate publication belongs 
 to them, but without prejudice to the rights of the proprietor of the 
 magazine or other periodical. We think some modification in this 
 provision is required as regards the time when the right of separate 
 publication should revert to the authors of the articles, and that three 
 years should be substituted for twenty-eight. As we have reason to 
 believe that proprietors of periodicals have not, as a rule, insisted on 
 the right given them by the existing law, we think there would be 
 no objection to making this provision retroactive. 
 
 44. It has been pointed out to us that, under the existing law, the 
 author of an article in a magazine or periodical cannot, until the 
 right of separate publication reverts to him, take proceedings to pre- 
 vent piracy of his work ; so that, unless the proprietor of the maga- 
 zine or periodical be willing to take such proceedings (which may 
 very likely not be the case when the right of the author is about to 
 revive), the result would practically be to deprive the author of the 
 benefit of the right reserved to him. We recommend, therefore, that 
 during the period before the right of separate publication reverts to 
 the author, he should be entitled, as well as the proprietor of the 
 magazine or periodical, to prevent an unauthorized separate publica- 
 tion. 
 
 University Copyright. 
 
 45. In connection with the subject of the term of copyright we 
 have to notice the perpetual copyrights possessed by certain universi- 
 ties and schools, which form exceptions to the general law by which 
 copyright is limited to a definite number of years. 
 
 46. We find that the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Edin- 
 burgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews, and Aberdeen, each college or house 
 of learning at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Trinity 
 College, Dublin, and the colleges of Eton, Westminster, and Win- 
 chester have forever the sole liberty of printing and reprinting all 
 such books as have been, or hereafter may be bequeathed or given 
 to them, or in trust for them by the authors thereof, or by their rep- 
 resentatives, unless they were given or bequeathed for a limited term. 
 
 47. To ascertain the value of this exceptional right to the institu-
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 225 
 
 tions interested, we communicated with the authorities at the Uni- 
 versities of Oxford and Cambridge, and asked the number of copy- 
 rights possessed by them in perpetuity under this provision of the 
 law. We found that the University of Oxford possesses six copy- 
 rights and that the University of Cambridge has none. 
 
 48. This fact shows that the privilege, which is by no means of 
 recent origin, is of very little real value, and as it is undesirable to 
 continue any special and unusual kinds of copyright, we are of 
 opinion that this exceptional privilege should be omitted from the 
 future law. We do not, however, think it would be right to deprive 
 the institutions above named of the copyrights they already possess, 
 without their consent, but should they be retained, we suggest that 
 the universities and other institutions should be placed upon the same 
 footing as regards the protection of their copyrights as other copy- 
 right owners, and that the exceptional penalties and remedies given 
 by the Act which was passed in the 15th year of the reign of his late 
 Majesty King George III. should be repealed. 
 
 Place of Publication. 
 
 49. We now desire to call attention to the place of publication, as 
 it affects the obtaining of copyright in the United Kingdom. 
 
 50. And first we have to notice publication in the colonies, as to 
 which it appears the present state of the law is anomalous and 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 51. Copyright in the United Kingdom extends to every part of the 
 British dominions, but if a book be published first in any part of the 
 British dominions other than the United Kingdom, the author cannot 
 obtain copyright, either in the United Kingdom or in any of the 
 colonies, unless there is some local law in the colony of publication 
 under which he can obtain it within the limits of that colony. 
 
 52. It is obvious that if by Imperial Law copyright is to be 
 enforced in the colonies, while at the same time first publication in 
 the United Kingdom is a condition of obtaining it, the colonies are 
 not treated on fair and equal terms, and that there is just ground of 
 complaint on the part of colonial authors and publishers. 
 
 53. In truth a colonial author is placed even in a worse position 
 than a foreign author who is the subject of a country with which we 
 have an international copyright convention. For example, a French 
 author can publish in France, and subsequently, upon the per- 
 formance of certain conditions, such as registration, secure himself 
 
 15
 
 226 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 against piracy of his work throughout the British Empire, while the 
 colonial author can neither secure his property in the United King- 
 dom nor France, unless he first publishes in the United Kingdom. 
 
 54. Three ways of remedying this inequality present themselves : 
 either, (1) the Imperial Act, and the rights under it, may be limited 
 to the United Kingdom ; or, (2) the same rights throughout Your 
 Majesty's dominions may be given to British subjects, whether the 
 work is first published in the United Kingdom or in any colony ; or, 
 (3) the benefits of Imperial copyright may be freely thrown open to 
 all authors, without regard to nationality or prior publication else- 
 where, who publish within the British dominions. 
 
 55. Upon consideration we are not disposed to recommend the 
 first alternative. If the subject had now to be approached for the 
 first time, it might be thought desirable, looking to the existing 
 relations between the greater colonies and the mother country, to 
 confine the right of property in a work to the country where it is 
 first published, leaving the different colonies to legislate on the sub- 
 ject, and the copyright proprietor to secure, should he think fit, copy- 
 right in any other part of Your Majesty's dominions, by complying 
 with the requirements of the law of such place. 
 
 56. It has been suggested further, that if copyright were thus 
 limited, conventions might be made with the colonies similar to those 
 made with foreign nations, providing in effect that publication in a 
 colony should secure the same right to the proprietor of copyright as 
 publication in the mother country. This would not, however, give 
 a colonial author copyright elsewhere than in the United Kingdom, 
 and in such other colonies as might agree to be bound by such con- 
 ventions ; and it may be questioned whether some of the colonies 
 would not decline to enter into such conventions. The temptation 
 to publish cheap copies of English copyright works without payment 
 to the author would be very great, as it has proved to be in the 
 United States. Upon this point we need only refer to Mr. Morrill's 
 Official Report to the Senate of the United States, which will be 
 found at page 10 of the Parliamentary Paper of July, 1874, upon 
 Colonial Copyright. 
 
 57. But we conceive that the existing anomalies may be removed, 
 and the interests of the colonists preserved, without restricting the 
 existing rights of British authors ; and we submit further that the 
 subject is one of such importance that it may fairly continue to be 
 treated, in some of its aspects, from an imperial, rather than from a
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 227 
 
 local point of view, and that the colonies should be dealt with as 
 integral parts of the empire, rather than placed on the footing of 
 foreign nations. It may be added that foreign nations with whom 
 we have made conventions might possibly have ground of com- 
 plaint, if this limitation of the Imperial Act were made without their 
 assent. 
 
 58. We recommend, therefore, generally, that where a work has 
 been first published in any one of Your Majesty's possessions, the 
 proprietor of such work shall be entitled to the same copyright, and 
 to the same benefits, remedies, and privileges in respect of such 
 work, as he would have been entitled to under the existing Im- 
 perial Act, if the work had been first published in the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 59. With regard to publication in foreign states the law now is 
 that, except under treaty, no copyright can be obtained if a book has 
 been published in any foreign country before being published in the 
 United Kingdom, but it is doubtful whether contemporaneous pub- 
 lication in this and a foreign country would prevent the acquisition 
 of copyright here. 
 
 60. It is a grave question whether it is desirable that the condi- 
 tion requiring first publication in this country should continue, and 
 whether the reason advanced for this condition, namely, that it is 
 advantageous to this country that works should be first published 
 here, outweighs the hardships that may be inflicted upon British 
 authors by preventing them from availing themselves of arrange- 
 ments which they might otherwise make with foreign or colonial 
 publishers. 
 
 61. We have come to the conclusion that a British author, who 
 publishes a work out of the British dominions, should not be pre- 
 vented thereby from obtaining copyright within them by a subse- 
 quent publication therein. Yet we think that such republication 
 ought to take place within three years of the first publication. And 
 we may add, that we think the law should be the same with reference 
 to dramatic pieces and musical compositions first performed out of 
 Your Majesty's dominions, even though they are not printed and 
 published ; — in other words, that first performance in a foreign 
 country should not injure the dramatic right in this country. It has 
 been decided under the 19th section of the International Copyright 
 Act, that the writer of a drama loses his exclusive right to the per- 
 formance of his drama here in England, if it has been first performed
 
 228 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 abroad ; that is to say, representation has been held to be a pub- 
 lication. We see no reason why the rule which may be finally 
 determined upon with reference to first publication of books should 
 not apply to first representation of dramatic pieces. The evidence 
 shows how hardly the present law presses upon British dramatic 
 authors. 
 
 62. As to aliens, although we would give them the same rights 
 as British subjects if they first publish their works in the British 
 dominions, it is obvious that the same reason does not exist for giving 
 them copyright if they do not bring their books first to our market ; 
 and we therefore recommend that aliens, unless domiciled in Your 
 Majesty's dominions, should only be entitled to copyright for works 
 first published in those dominions. It is to be borne in mind that, 
 even though aliens may be deprived of British copyright by first pub- 
 lication abroad, they may still obtain it in many cases by means of 
 treaties. 
 
 Persons capable of obtaining Copyright. 
 
 63. With regard to the persons who are capable of obtaining im- 
 perial copyright in Your Majesty's dominions, as distinguished from 
 international copyright under treaty, we find that, according to the 
 existing law, the author in order to obtain copyright must be either — 
 
 (a.) A natural-born or naturalized subject of Your Majesty, in 
 which case the place of residence at the time of the publica- 
 tion of the book is immaterial ; or 
 
 (b.) A person who, at the time of the publication of the book in 
 which copyright is to be obtained, owes local or temporary 
 allegiance to Your Majesty, by residing at that time in some 
 part of Your Majesty's dominions. 
 
 64. Besides these it is probable, but not certain, that an alien 
 friend who first publishes a book in the United Kingdom, even 
 though resident out of Your Majesty's dominions, acquires copy- 
 right therein. We think this doubt should be set at rest, and that, 
 subject to our previous recommendation as to place of publication 
 by aliens not domiciled in Your Majesty's dominions, the benefit 
 of the copyright laws should extend to all British subjects and aliens 
 alike. 
 
 Immoral, Irreligious , Seditious, and Libelous Works. 
 
 65. Our attention has, during the course of our inquiry, been
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 229 
 
 called to the case of books which are of an immoral, irreligious, sedi- 
 tious, or libelous character. The present law is that no copyright 
 exists in such works, or in any book which professes to be what 
 it is not, in such a manner as to be a fraud upon the purchasers 
 thereof. 
 
 66. The difficulty that arises in such cases is, that as the author is 
 deprived of copyright, he cannot stop republication by other persons ; 
 and thus, unless there be a prosecution upon public grounds the evil 
 is allowed to extend, instead of being checked by the only person 
 who has any private interest in stopping its extension by others. To 
 grant copyright, however, in such works is out of the question, as 
 this would be to sanction and protect immorality, irreligion, libels, 
 and other matters which it is against the policy of the law to encour- 
 age. The subject, however, really belongs more properly to the 
 criminal law than to the law relating to copyright : and we therefore 
 do not make any suggestion with regard to it. 
 
 Abridgments of Books. 
 
 67. Questions frequently arise, with regard to literary works, as to 
 what is a fair use of the works of other authors in the compilation of 
 books. In the majority of cases these are questions that can only 
 be decided, when they arise, by the proper legal tribunals, and no 
 principle which we can lay down, or which could be defined by the 
 Legislature, could govern all cases that occur. There is one form 
 of use of the works of others, however, to which we wish specially 
 to draw attention, as being capable of some legislative control in a 
 direction we think desirable. We refer to abridgments. 
 
 68. At present an abridgment mayor may not be an infringement 
 of copyright, according to the use made of the original work and the 
 extent to which the latter is merely copied into the abridgment ; but 
 even though an abridgment may be so framed as to escape being a 
 piracy, still it is capable of doing great harm to the author of the 
 original work by interfering with his market ; and it is the more 
 likely to interfere with that market and injure the sale of the origi- 
 nal work if, as is frequently the case, it bears in its title the name 
 of the original author. 
 
 69. We think this should be prevented, and, upon the whole 
 we recommend, that no abridgments of copyright works should be 
 allowed during the term of copyright, without the consent of the 
 owner of the copyright.
 
 230 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Dramatic Pieces and Musical Compositions. 
 
 70. Dramatic pieces and musical compositions, though in some 
 respects differing, are yet so similar that we may couple them to- 
 gether for the purposes of this Report. 
 
 71. We have carefully considered the statute law now in force 
 with reference to music and the drama ; but from the way in which 
 certain Acts of Parliament have been framed and incorporated by 
 reference, considerable doubt arises in our minds on various impor- 
 tant points connected with these subjects. 
 
 72. It may be convenient, however, before referring to them more 
 particularly, to notice a difference that exists between books and 
 musical and dramatic works. While in books there is only one 
 copyright, in musical and dramatic works there are two, namely, 
 the right of printed publication and the right of public performance. 
 
 73. These rights are essentially different and distinct, and we find 
 that many plays and musical pieces are publicly performed without 
 being published in the form of books, and thus the acting or dra- 
 matic copyright is in force, while as to literary copyright such plays 
 and pieces retain the character of unpublished manuscripts. Music 
 printed and published becomes a book for the purpose of the literary 
 copyright, and so, we presume, does a play ; but it is a question what 
 becomes of the performing copyright on the publication of the work 
 as a book ; and there is a further question, whether the performing 
 copyright can be gained at all, if the piece is printed and published 
 as a book before being publicly performed. 
 
 74. With regard to the duration of copyright in dramatic pieces, 
 and musical compositions, we recommend that both the performing 
 right and the literary right should be the same as for books. 
 
 75. We further propose, in order to avoid the disunion between 
 the literary and the performing rights in musical compositions and 
 dramatic pieces, that the printed publication of such works should 
 give dramatic or performing rights, and that public performance 
 should give literary copyright. For a similar reason it would be de- 
 sirable that the author of the words of songs, as distinguished from 
 the music, should have no copyright in representation or publication 
 with the music, except by special agreement. 
 
 Dramatization of Novels. 
 
 76. With reference to the drama, our attention has been directed 
 to a practice, now very common, of taking a novel and turning its
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 23 1 
 
 contents into a play for stage purposes, without the consent of the 
 author or owner of the copyright. The same thing may be done 
 with works of other kinds if adapted for the purpose, but inasmuch 
 as novels are more suitable for this practice than other works, the 
 practice has acquired the designation of dramatization of novels. 
 The extent to which novels may be used for this purpose varies. 
 Stories have been written in a form adapted to stage representation 
 almost without change ; sometimes certain parts and passages of 
 novels are put bodily into the play, while the bulk of the play is origi- 
 nal matter ; and at other times the plot of the novel is taken as the 
 basis of a play, the dialogue being altogether original. 
 
 77. Whatever may be the precise form of the dramatization, the 
 practice has given rise to much complaint, and considerable loss, 
 both in money and reputation, is alleged to have been inflicted upon 
 novelists. The author's pecuniary injury consists in his failing to 
 obtain the profit he might receive if dramatization could not take 
 place without his consent. He may be injured in reputation if an 
 erroneous impression is given of his book. 
 
 78. In addition to these complaints it has been pressed upon us 
 that it is only just that an author should be entitled to the full 
 amount of profit which he can derive from his own creation ; — that 
 the product of a man's brain ought to be his own for all purposes ; — 
 and that it is unjust, when he has expended his invention and labor 
 in the composition of a story, that another man should be able to 
 reap part of the harvest. 
 
 79. On the other hand, it has been argued that the principle of 
 copyright does not prevent the free use of the ideas contained in the 
 original work, though it protects the special form in which those 
 ideas are embodied ; — that a change in the existing law would lead 
 to endless litigation ; — and that it would work to the disadvantage 
 both of the author and the public. Upon these grounds, or some of 
 them, a bill, introduced by Lord Lyttleton in 1866 and supported by 
 Lord Stanhope, was defeated. 
 
 80. We have fully considered all these points, and have come to 
 the conclusion that the right of dramatizing a novel or other work 
 should be reserved to the author. This change would assimilate our 
 law to that of France and the United States, where the author's 
 right in this respect is fully protected. 
 
 81. Were this recommendation adopted, a further question would 
 arise, as to the time during which this right should be vested in the
 
 232 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 author, and, in the event of his not choosing to dramatize his novel, 
 whether other persons should be debarred from making use of the 
 story he has given to the world. We are disposed to think that the 
 right of dramatization should be co-extensive with the copyright. It 
 has been suggested, in the interest of the public, that a term, say of 
 three or five years, or even more, should be allowed to the author 
 within which he should have the sole right to dramatize his novel, 
 and that it should be then open to any one to dramatize it. The 
 benefit, however, to the public in having a story represented on the 
 stage does not appear to us to be sufficient to outweigh the con- 
 venience of making the right of dramatizing uniform in its incidents 
 
 with other copyright. 
 
 Lectures. 
 
 82. Lectures are peculiar in their character, and differ from books, 
 inasmuch as, though they are made public by delivery, they have 
 not necessarily a visible form capable of being copied. Nevertheless 
 it has been thought right by the legislature in recent years to afford 
 them the protection of copyright, and, considering the valuable 
 character of many lectures, it is our opinion that such protection 
 should not only be continued, subject to certain changes in the law, 
 but extended. Although lectures are not always capable of being 
 copied, because not reduced to writing, many lectures written for 
 the purpose of delivery are not published, and many are written 
 that the matter of them may be preserved, or that they may be capa- 
 ble of delivery in the same form on other occasions. Moreover, 
 lectures, though not put in writing by the author, may be taken 
 down in shorthand, and thus published or re-delivered by other per- 
 sons. The present Act of Parliament, which gives copyright in 
 lectures, seems only to contemplate one kind of copyright, namely, 
 that of printed publication, whereas it is obvious that for their entire 
 protection lectures require copyright of two kinds, the one to protect 
 them from printed publication by unauthorized persons, the other to 
 protect them from re-delivery. 
 
 83. The present law is that the author of any lecture, or his as- 
 signee, may reserve to himself the sole right of publishing it, by 
 giving two days' notice of the intended delivery to two justices of the 
 peace living within five miles from the place where the lecture is to 
 be delivered, unless the lecture is delivered in any university, public 
 school, or college, or on any public foundation, or by any person in 
 virtue of or according to any gift, endowment, or foundation, in
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 233 
 
 which cases no copyright is given on any condition. If any person 
 obtains a copy of a protected lecture by taking it down, and publishes 
 it without the leave of the author, or sells copies, he is to forfeit the 
 copies, and id. for every sheet found in his custody. This law is 
 designed merely to prevent unauthorized publication of lectures by 
 printing, but as has been observed it does not prohibit unauthorized 
 re-delivery. 
 
 84. We think that the author's copyright should extend to prevent 
 re-delivery of a lecture without leave as well as publication by print- 
 ing, though this prohibition, as to re-delivery, should not extend to 
 lectures which have been printed and published. We also recom- 
 mend that the term of copyright in lectures should be the same as in 
 books, namely, the life of the author and 30 years after his death. 
 
 85. In the course of our inquiry it has been remarked that, in the 
 case of popular lectures, it is the practice of newspaper proprietors 
 to send reporters to take notes of the lectures for publication in their 
 newspapers, and that, unless this practice is protected, it will become 
 unlawful. It does not seem to us desirable that this practice should 
 be prevented, but on the other hand the author's copyright should 
 not in any way be prejudiced by his lectures being reported in a 
 newspaper. The author should have some sort of control so as to 
 prevent such publication if he wishes to do so ; and we therefore 
 suggest that though the author should have the sole right of publica- 
 tion, he should be presumed to give permission to newspaper pro- 
 prietors to take notes and report his lecture, unless, before or at the 
 time when the lecture is delivered, he gives notice that he prohibits 
 reporting. 
 
 86. By the present law, as above stated, a condition is imposed of 
 giving notice to two justices. Without entering into the origin of 
 this provision we find that it is little known and probably never or 
 very seldom acted upon ; so that the statutory copyright is practically 
 never or seldom acquired. We therefore suggest, that this provision 
 should be omitted from any future law. 
 
 87. We do not suggest any interference with the exception made 
 in the Act as to lectures delivered in universities and elsewhere, 
 wherein no statutory copyright can be acquired. 
 
 Newspapers. 
 
 88. Much doubt appears to exist in consequence of several con- 
 flicting legal decisions whether there is any copyright in newspapers.
 
 234 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 We think it right to draw Your Majesty's attention to the defect, 
 and to suggest that in any future legislation, it may be remedied by 
 denning what parts of a newspaper may be considered copyright, by 
 distinguishing between announcements of facts and communications 
 of a literary character. 
 
 Fine Arts. 
 
 89. The next subjects for our consideration were the various 
 branches of the fine arts, consisting of engravings and works of that 
 class, paintings, drawings, and photographs, and lastly, sculpture. 
 
 90. It might be supposed that the law relating to engravings, 
 etchings, prints, lithographs, paintings, drawings, and photographs 
 would be the same so far as those matters are capable of being reg- 
 ulated by the same law ; but such is not the case. Until the 25th 
 and 26th years of Your Majesty's reign, there was no Act of Parlia- 
 ment by which copyright was given for paintings, drawings, and 
 photographs, while engravings, etchings, and prints were protected 
 so long ago as the eighth year of the reign of His late Majesty King 
 George II. Though engravings, etchings, and prints were thus pro- 
 vided for, a doubt arose in process of time whether the Acts then in 
 force would apply to lithographs and other recently invented modes 
 of printing pictures, and it was therefore declared, by an Act passed 
 in the 15th and 16th years of Your Majesty's reign, that the earlier 
 Acts were intended to include prints taken by lithography or any 
 other mechanical process by which prints or impressions of draw- 
 ings or designs are capable of being multiplied indefinitely. It 
 might be questioned whether the language of this Act would not 
 embrace photography, but it seems to have been assumed that it 
 would not, for in the 25th and 26th years of Your Majesty's reign, 
 an Act was passed to give copyright in paintings, drawings, and 
 photographs, and the right thus given was placed on an entirely 
 different footing and made subject to different conditions from those 
 to which engravings, etchings, lithographs, and prints are sub- 
 ject. 
 
 91. There is at present great diversity in the law as to the dura- 
 tion of copyright in works of fine art. For engravings and similar 
 works the term is 28 years from publication ; for paintings, draw- 
 ings, and photographs, the life of the artist and seven years ; and 
 for sculpture 14 years from the first putting forth or publication of 
 the work, and if the sculptor is living at the end of that time, for a
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 235 
 
 second term of 14 years. We do not think it desirable that these 
 distinctions should continue. 
 
 92. We understand that the reason for making the term in the 
 case of paintings the life of the artist and seven years, was to avoid 
 the necessity of proving the date of publication, which is, it is said, 
 in the case of a painting frequently impossible. There would be 
 equal difficulty, it is reasonable to suppose, in proving the date of 
 publication of sculpture, and we have already shown that it exists, 
 to a minor degree, in the case of all literary works. We think it 
 desirable as far as possible to get rid of this difficulty. By adopting 
 as the term the life of the artist and a certain time after death, the 
 result will be attained. 
 
 93. Sculpture, though a branch of the fine arts, is essentially dif- 
 ferent in many points from paintings, engravings, and works of that 
 class ; nevertheless we purpose to deal with them concurrently, so 
 far as the subjects permit. 
 
 94. It will have been observed that wherever it is possible to place 
 on the same footing the various subjects of copyright of which we 
 have treated in the earlier part of this Report, we have recommended 
 that the law should be assimilated ; we propose that all the subjects 
 of fine art shall be dealt with on the same principle so far as they 
 are capable of that treatment. 
 
 95. We therefore propose that the term of copyright for all works 
 of fine art, other than photographs, shall be the same as for books, 
 music, and the drama, namely, the life of the artist and 30 years 
 after his death. 
 
 96. We further recommend that it should be open equally to sub- 
 jects of Your Majesty and aliens to obtain copyright in works of fine 
 art, but aliens, unless domiciled in Your Majesty's dominions, should 
 only be entitled to copyright for works first published in those 
 dominions. 
 
 Sculpture. 
 
 97. As to sculpture we have had to consider by what acts the 
 sculptor's copyright ought to be deemed to have been infringed. 
 Sculpture may be copied in various ways, not only by sculpture and 
 casting, but by engraving, drawing, and photography ; and since 
 the rise of photography, the copying of sculpture by that means has 
 become a considerable business. The question has therefore been 
 brought before us whether copying by other means than sculpture 
 or casting ought not to be considered piracy.
 
 236 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 98. A material item in the consideration of this question is the 
 injury likely to be inflicted on the sculptor. The principal witness 
 on this point, Mr. Woolner, R.A., though he thought that the pho- 
 tographing of sculpture would probably operate rather as an adver- 
 tisement in the sculptor's favor than to his detriment, expressed a 
 wish that the law should give a sculptor protection against copying 
 by means of drawing or engraving ; and he was of opinion that 
 incorrect copying by drawing or engraving might be very prejudicial 
 to the sculptor's reputation. But besides this, there is the question 
 whether a sculptor ought not to be entitled to any profit to be made 
 by allowing his works to be photographed or otherwise copied. 
 
 99. Upon the whole we are disposed to think that eveiy form of 
 copy, whether by sculpture, modeling, photography, drawing, en- 
 graving, or otherwise, should be included in the protection of copy- 
 right. It might be provided that the copying of a scene in which a 
 piece of sculpture happened to form an object should not be deemed 
 an infringement, unless the sculpture should be the principal object, 
 or unless the chief purpose of the picture should be to exhibit the 
 sculpture. 
 
 100. It was also suggested that copyists of antique works ought to 
 be protected by copyright so far as their own copies are concerned. 
 Many persons spend months in copying ancient statues, and the 
 copies become as valuable to the sculptors as if they were original 
 works. It may be doubted whether the case does not already fall 
 within the Sculpture Act, but we recommend that such doubts should 
 be removed, and, that sculptors who copy from statues in which no 
 copyright exists should have copyright in their own copies. Such 
 copyright should not, of course, extend to prevent other persons 
 making copies of the original work. 
 
 Paintings. — Assignment of Copyright on Sale of Pictures. 
 
 101. The most difficult question with relation to fine arts which 
 we have had to consider, is to whom the copyright should belong on 
 sale of a painting ; whether to the artist or to the purchaser of the 
 picture. 
 
 102. The present law on the subject is as follows : — The author 
 of every original painting, drawing, and photograph, and his assigns, 
 have the sole right of copying, engraving, and reproducing it, unless 
 it be sold or made for a good or valuable consideration, in which 
 case the artist cannot retain the copyright, unless it be expressly
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 237 
 
 reserved to him by agreement in writing, signed by the vendee, or 
 by the person for whom the work was executed ; but the copyright, 
 in the absence of such agreement, belongs to the vendee or such 
 other person ; but it is also provided that a vendee or assignee can- 
 not get the copyright unless at the time of the sale an agreement in 
 writing signed by the artist or person selling is made to that effect. 
 The result is, that if an artist sells a picture without having the 
 copyright reserved to him by written agreement he loses it, but it 
 does not vest in the purchaser unless there is an agreement signed in 
 his favor. If, therefore, there is no agreement in writing— a very 
 frequent occurrence — the copyright is altogether lost on a sale, but 
 if the picture is painted on commission, instead of being sold after 
 being painted, the copyright in the absence of any agreement vests 
 in the person for whom the picture is painted. 
 
 103. We have taken a good deal of evidence with regard to this 
 matter. It appears that the provision as to pictures painted on com- 
 mission was made to prevent the unauthorized copying of portraits. 
 Some difficulty, however, is said to have arisen in determining whether 
 an order or a purchase is a commission, so as to bring the picture 
 within such provision. 
 
 104. With regard to the general question whether the copyright in 
 a picture should in every case remain with the artist unless expressly 
 sold, or whether it should follow the picture unless expressly retained, 
 the artists as a body are unanimous in their desire to have the copy- 
 right reserved to them by law. 
 
 105. It is true that if under the present law an artist wishes to 
 retain the copyright, he can do so by an express stipulation embodied 
 in an agreement signed by the purchaser. Artists, however, say that 
 this is practically useless, since the purchaser would look upon a 
 proposal for such an agreement as intended to deprive him of part 
 of the value of his purchase. They therefore seldom ask for agree- 
 ments, preferring that the copyright shall drop. In that case any 
 person who can gain access to a valuable picture may make and sell 
 copies of it in defiance of both artist and owner. 
 
 106. It is clearly undesirable that copyrights, which are in many 
 cases of great value, should be in this way left free to piracy. The 
 law, therefore, should distinctly define to whom, in the absence of 
 an agreement, the copyright should belong. 
 
 107. In dealing with these questions we have had regard not only 
 to the artist's claims which have been strongly advocated before us,
 
 238 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 but also to the interests of the public, and to the consideration 
 whether any distinction should be made between pictures sold after 
 being painted and pictures painted on commission, or between por- 
 traits and other pictures. 
 
 108. First, as to portraits as distinguished from other pictures. 
 Although artists contend that the copyright in pictures should belong 
 to them notwithstanding a sale, it is admitted by some that an excep- 
 tion to the general rule might be made in the case of portraits, and 
 that copyright in them might properly belong to the purchaser or 
 person giving a commission. The evidence appears to us to prove, 
 first, that the reasons why the copyright in portraits should belong 
 to the person ordering the painting apply equally to other pictures ; 
 and, secondly, that it is by no means easy to say what a portrait is. 
 Thus it is open to question whether the word would include the portrait 
 of an animal, a dog, for instance, and if so, whether it would include 
 a number of dogs, or a pack of hounds ; or a picture of a house or 
 a room, or any object without life ; and further whether it is to 
 include pictures of persons taken in character, not so much for the 
 sake of the portrait of the person, as for the sake of the scene ; and, 
 lastly, whether it is to include pictures of persons forming large 
 groups, where the scene is the object of the work, though the pict- 
 ures of the persons present are portraits. 
 
 109. These difficulties lead us on the whole to doubt the expedi- 
 ency of drawing any distinction between portraits and other pictures. 
 
 110. Secondly, as to making a distinction between pictures painted 
 on commission and others. We are here met with the difficulty of 
 defining what is a commission ; and looking to the evidence upon 
 this point we have arrived at the conclusion that no distinction can 
 practically be made. 
 
 in. The only question that remains, therefore, on this branch of 
 our inquiry is, whether the copyright in a picture when sold, should 
 still be vested in the artist, independently of the property in the 
 picture, or whether, unless expressly reserved, it should follow the 
 ownership of the picture. 
 
 112. The evidence shows that persons buying pictures do not in 
 general think about the copyright, but that if the subject happens to 
 be mentioned, they are generally under the impression that the copy- 
 right is included in the purchase, and are astonished if they are told 
 that it is not. It is said that owing to this fact an artist, however 
 eminent, when he is selling a picture, shrinks from mentioning the
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 239 
 
 copyright and asking for an agreement to enable him to retain it ; 
 he usually prefers that the copyright should be absolutely lost to both 
 parties, as in the absence of any written agreement it would be, 
 under the first section of the Act which was passed in the 25th and 
 26th years of Your Majesty's reign (c. 68), than that the purchaser 
 should think that he is losing a valuable part of his bargain, and 
 consequently should decline to complete the purchase. 
 
 113. The principal reason why artists wish to retain the copyright 
 is to keep control over the engraver and photographer. To artists 
 no doubt this control is a matter of considerable pecuniary value, 
 but they urge that they not only wish to control engraving in 
 order to get the payment from the engraver, but chiefly to prevent 
 inferior engraving, which they consider prejudicial to their reputa- 
 tion. It is admitted that if a picture is sold, the artist would have 
 no power to get it engraved when it is in the possession of the pur- 
 chaser, except by his consent, and artists are willing that this should 
 continue to be the case ; but if this power of preventing engraving 
 is so valuable, it is not easy to see why they should hesitate to 
 explain the law to the purchaser and offer to let him have the copy- 
 right if he will preserve the picture from inferior engraving, rather 
 than let the copyright be lost both to artist and purchaser. 
 
 114. This difficulty does not, we may observe, arise in sales to 
 publishers, who, as a rule, purchase for the purpose of engraving, 
 and therefore buy the copyright. 
 
 115. Upon the whole, then, the majority of us have arrived at the 
 conclusion, that, in the absence of a written agreement to the con- 
 trary, the copyright in a picture should belong to the purchaser, or 
 the person for whom it is painted, and follow the ownership of the 
 picture. We may observe that this conclusion, though differing 
 from the Bill of 1862 as originally drawn, and from a draft Bill of 
 1864, is in accordance with the provisions of the Fine Arts Bill of 
 1869, which we learn from Mr. Blaine's report was "prepared by 
 direction of the Council of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, 
 and Commerce, in consequence of a memorial having been pre- 
 sented to the Council by a considerable number of the most emi- 
 nent artists and publishers resident in London." It is further sub- 
 stantially the same as the first section of the existing Act of 1862, 
 except as to the concluding provision in that section, which enacts 
 that the vendee cannot have the copyright unless an agreement to 
 that effect is made in writing. This proviso was apparently added
 
 240 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 to the Bill without sufficient consideration, during its progress 
 through Parliament. 
 
 116. Upon this part of the case we may here refer to a question 
 that has been brought under our notice, namely, whether an artist 
 who has sold a picture should be allowed, without the consent of the 
 owner, to make replicas of it, or whether, as has been suggested, a 
 distinction should be made between replicas made by the artist and 
 copies made by others than the artist. We are not, however, 
 inclined to recognize any distinction ; nor indeed, so far at all events 
 as replicas in the same material are concerned, does it appear to be 
 supported by artists. 
 
 117. Though in the preceding paragraphs we have spoken only of 
 paintings, the law is the same as to drawings and photographs ; and 
 we think that, whatever changes may be made in the law as to paint- 
 ings, the same should be made with regard to drawings. 
 
 118. Photographs, however, present some difficulty. At the pres- 
 ent time they are coupled by Act of Parliament with paintings and 
 drawings, and are subject to the same law, but, as we have before 
 pointed out, we believe this circumstance arose merely from the fact 
 that before the year 1862, when the Act was passed, there was no 
 copyright protection afforded by the law for either of these subjects, 
 and it was then thought right that photographs should be protected 
 as well as other works of art. On consideration, however, it will be 
 seen that photographs are essentially different from paintings and 
 drawings, inasmuch as they more nearly resemble engravings and 
 works of a mechanical nature, by which copies of pictures are multi- 
 plied indefinitely. 
 
 119. We propose that the term of copyright in photographs should 
 be 30 years from the date of publication, except when originally pub- 
 lished as part of a book. In the latter case it should be for the term 
 of copyright in the book. 
 
 120. But the point upon which we feel difficulty is, whether the 
 copyright should be assimilated to that in paintings and pass to a 
 purchaser, or whether it should remain with the photographer. 
 When photographs are taken with a view to copies being sold in 
 large numbers, it is practically impossible that the copyright in the 
 negative should pass to each purchaser of a copy, and it must remain 
 with the photographer, or cease to exist. On the other hand the 
 same reasons exist for vesting the copyright of portraits in the pur- 
 chaser or person for whom they are taken, as in the case of a paint-
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 24 1 
 
 ing. Indeed, considering the facility of multiplying copies, and the 
 tendency among photographers to exhibit the portraits of distin- 
 guished persons in shop windows, it may be thought that there is 
 even greater reason for giving the persons whose portraits are taken 
 the control over the multiplication of copies than there is in the case 
 of a painting. It therefore becomes a question whether it is not 
 necessary to make that distinction between photographs that are por- 
 traits and those that are not, and between photographs taken on 
 commission and those taken otherwise, which we have deprecated in 
 the case of paintings. 
 
 121. We suggest that the copyright in a photograph should belong 
 to the proprietor of the negative, but, in the case of photographs 
 taken on commission, we recommend that no copies be sold or ex- 
 hibited without the sanction of the person who ordered them. 
 
 122. The same questions arise with respect to engravings, litho- 
 graphs, prints, and similar works. These arts, like photography, 
 may be employed for the purpose of issuing a large number of copies 
 of a picture, or merely for the purpose of executing a commission 
 and printing a few copies, of a portrait for instance, for private dis- 
 tribution by the person giving a commission among his friends. We 
 think, therefore, that so far as regards the transfer and vesting of the 
 copyright these arts should be placed upon the same basis as photog- 
 raphy. 
 
 123. Before leaving the subject of the fine arts, we wish to notice 
 one other matter as to which artists say the law is disadvantageous 
 to them. Before an artist paints a picture, he frequently finds it 
 necessary to make a number of sketches or studies, which, grouped 
 together, make up the picture in its finished state. These works 
 may be studies expressly made for the picture about to be painted, 
 or they may be sketches which have been made at various times, and 
 kept as materials for future pictures. If, after a picture is so com- 
 posed, the copyright is sold, the artists are afraid that they are pre- 
 vented from again using or selling the same studies and sketches, as 
 they have been advised that such user or sale would be an infringe- 
 ment of the copyright they have sold. 
 
 124. It may be doubted whether this fear is well founded, but as 
 the use of such studies and sketches as we have described could not, 
 in our opinion, result in any real injury to the copyright owner, who 
 has copies of them in his picture in a more or less altered shape, and 
 combined with other independent work, we think the doubt should 
 
 16
 
 242 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 be removed, and that the author of any work of fine art, even though 
 he may have parted with the copyright therein, should be allowed to 
 sell or use again his bond fide sketches and studies for such works 
 and compositions, provided that he does not repeat or colorably 
 imitate the design of the original work. We may observe that a pro- 
 vision to this effect was inserted in the Copyright Bill which was 
 introduced by Lord Westbury in 1869. 
 
 Architecture. 
 
 125. In the course of our inquiry we received an application from 
 the Royal Institute of British Architects, that a representative of the 
 Institute might bring before us a grievance under which architects 
 considered themselves to suffer. Mr. Charles Barry, the president, 
 attended, and after reading to us a copy of a petition on the subject, 
 which had been presented to the House of Lords in the year 1869, 
 and some other papers which will be found in the evidence, con- 
 tended that architects were subjected to great injustice and injury 
 through their designs not having the protection of copyright, so as 
 to prevent them being used by other persons than the author for 
 building purposes ; and some instances of hardship were given. 
 
 126. He suggested that the right to reproduce a building should 
 be reserved to the architect for 20 years, and this whether reproduc- 
 tion were desired on the same scale or a different one, or in whole or 
 in part, and whether by the person who gave the commission or any 
 other ; and further that copyright in architectural designs should be 
 reserved to the author from the date of erection of a building or the 
 sale of the design. 
 
 127. We are satisfied, as regards the former suggestion, that it 
 would be impracticable to reserve this right to reproduce a building. 
 With regard to the latter suggestion, we may observe that though 
 architectural designs have no protection as designs, they are, in our 
 opinion, protected as drawings by the Fine Arts Act, passed in the 
 25th and 26th years of Your Majesty's reign, so that they may not 
 be copied on paper ; and we think that such protection should be 
 preserved. 
 
 Registration of Copyright and Deposit of Copies. 
 
 128. In the early part of our Report we referred to the existing 
 law respecting registration. It affords one of the most striking
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 243 
 
 instances of those anomalies and distinctions which have grown 
 up in the law of copyright, because the various subjects of the copy- 
 right law have been dealt with by the legislature at different times, 
 and because there has been no attempt made to bring them into har- 
 mony. 
 
 129. We would first draw attention to the deposit, or presentation 
 of copies of books to various public libraries. 
 
 130. By the present law a copy of the first edition, and of every 
 subsequent edition containing additions and alterations, of every book 
 published in any part of Your Majesty's dominions, must be delivered 
 at the British Museum gratuitously, within a certain time after pub- 
 lication ; and in default of such delivery the publisher is subject to 
 penalties. There are four other libraries which have a right, on 
 demand, to receive copies of every edition of every book, but to these 
 special cases we shall hereafter have occasion to refer. No such 
 deposit or presentation is required in the case of musical composi- 
 tions or dramatic pieces publicly performed, unless printed and pub- 
 lished, or in the case of lectures publicly delivered unless printed and 
 published, or in the case of engravings and similar works, or of paint- 
 ings, drawings, or photographs. 
 
 131. In every c?sw for which registration is provided, except that 
 of sculpture, it is effected at the Hall of the Stationers' Company, 
 by an officer of the company called the Registrar of Copyright. 
 Sculpture is not registered at Stationers' Hall, but, under the Copy- 
 right in Designs Acts, was, until recently, registered, if at all, by the 
 Registrar of Designs. Since the abolition of the office for registra- 
 tion of designs as a separate paid office, sculpture has been registered 
 under arrangements made by the Commissioners of Patents. We 
 ought here to mention that under the International Copyright Act, 
 to which we shall hereafter more particularly allude, copyright in 
 foreign works is in all cases, including sculpture, registered at Sta- 
 tioners' Hall, and that by the same Act registration is made compul- 
 sory for works of those classes which, if British, are not required to 
 be registered, and for which no domestic provision for registration 
 exists. 
 
 132. By the present law, registration of books and works included 
 by Act of Parliament in that term, is optional, but no action can be 
 maintained for infringement of copyright until they have been regis- 
 tered. After registration, however, actions will lie for antecedent 
 infringement. The principle of the law, therefore, is, that copyright 
 
 16
 
 244 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 attaches upon production and publication, and that registration is 
 only a legal preliminary to the enforcement of the right against a 
 wrongdoer. The law, as will hereafter be seen, differs in regard to 
 other works ; but at present we confine our remarks to books. 
 
 133- We do not consider this state of the law satisfactory. We 
 find that, as a matter of fact, few books are registered until the 
 copyright has been infringed, and though the words " Entered at 
 Stationers' Hall " are frequently to be seen on the title-pages of 
 books, or on the outer sheets of music, entries are not generally 
 made. 
 
 134. Several objections have been urged to this state of things. 
 One is, that if it be the object of registration to define the extent and 
 the duration of a right, as well as to ascertain to whom the right 
 belongs, a law which leaves it open to all concerned to avoid that 
 very definiteness which the law seeks to impose, is clearly unsatis- 
 factory. Under the present system it is impossible to ascertain when 
 the term of copyright in a particular book commenced, and therefore 
 to know when it ends. And lastly, it is rendered uncertain whether 
 an author intends to insist upon his copyright at all. 
 
 135. The remedies which have been proposed to us are either the 
 total abolition of registration, or that it should be made compulsory, 
 systematic, and efficient. 
 
 136. Those persons who suggest the abolition of registration have 
 argued that it is of no practical utility ; — that it cannot, as in the case 
 of shares, ships, or land, be conclusive evidence of title ; — that it 
 cannot prove that the book registered was written by the person who 
 registers it, or that it is not a piracy ; — and that the owner can assert 
 and prove his right quite as well by extrinsic evidence as by means 
 of a register. Those, on the other hand, who advocate registration, 
 say that it is a useful system, because copyright is a species of in- 
 corporeal property, of which some visible evidence of existence is 
 desirable ; — that it may on occasions be a matter of public utility to 
 know to whom certain books belong, and that by means of regis- 
 tration the public are enabled to ascertain the fact, and whether 
 copyright in a book does exist. They argue further that another 
 advantage which can and ought to be derived from registration is 
 that the register might be made conclusive evidence of transfer or 
 devolution of title ; — and that it would afford to the country a com- 
 plete list of all literary works brought out in this country. It is 
 also said to be very probable that in the absence of registration
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 245 
 
 English authors might find it difficult to enforce their rights in other 
 countries. It is admitted to be a convenience to an author to be 
 able, under an international copyright convention, to produce as 
 evidence a copy of the register, instead of being obliged to prove by 
 witnesses his authorship and right. 
 
 137. We are satisfied that registration under the present system 
 is practically useless, if not deceptive. Great annoyance is caused 
 to persons who are obliged to resort to the register, whether for the 
 purpose of registering works or of searching for entries, by the mode 
 in which the register is kept. In stating this we do not desire to 
 express any censure upon the gentleman who holds the office of 
 registrar. Our censure is intended to apply to the system in force, 
 and the law which orders, or at least sanctions it. Moreover, in our 
 opinion the fees are unnecessarily high. 
 
 138. We have been satisfied by the arguments in favor of regis- 
 tration that it is advisable to insist upon it, and that it should be 
 made more effective and complete. To this end it should be made 
 compulsory. 
 
 139. Before we refer to the several modes by which it has been 
 suggested to us that registration may be made compulsory, it will 
 be convenient to call attention to the system of registration now in 
 force. 
 
 140. The existing regulations as to registration at Stationers' Hall 
 are contained in the Copyright Act which was passed in the 5th and 
 6th years of Your Majesty's reign. By that Act a book of registry, 
 wherein may be registered the proprietorship in the copyright of 
 books and assignments thereof, and in dramatic and musical pieces, 
 whether in manuscript or otherwise, and licenses affecting such copy- 
 right, is to be kept at the Hall of the Stationers' Company by an 
 officer appointed by the company for that purpose. The register 
 is to be open at all convenient times for inspection on payment of 
 is. for every entry searched for or inspected, and certified copies 
 of entries maybe obtained on payment of 5^., such copies being 
 made primd facie evidence of certain specified matters in all courts. 
 To make a false entry, or to tender in evidence a fictitious copy, is 
 a misdemeanor. Any proprietor of copyright in a book may enter 
 in the register, in a specified form the title of the book, the time of 
 first publication, the names and places of abode of the publisher and 
 proprietor of the copyright, or of any portion of the copyright : a 
 fee of 5.f. is payable on registering a book, and on payment of a
 
 246 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 similar sum any copyright may be assigned by the proprietor by 
 making an entry of the assignment in the register. In case of error 
 in the register, power is vested in Your Majesty's High Court of 
 Justice to order a correction to be made. With regard to the regis- 
 trar, he, by the terms of the Act, is appointed by the Stationers' 
 Company. There is no power of dismissal given, but possibly the 
 Company have a power of dismissal for reasonable cause. It seems 
 doubtful whether the appointment is for life, or whether it is annual, 
 but renewed as a matter of course ; but for all practical purposes 
 the appointment may be regarded as a life appointment. The 
 remuneration of the registrar is by means of the fees payable for 
 entries, certificates, assignments, and searches for entries of copy- 
 rights in the register. These fees wholly belong to the registrar, 
 and the Stationers' Company does not participate in them. 
 
 141. In the course of our inquiry we received many complaints of 
 a serious character from a number of witnesses against the present 
 system of registration, and the mode in which the register is managed 
 and the business conducted at Stationers' Hall. Great dissatisfaction 
 has also been expressed at the amount of the fees, but these it will 
 be remembered are fixed by the Act of Parliament. With regard to 
 the complaints relating to the conduct of the registration, we feel 
 bound to say that the registrar (whom we invited to come before us 
 a second time, if he desired to say anything in answer to the charges 
 made by the other witnesses) was able to give satisfactory answers 
 to many of the charges. Among others, complaints were made of 
 the ignorance displayed in the office by the officials there, and their 
 inability to answer questions put to them relating to copyright and 
 registration. These questions, however, in many cases appeared to 
 be of a legal and intricate character, and of such a kind that the 
 registrar and clerks could scarcely be expected to answer them, even 
 if it had been their duty to do so, upon which point we entertain 
 considerable doubt. 
 
 142. Complaints were also made of the inconvenience of the 
 Registration Office and the insufficiency of the space. After a care- 
 ful examination into these points, and a personal inspection of the 
 office by some of Your Majesty's Commissioners, we are satisfied 
 that the building is very inadequate for the purpose of the business 
 conducted there, and that it would become more so upon the intro- 
 duction of compulsory registration. Nor can there be any doubt 
 that the register itself is capable of considerable improvement.
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 247 
 
 143. With regard to the insufficiency of the office accommodation, 
 we were informed by the clerk to the Stationers' Company, that 
 should the legislature continue to intrust to them the duty of regis- 
 tration they would be willing in three or four years' time, when some 
 of their property adjacent to the present office will be pulled down, 
 to erect at their own expense suitable offices on an increased scale 
 and with proper accommodation. 
 
 144. It is only fair to the Stationers' Company to point out that 
 they have no power under the Act to make any regulations respect- 
 ing registration. If, therefore, registration be continued at Station- 
 ers' Hall, it would appear to be right that some power of control 
 should be vested in the Company by Parliament, and we believe that 
 they are ready to accept that power. 
 
 145. In order to provide an improved system of registration in 
 substitution for that now in use, it appears to us that the two acts of 
 registration and deposit of the copy of a book at or for the British 
 Museum should be combined ; or, in other words, that, so far as the 
 author is concerned, registration should be complete on the deposit 
 of the copy and on obtaining an official receipt. One advantage of 
 this would be a diminution of labor and expense, and the British 
 Museum would probably receive all copyright books without the 
 labor of hunting for them in booksellers' catalogues and advertise- 
 ments, as we are informed the officials are obliged to do under the 
 present system. Another advantage would be that the fees to be 
 paid for registration might be materially diminished. 
 
 146. The registration should be effected by the registrar appointed 
 for that purpose, whose duty it should be to receive the copy of the 
 book, to register the official receipt, and to give a copy thereof, cer- 
 tified by him, to the person depositing the book. This certified copy 
 should be a substitute for the certificate at present obtained, and it 
 should be prima facie evidence in courts of law of the publication 
 and due registration of the work, and of the title to the copyright of 
 the person named therein. 
 
 147. A fee of is. would in our opinion be ample, if registration 
 be made compulsory, to render the office of registration self-support- 
 ing. This is shown by the statistics as to the number of books and 
 other publications received at the British Museum, which will be 
 found in the Appendix to the Evidence of Mr. J. Winter Jones. There 
 might also be a fee of is. for searches. This, besides providing a 
 large revenue, would enable authors to obtain for is. both registra-
 
 248 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 tion and a certificate of registration of copyright, for each of which 
 5-f. is now charged. 
 
 148. We regard it as a mistake that the appointment of an officer for 
 so important a duty as that of registering rights affecting a vast num- 
 ber of persons, and the evidence of which ought to be under the con- 
 trol of the Government, should be vested in a private society. The 
 registers ought to be placed in such keeping that they may at all times 
 be treated as part of the public records, and the registrar ought to be 
 a person amenable to a Government department. The necessity for 
 this would be increased by the acceptance of our suggestion that 
 registration should be made compulsory. In any case the registry 
 and the registrar should be under Government direction and respon- 
 sible to Government. 
 
 149. Considering that a copy of each book has to be deposited at 
 the British Museum, — that at present the authorities of the Museum 
 have to give receipts for the works deposited and to keep certain 
 registers, — and that it is a part of our plan that the deposit of the 
 book and registration of the copyright should be combined, — it 
 appeared to us that the most appropriate place for the Registry Office 
 would be the British Museum, and that the officers of the registry, 
 whilst under the general control of the trustees of the Museum, 
 should be answerable to Government for the proper discharge of 
 their duties. We, therefore, put ourselves into communication with 
 the trustees, with a view of ascertaining their opinion on the point, 
 but they stated that they deemed it undesirable for the British Mu- 
 seum to undertake the duty, on the ground that registration of copy- 
 right is an executive function, and did not come within the sphere 
 of their duties as trustees of the British Museum. A copy of the 
 correspondence will be found in the Appendix and we cannot but 
 express our regret that the trustees declined to accede to our request 
 that one of their body should appear before us. It is probable that 
 a full explanation of our views and a personal discussion might have 
 removed the difficulties which they felt upon this point. 
 
 150. If registration of copyright should not be established at the 
 British Museum, it might be either retained at Stationer's Hall, or 
 removed to some Government office established for the purpose. It 
 is proper to state that the Stationers' Company seem desirous of 
 retaining the office, because their Hall has been the place for regis- 
 tration ever since registration was instituted ; and further that it has 
 been recognized as the place of registration in several international
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 249 
 
 conventions. In our opinion, however, the reasons in favor of trans- 
 ferring registration to a Government office preponderate. In either 
 case arrangements will have to be made for transferring to the Brit- 
 ish Museum the works which are deposited and registered else- 
 where. 
 
 151. It only remains for us to notice the means by which registra- 
 tion may be most easily rendered compulsory. Three ways have 
 been suggested to us in which this may be done : — 1. By making 
 registration on the date of publication a condition of an effective 
 copyright. 2. By inflicting a pecuniary penalty. 3. By giving the 
 owner a direct interest in registering his copyright. With reference 
 to the second suggestion, there is at present a pecuniary penalty for 
 failure to present books to the library of the British Museum, and it 
 is urged that it would be found sufficient for the purpose of compel- 
 ling registration ; but to this it is replied that little effect can be 
 expected in such a case as registration of copyright from a mere 
 penalty ; and also that a penalty would have to be enforced through 
 the medium of some Government office ; and that, independently of 
 the difficulty there would be in finding out books that had not been 
 registered, no Government office would willingly execute the task of 
 suing for penalties. With regard to the presentation of books to 
 the British Museum, the Museum has an interest in procuring the 
 books distinct from the matter of the penalty. 
 
 152. With the third suggestion we are inclined to agree ; and 
 although we are not disposed to advise the abolition of a penalty for 
 not delivering for the use of the British Museum a copy of every 
 book which has not been delivered and registered at Stationers' 
 Hall, or some Government place of registration, we think that com- 
 pulsory registration would be sufficiently secured by the third course 
 that has been suggested, namely, — that a copyright owner should 
 not be entitled to take or maintain any proceedings, or to recover 
 any penalty in respect of his copyright until he has registered, and 
 that he should in no case be able to proceed after registration for pre- 
 ceding acts of piracy. This is the present law in the case of paint- 
 ings, drawings, and photographs, and we see no reason why the 
 same law should not be applied to copyright in every other work that 
 has to be registered. 
 
 153. If this plan should be adopted, it becomes a question what 
 should happen after registration with regard to copies made before 
 registration. Were the copyright owner entitled upon registration
 
 250 THE QUESTION OE COPYRIGHT. 
 
 to suppress all such copies, the compulsory provisions of the law 
 would to a certain extent be neutralized, because it would be unnec- 
 essary for copyright owners to register until their works had been 
 copied. It has been urged, on the other hand, that if an unscrupu- 
 lous person should, after the expiration of the time allowed for regis- 
 tration, and before registration, publish a large number of copies, 
 the copyright owner would practically lose all the benefit of his 
 copyright if these copies were allowed to be sold and circulated after 
 registration. We think, however, that in practice this would not 
 occur. As a rule, registration would be effected immediately on pub- 
 lication, and before the work could be copied. 
 
 154. We therefore recommend that proprietors of copyright should 
 not be entitled to maintain any proceedings in respect of anything 
 made or done before registration, nor in respect of any dealings sub- 
 sequent to registration with things so made or done before registra- 
 tion. But as this provision might in some cases operate harshly, we 
 think it should not apply if registration is effected within a limited 
 time, say one month, after publication. 
 
 155. In making these remarks on the subject of registration, we 
 have referred only to books and works of a similar character, but we 
 intend them equally to apply, with one exception, to dramatic pieces 
 and musical compositions which are publicly performed but are not 
 printed and published. We have suggested that the acts of registra- 
 tion and deposit of a copy of the book should be combined, and 
 it is manifest that there could not conveniently be any deposit of a 
 copy of a work not printed ; we propose, therefore, that in these 
 cases it should be sufficient that the title of every drama or musi- 
 cal composition, with the name of the author or composer, and 
 the date and place of its first public performance, should be regis- 
 tered. 
 
 156. For the sake of uniformity we are of opinion that it is 
 desirable that the law of registration should, as far as possible, 
 be the same for works of fine art as for books, music, and the 
 drama. 
 
 157. It has, however, been strongly urged upon us that compulsory 
 registration in the case of paintings and drawings is practically 
 impossible ; and it would seem that the same arguments that are 
 used against compulsory registration in the case of paintings and 
 drawings apply equally to sculpture. There is no doubt a great dif- 
 ficulty in the way of compulsory registration of paintings and draw-
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 25 1 
 
 ings. This arises from the fact that the class of pictures to be regis 
 tered cannot be limited, and that if copyright in an important work 
 is only to be secured by registration, copyright in the smallest sketch 
 or study could only be preserved by the same means. Some diffi- 
 culty also arises from the fact that paintings, drawings, and sketches 
 are so frequently subjected to alteration that it would be almost 
 impossible to say when a work is finished so as to be capable of 
 registration as a completed work. 
 
 158. On these grounds, therefore, we recommend that registration 
 of paintings and drawings should not be insisted on so long as the 
 property in the picture and the copyright are vested in the same 
 person, but that if the copyright be separated by agreement from the 
 property in the picture, there should be compulsory registration, and 
 that the register should show, — 
 
 (a.) The date of the agreement. 
 
 (6.) The names of the parties thereto. 
 
 (V.) The names and places of abode of the artist and of the person 
 in whom the copyright is vested. 
 
 (d.) A short description of the nature and subject of the work, 
 and, if the person registering so desires, a sketch outline or 
 photograph of the work in addition thereto. 
 
 159. With regard to such works as engravings, prints, and photo- 
 graphs, there would not be the same difficulty, and we think that 
 they should be subject to compulsory registration in the same way as 
 books. 
 
 Forfeiture of Copies. 
 
 160. Before proceeding farther we may notice a provision of the 
 law which we consider of great value as a protection for owners of 
 copyright, and which we consider it desirable to retain. By the Act 
 which was passed in the 5th and 6th years of Your Majesty's reign 
 it is provided that all copies of any book in which there is copyright, 
 unlawfully printed or imported without the consent in writing under 
 his hand of the registered proprietor of the copyright, are to be 
 deemed to be the property of the registered proprietor of such copy- 
 right, and he may sue for and recover the same, with damages for 
 the detention thereof, from any person who detains them after a 
 demand thereof in writing. We recommend that this provision, 
 mutatis mutandis, should be extended to works of fine art. We
 
 252 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 think it would, however, be an improvement to provide that these 
 copies and damages might be summarily recovered by application to 
 a magistrate. 
 
 Public Libraries. 
 
 161. The subject which we have next to notice is the obligation 
 that now exists to present gratuitously copies of every book pub- 
 lished to certain public libraries. This obligation dates from the 
 reign of his Majesty King Charles II., and since that date it has 
 varied from time to time as regards the number of copies required to 
 be presented and the libraries entitled to them, the number of the 
 latter having at one time been as high as eleven. The Act by which 
 the present obligation was imposed is that which was passed in the 
 5th and 6th years of Your Majesty's reign. By that Act one copy 
 of every book published, and of every second or subsequent edition, 
 if any alterations or additions are contained therein, has to be de- 
 livered gratuitously by the publisher at the British Museum, and if 
 a demand be made in writing one copy has also to be delivered 
 gratuitously for the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the public library 
 at Cambridge, the library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh, 
 and the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Thus authors and pub- 
 lishers have now generally to provide five copies of each work, as 
 well as of second and subsequent editions, at their own cost for 
 public use. A slight difference is made between the cases of the 
 copies given to the British Museum and of those given to the other 
 libraries. In the former the copies have to be of the best kind pub- 
 lished, and in the latter the copies are to be upon the paper of which 
 the largest number of copies of the book or edition is printed for 
 sale ; and in the former the delivery is obligatory in every instance, 
 while in the latter it is only required if a demand be made. As a 
 matter of fact, however, copies of nearly every work of any impor- 
 tance are presented to all five libraries. 
 
 162. Many of the witnesses who have given evidence before us 
 have complained of this obligation as a heavy and unjust tax. The 
 weight of it, however, is hardly felt in the case of low-priced books, 
 or books of large circulation, though the gratuitous presentation of a 
 number of books of even small value involves a double loss to authors 
 and publishers, assuming that the libraries would each buy a copy, 
 were one not to be obtained without payment. The grievance is of 
 course most felt in the case of expensive works. Publishers com- 
 plain of the injustice of taxing them or the authors for the mainte-
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 253 
 
 nance of public libraries, and ask why the public, or the bodies to 
 be benefited, should not pay for the books they require. 
 
 163. When this complaint was made to us we communicated with 
 the authorities at the libraries other than the British Museum, in 
 order to ascertain the number of books obtained by them under the 
 Act, and the value they attached to their privilege. We obtained 
 replies from which it appears that a large number of the books pub- 
 lished are sent to these libraries, and that they are generally sent 
 without any demand being made for their delivery ; also that the 
 authorities regard the privilege as one of considerable value, which 
 they are not willing to part with. We have placed a copy of this 
 correspondence in the Appendix to the Evidence. 
 
 164. Having to decide between the authors and publishers on the 
 one hand, and the libraries on the other, we on the whole consider 
 that the complaint of the authors and publishers is well founded, and 
 we have come to the conclusion that so much of the existing law 
 relative to gratuitous presentation of books to libraries, as requires 
 copies of books to be given to libraries other than that of the British 
 Museum, should be repealed. In making this recommendation we 
 have taken into consideration the facts that the bodies to whom the 
 libraries belong are possessed of considerable means and are well 
 able to purchase any books which they may require ; and also that 
 the repeal of the clause giving the privilege, will not deprive the 
 libraries of any property already acquired, but merely of a right to 
 obtain property hereinafter to be created. 
 
 165. It will have been seen that we do not propose to interfere 
 with the obligation to deliver at the library of the British Museum a 
 copy of every book published, as it is a part of our scheme that 
 registration should be effected and copyright secured by the deposit 
 of a copy of the work for the public use. To this we think no rea- 
 sonable objection can be made. 
 
 166. We will only add that the importance of securing a national 
 collection of every literary work has been recognized in most of the 
 countries where there are copyright laws. And with a view to 
 make the collection in this country more perfect, we are disposed to 
 think that it would be desirable to require the deposit at the British 
 Museum of a copy of every newspaper published in the United 
 Kingdom. As a matter of fact, such newspapers are, we believe, 
 now deposited there, but a doubt has been raised whether that de- 
 posit could be enforced under the existing law.
 
 254 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Music and the Drama. — Penalties. 
 
 167. We have next to refer to a provision of the law which has of 
 late occasioned some dissatisfaction, and which, in our opinion, 
 needs revision. 
 
 168. By an Act of Parliament which was passed in the third year 
 of the reign of His late Majesty King William IV. (c. 15 , it was 
 enacted, with reference to dramatic copyright, that if any person 
 should, during the continuance of the sole liberty of representation 
 and contrary to the right of the author, or his assignee, represent or 
 cause to be represented, without the consent in writing of the pro- 
 prietor of the copyright first had and obtained, at any place of dra- 
 matic entertainment within the British dominions, any dramatic 
 piece, the offender should be liable, for each and every representation, 
 to the payment of an amount not less than 40^., or to the full 
 amount of the benefit or advantage arising from the representation, 
 or the injury or loss sustained by the proprietor of the copyright, 
 whichever should be the greater damages ; such sum to be recovered 
 together with double costs of suit by the proprietor. In the 20th 
 section of the Act, which was passed in the 5th and 6th years of 
 Your Majesty's reign (c. 45), it was recited that it was expedient to 
 extend to musical compositions the benefits of the earlier Act, and 
 it was enacted that the provisions of the earlier Act should apply to 
 musical compositions. 
 
 169. This provision for the 40J. penalty has lately^ been much 
 abused. Copyrights in favorite songs from operas and in other 
 works have been bought, and powers of attorney have been obtained 
 to act apparently for the owners of the copyright in such works, and 
 to claim immediate payment of 2/. for the performance of each song. 
 These songs are frequently selected by ladies and others for singing 
 at penny readings and village or charitable entertainments, and they 
 sing them not for their own gain, but for benevolent objects. In 
 such cases there is manifestly no intention to infringe the rights of 
 any person ; the performers are unconscious that they are infringing 
 such rights ; and no injury whatever can be inflicted on the proprie- 
 tors of the copyrights. In many cases of this kind, and under a 
 threat of legal proceedings in default of payment, the penalty has 
 been demanded, and we have reason to believe that the money so 
 demanded has been generally paid. Many instances of this pro- 
 ceeding have been brought to our notice from various parts of the 
 country, and some will be found in the evidence.
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 255 
 
 170. We have inquired whether the abolition of the right to take 
 proceedings for the performance of these single songs would inflict 
 injury on composers. The opinion seemed to be that though public 
 performance is generally advantageous to composers, since it oper- 
 ates as an advertisement of their works, it is necessary that copyright 
 owners should retain sufficient control to enable them to save their 
 music from inferior or unsuitable performance, which might give the 
 public an unfavorable opinion of their compositions. 
 
 171. The amendment in the law which we propose as most likely 
 to preserve control for the composers, and at the same time to check 
 the existing abuse, is that every musical composition should bear on 
 its title-page a note stating whether the right of public performance 
 is reserved, and the name and address of the person to whom appli- 
 cation for permission to perform is to be made. The owner of such 
 composition should only be entitled to recover damages for public 
 performance when such a statement has been made ; and instead of 
 the minimum penalty of not less than 40J. at present recoverable for 
 any infringement of musical copyright by representation, the court 
 should have power to award compensation according to the damage 
 sustained. 
 
 172. This abuse of the powers given by the Act does not seem to 
 have arisen in the case of dramatic copyright, nor does it seem likely 
 to arise so long as the present law of licensing places of dramatic 
 performance exists. We do not therefore suggest any alteration in 
 the law so far as it applies to that copyright. 
 
 Fine A rts. — Infringem en t. 
 
 173. Two matters relating to infringement of copyright in works of 
 fine art, but particularly of paintings, have been brought to our notice, 
 in which, it is alleged, the law affords an inadequate remedy. 
 
 174. First, by the 6th section of the Act which was passed in the 
 25th and 26th years of Your Majesty's reign (c. 68) it was enacted 
 that if any person should infringe copyright in any painting, drawing, 
 or photograph, he should be liable to a penalty of 10/. , and all the 
 piratical copies should be forfeited to the proprietor of the copy- 
 right. Artists and engravers, who are frequently proprietors of 
 copyright in paintings and drawings, consider the provision enabling 
 them to seize piratical copies to be of great value, but they say that 
 it is rendered inefficient by the fact that no power is given to enter a 
 house and search for copies. An instance was given to us where, a
 
 256 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 conviction for selling piratical copies having been obtained, the mag- 
 istrate had made an order that the copies should be delivered up, 
 but it was found that the order could not be enforced. 
 
 175. The only remedy suggested to meet the evil, is that proposed 
 in the Bill introduced into Parliament in the year 1869, but with- 
 drawn before it became law, and which runs as follows : — 
 
 " Upon proof on the oath of one credible person before any justice 
 of the peace, court, sheriff, or other person having jurisdiction in 
 any proceeding under this Act that there is reasonable cause to sus- 
 pect that any person has in his possession, or in any house, shop, or 
 other place for sale, hire, distribution or public exhibition any copy, 
 repetition or imitation of any work of fine art in which or in the de- 
 sign whereof there shall be subsisting and registered copyright under 
 the Act, and that such copy, repetition, or imitation has been made 
 without the consent in writing of the registered proprietor of such 
 copyright, it shall be lawful for such justice, court, sheriff or other 
 person as aforesaid before whom any such proceeding is taken, and 
 he or they is and are hereby required to grant his or their warrant to 
 search in the daytime such house, shop, or other place, and if any 
 such copy, repetition, or imitation, or any work which may be reason- 
 ably suspected to be such shall be found therein, to cause the same 
 to be brought before him or them, or before some other justice of 
 the peace, court, sheriff, or person as aforesaid, and upon proof that 
 any or every such copy, repetition, or imitation was unlawfully made, 
 the same shall thereupon be forfeited and delivered up to the registered 
 proprietor for the time being of the copyright as his property." 
 Though we should be glad to see some remedy adopted, we entertain 
 doubts whether that proposed is not of a more stringent character 
 than the circumstances justify. 
 
 176. The other matter relative to copyright in the fine arts, with 
 regard to which it is said the law is defective, arises out of the now 
 very common practice of hawking about the country piratical copies, 
 and particularly piratical photographs of copyright paintings and 
 engravings. This is spoken of as a serious injury to the copyright 
 proprietors, and a practice which the existing law is powerless to 
 stop. 
 
 177. At present all penalties and all copies forfeited can be re- 
 covered in England and Ireland only by action or by summary pro- 
 ceedings before justices, that is, by summoning the offending person 
 before the justices, and in Scotland by action before the Court of
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 257 
 
 Session, or by summary action before the sheriff. The complaint 
 made to us is that there is no power to seize piratical copies where 
 they are seen and when they might be taken. The power to pro- 
 ceed by summons is, it is said, generally ineffectual, because persons 
 selling these copies go round from house to house and refuse to give 
 either a name or address, and are altogether lost sight of before a 
 summons can be procured. 
 
 178. A remedy by seizure was proposed in the Bill of 1S69, and we 
 think that the evil can best be met by the introduction in any future 
 Act of a clause similar to the 15th of that Bill. The 15th clause was 
 as follows : — 
 
 " If any person elsewhere than at his own house, shop, or place of 
 business, shall hawk, carry about, offer, utter, distribute, or sell, or 
 keep for sale, hire, or distribution, any unlawful copy, repetition, or 
 colorable imitation of any work of fine art, in which, or in the de- 
 sign whereof, there shall be subsisting and registered copyright under 
 this Act, all such unlawful articles may be seized without warrant by 
 any peace officer, or the proprietor of the copyright, or any person 
 authorized by him, and forthwith taken before any justice of the 
 peace, court, sheriff, or other person having jurisdiction in any pro- 
 ceeding under this Act, and upon proof that such copies, repetitions, 
 or imitations were unlawfully made, they shall be forfeited and de- 
 livered up to the registered proprietor for the time being of the copy- 
 right as his property." 
 
 We think, however, that the words " carry about" might be prop- 
 erly omitted, as the other words are sufficiently large ; and further, 
 that it should not be in the power of the proprietor of the copyright, 
 or any person authorized by him, to seize, but that the clause should 
 run : " without warrant by any peace officer under the orders and 
 responsibility of the proprietor of the copyright or of any person 
 authorized," etc., 01 to that effect. 
 
 179. Besides providing penalties for various acts of infringement of 
 copyright, and for fraudulently marking pictures with the names or 
 marks of artists who are not the authors of them, which penalties we 
 think are sufficient for the purpose, the present law prohibits the im- 
 portation into the United Kingdom, except with the consent of the 
 proprietor, of all repetitions, copies, or imitations of paintings, draw- 
 ings or photographs in which there is copyright, which have been made 
 in any foreign state or in any other part of the British dominions 
 
 than the United Kingdom. We think it is desirable to retain this 
 17
 
 258 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 prohibition, and that a somewhat similar prohibition might properly 
 be extended to the exportation of unlawful repetitions, copies, and 
 imitations. 
 
 180. Whatever powers may be given to search for and seize piratical 
 copies of paintings, and whatever penalties may be established, the 
 same should be extended to sculpture and other works of fine art. 
 
 Piracy of Lectures. 
 
 181. We have already suggested some alterations in the law with 
 respect to lectures. In case of piracy either by publication or re- 
 delivery without the author's consent, we think there should be 
 penalties recoverable by summary process, and that the author should 
 be capable of recovering damages by action in case of serious injury, 
 and of obtaining an injunction to prevent printed publication or re- 
 delivery. If the piracy is committed by printed publication, we 
 think the author should also have power to seize copies. 
 
 COLONIAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 182. We have already shown that in some important respects the 
 state of the present copyright law, as regards the colonies, is anoma- 
 lous and unsatisfactory, and we have suggested that a remedy may be 
 found by providing that publication in any part of Your Majesty's 
 dominions shall secure copyright throughout those dominions. It is 
 unnecessary to recapitulate our reasons for making this suggestion, 
 and we will only add that the difficulties which may arise in arranging 
 the details of this change in the law, will not, we anticipate, be of a 
 serious character. 
 
 183. There remain, however, other questions of some difficulty 
 affecting the general body of readers in the colonies, with which we 
 now proceed to deal. 
 
 184. It must be admitted that it is highly desirable that the litera- 
 ture of this country should be placed within easy reach of the colonies, 
 and that with this view the Imperial Act should be modified, so as to 
 meet the requirements of colonial readers. 
 
 185. In this country the disadvantage arising from the custom of 
 publishing books in the first instance at a high price, is greatly less- 
 ened by the facilities afforded by means of clubs, book societies, and 
 circulating libraries. 
 
 186. These means are not available, and indeed are impracticable, 
 owing to the great distances and scattered population, in many of the
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 259 
 
 colonies, and until the cheaper English editions have been published 
 the colonial reader can only obtain English copyright books by pur- 
 chasing them at the high publishing prices, increased as those prices 
 necessarily are by the expense of carriage and other charges incidental 
 to the importation of the books from the United Kingdom. 
 
 187. Complaints of the operation of the Copyright Act of 1842 were 
 heard soon after it was passed, and from the North American prov- 
 inces urgent representations were made in favor of admitting into 
 those provinces the cheap United States reprints of English works. 
 In 1846 the Colonial Office and the Board of Trade admitted the 
 justice and force of the considerations which had been pressed upon 
 the Home Government, "as tending to show the injurious effects 
 produced upon our more distant colonists by the operation of the 
 Imperial law of copyright." And in 1847 an Act was passed " To 
 amend the law relating to the protection in the colonies of works 
 entitled to copyright in the United Kingdom." 
 
 188. The principle of this Act, commonly known as the Foreign 
 Reprints Act, is to enable the colonies to take advantage of reprints 
 of English copyright books made in foreign states, and at the same 
 time to protect the interests of British authors. 
 
 189. It is provided, " that in case the legislature, or proper legis- 
 lative authorities in any British possession, shall be disposed to make 
 due provision for securing or protecting the rights of British authors 
 in such possession, and shall pass an Act or make an ordinance for 
 that purpose, and shall transmit the same in the proper manner to 
 the Secretary of State, in order that it may be submitted to Her 
 Majesty, and in case Her Majesty shall be of opinion that such Act or 
 ordinance is sufficient for the purpose of securing to British authors 
 reasonable protection within such possession, it shall be lawful for 
 Her Majesty, if she think fit so to do, to express Her royal approval 
 of such Act or ordinance, and thereupon to issue an Order in Coun- 
 cil, declaring that so long as the provisions of such Act or ordinance 
 continue in force within such colony, the prohibitions contained in 
 the aforesaid Acts {i.e., the Copyright Act of 1842, and a certain 
 Customs Act), and hereinbefore recited, and any prohibitions con- 
 tained in the said Acts, or in any other Acts, against the importing, 
 selling, letting out to hire, exposing for sale or hire, or possessing 
 foreign reprints of books first composed, written, printed, or pub- 
 lished in the United Kingdom, and entitled to copyright therein shall 
 be suspended so far as regards such colony."
 
 26o THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 igo. Although the Act is general in its terms, the British posses- 
 sions in North America were specially in view when it was passed, 
 and for the following reason : — Between this country and the United 
 States there was no existing copyright treaty, and it was the practice 
 of the United States publishers to reprint in their own country Eng- 
 lish works at very cheap rates. These cheap copies, owing to various 
 difficulties in giving practical effect to the provisions of the law pro- 
 hibiting the importation, were largely introduced into Your Majesty's 
 North American possessions. 
 
 191. Certain colonies, among others Canada, made what was at 
 the time accepted by Your Majesty in Council as sufficient provision 
 for securing the rights of British authors, and thus brought themselves 
 under the Act. 
 
 192. The provision made by the Canadian legislature was, that 
 American i-eprinti of English copyright works might be imported into 
 the colony on payment of a customs duty of 12^- per cent., which 
 was to be collected by the Canadian Government and paid to the 
 British Government for the benefit of the authors interested. Like 
 provisions were made in other colonies. 
 
 193. So far as British authors and owners of copyright are con- 
 cerned, the Act has proved a complete failure. Foreign reprints of 
 copyright works have been largely introduced into the colonies, and 
 notably American reprints into the Dominion of Canada, but no 
 returns, or returns of an absurdly small amount, have been made to 
 the authors and owners. It appears from official reports that during 
 the ten years ending in 1876, the amount received from the whole of 
 the ninteeen colonies which have taken advantage of the Act was 
 only 1,155/. 13s. 2\d., of which 1,084/. I 3*- 3?d- was received from 
 Canada ; and that of these colonies, seven paid nothing whatever to 
 the authors, while six now and then paid small sums amounting to a 
 few shillings. 
 
 194. These very unsatisfactory results of the Foreign Reprints Act, 
 and the knowledge that the works of British authors, in which there 
 was copyright not only in the United Kingdom but also in the colo- 
 nies, were openly reprinted in the United States, and imported into 
 Canada without payment of duty, led to complaints from British 
 authors and publishers ; and strong efforts were made to obtain the 
 repeal of the Act. 
 
 195. A counter-complaint was advanced by the Canadians. They 
 contended that although they might import and sell American re-
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 26l 
 
 prints on paying the duty, they were not allowed to republish British 
 works, and to have the advantage of the trade, the sole benefit of 
 which was, in effect, secured for the Americans. In defence of 
 themselves against the charge of negligence in collecting the duty, 
 they alleged that owing to the vast extent of frontier and other local 
 causes, and also from the neglect of English owners of copyright to 
 give timely notice of copyright works to the local authorities, they 
 had been unable to prevent the introduction of American reprints into 
 the Dominion. 
 
 196. The Canadians proposed that they should be allowed to re- 
 publish the books themselves under licenses from the Governor-Gen- 
 eral, and that the publishers so licensed should pay an excise duty of 
 12^ per cent, for the benefit of the authors. It was alleged thnt by 
 these means the Canadians would be able to undersell the Americans, 
 and so effectually to check smuggling ; and further that the British 
 author would be secured his remuneration, as the money would be 
 certain to be collected in the form of an excise duty, though it could 
 not be collected by means of the customs. Objections, however, 
 were made to the proposal, and it was not carried out. 
 
 197. These considerations led to the suggestion that republication 
 should be allowed in Canada under the authors' sanction, and copy- 
 right granted to the authors in the Dominion ; and upon this a ques- 
 tion arose whether Canadian editions, which would be probably much 
 cheaper than the English, should be allowed to be imported into the 
 United Kingdom and the other colonies. 
 
 198. Matters were in this state when " The Copyright Act of 1875 " 
 was passed by the Dominion legislature. The Act was sent over in 
 the form of a Bill reserved for Your Majesty's assent ; but as doubts 
 were entertained whether the Act was not repugnant to Imperial leg- 
 islation, and to the Order in Council made in 1868, by which the 
 prohibitions against importing foreign reprints into the Dominion of 
 Canada had been suspended, power was given to Your Majesty by an 
 Imperial Act passed in 1875 to assent to the Canadian Bill, and thus 
 make it law. Your Majesty's assent was subsequently given. 
 
 199. It is in this Imperial Act that a clause will be found, which 
 has been strongly objected to by Mr. Farrer in his evidence before us, 
 prohibiting the importation into the United Kingdom of Canadian 
 reprints. 
 
 200. The Canadian Act gave to any person domiciled in Canada, 
 or in any part of the British possessions, or being a citizen of any
 
 262 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 country having an international copyright treaty with the United King- 
 dom, being the author of any literary or artistic work, power to obtain 
 copyright in Canada for 28 years, by printing, and publishing, or re- 
 printing, or republishing, or, in the case of works of art, by produc- 
 ing or reproducing his work in Canada, and fulfilling certain specified 
 conditions. The copyright thus capable of being secured by British 
 copyright owners is in addition to and concurrent with the copyright 
 they have throughout the British dominions under the Imperial Act. 
 
 201. The Dominion Act has been in force for so short a time that 
 it is difficult to ascertain its full effect ; but from a return obtained 
 from Canada by the Secretary of State for the Colonies in November 
 1876, it appears that 31 works of British authors had been published 
 in Canada under the Act up to that date. A comparison of the prices 
 of these works shows that if the English editions were sold in Canada 
 at any price over about half a dollar, or 2s., there was a reduction 
 more or less considerable in the price of the Canadian edition, the 
 reduction in one instance being as great as from $12.60 or 2/. nx, 
 S>\d. to $1.50 or 6s. i%d. It also appears that of many of the books 
 republished in Canada under the Act the American reprints were, as 
 a rule, kept out of the Dominion ; and that the prices of American 
 reprints sold in the Dominion were higher than those of the Cana- 
 dian reprints. 
 
 202. We have thought it desirable to give this brief sketch of the 
 law of colonial copyright, as it enables us to explain more clearly the 
 questions we have had to consider. The remedies we propose are 
 intended to meet the grievance put forward by the colonial readers. 
 
 203. The main grievance, as we have already pointed out, lies in 
 the difficulty experienced by the colonists in procuring, at a suffi- 
 ciently cheap price, a supply of English copyright books. 
 
 204. The Canadian Copyright Act of 1875 may have the effect in 
 time of securing cheap editions of British works in the Dominion. 
 But, in the first place it is too soon to judge of this, and no similar 
 Act has, as yet, been passed in other colonies ; and in the second 
 place, it is questionable whether such an Act would work at all in 
 small colonies. 
 
 205. We may at once state that we do not propose to interfere with 
 the Canadian Copyright Act, 1875, or with the principle of that law. 
 
 206. We recommend that the difficulty of securing a supply of 
 English literature at cheap prices for colonial readers be met in two 
 ways : 1st. By the introduction of a licensing system in the colonies ;
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 263 
 
 and 2d. By continuing, though with alterations, the provisions of 
 the Foreign Reprints Act. 
 
 207. In proposing the introduction of a licensing system, it is not 
 intended to interfere with the power now possessed by the Colonial 
 Legislatures of dealing with the subject of copyright, so far as their 
 own colonies are concerned. We recommend that in case the owner 
 of a copyright work should not avail himself of the provisions of the 
 copyright law (if any) in a colony, and in case no adequate provision 
 be made by republication in the colony or otherwise, within a rea- 
 sonable time after publication elsewhere, for a supply of the work 
 sufficient for general sale and circulation in the colony, a license may, 
 upon an application, be granted to republish the work in the colony, 
 subject to a royalty in favor of the copyright owner of not less than a 
 specified sum per cent, on the retail price, as may be settled by any 
 local law. Effective provision for the due collection and transmission 
 to the copyright owner of such royalty should be made by such law. 
 
 208. We do not feel that we can be more definite in our recom- 
 mendation than this, nor indeed do we think that the details of such a 
 law could be settled by the Imperial Legislature. We should prefer to 
 leave the settlement of such details to special legislation in each colony. 
 
 209. With regard to the continuance of the Foreign Reprints Act, 
 we have already stated that strong efforts have been made to procure 
 its repeal. In March 1870, at a meeting of the leading authors and 
 publishers over which the late Earl Stanhope presided, the following 
 resolution was passed : ' ' That a representation be made to the Right 
 Honorable the First Lord of the Treasury, pointing out the great 
 hardship sustained by British authors and publishers from the opera- 
 tion of the Imperial Copyright Act of 1847, and stating the earnest 
 desire they feel that Her Majesty's Government may deem it right 
 to propose its prompt repeal." 
 
 210. We are fully sensible of the weight that must attach to the 
 opinion of persons so qualified to form a judgment on this matter, 
 but upon careful consideration of the subject and of the peculiar 
 position of many of Your Majesty's colonies — and upon this point we 
 would refer to the answers returned by the colonies to Lord Kimber- 
 ley's Circular Dispatch of the 29th July 1873— we are not prepared 
 to recommend the simple repeal of the Act of 1847, and the conse- 
 quent determination of the power now vested in Your Majesty, of 
 allowing the introduction of foreign reprints into colonies which have 
 made due provision for securing the rights of British authors.
 
 264 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 211. We believe that although the system of republication under 
 a license may be well adapted to some of the larger colonies, which 
 have printing and publishing firms of their own, and which could 
 reprint and republish for themselves with every prospect of fair re- 
 muneration, it would be practically inapplicable in the case of many 
 of the smaller colonies. These latter now depend almost wholly on 
 foreign reprints for a supply of literature ; and to sweep away the 
 Foreign Reprints Act without establishing some other system of sup- 
 ply would be to deprive them in a great measure of English books. 
 
 212. But we are of opinion that it has been proved necessary to 
 amend the existing law, for the purpose of more effectually protect- 
 ing the rights of owners of copyright, whilst affording to colonial 
 readers the means of making themselves acquainted with the litera- 
 ture of the day. 
 
 213. As the provisions hitherto made in the different colonies to 
 which Orders in Council have been applied, have failed to secure 
 remuneration to proprietors of copyright, we recommend that power 
 should be given to Your Majesty to repeal the existing Orders in 
 Council ; and that no future Order in Council should be made under 
 that Act until sufficient provision has been made by local law for 
 better securing the payment of the duty upon foreign reprints to the 
 owners of copyright works. 
 
 214. Probably it will be desirable to grant a certain period to the 
 colonies, for the purpose of enabling them to propose further and 
 better provisions, before such revocation actually takes place. In 
 that case, however, it should be clearly understood that Your Majesty 
 is in no way pledged, by the grant of such delay, to issue any fresh 
 Order in Council ; and power should be given to Your Majesty in 
 Council to revoke, at any time, any future Order in Council, should 
 the provisions of the colonial law prove practically insufficient. 
 
 215. It is perhaps hardly within the scope of this Commission to 
 suggest what provisions Your Majesty should be advised to consider 
 sufficient, within the meaning of the Act, to secure the rights of the 
 proprietors of copyright. But it appears to us that possibly some 
 arrangement might be effected, by which all foreign reprints should 
 be sent to certain specified places in the colony, and should be there 
 stamped with date of admission upon payment of the duty, which 
 could then be transmitted here to the Treasury or Board cf Trade 
 for the author. All copies of foreign reprints not so stamped should 
 be liable to seizure, and it is worthy of consideration whether some
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 265 
 
 penalty might not also be affixed to the dealing with unstamped 
 copies. 
 
 216. And, having regard to the power which we have contem- 
 plated, for authors to obtain colonial copyright by republication in 
 the colonies, and to the licensing system which we have suggested, 
 we recommend that where an Order in Council for the admission of 
 foreign reprints has been made, such reprints should not, unless with 
 the consent of the owner of the copyright, be imported into a colony — 
 
 1. Where the owner has availed himself of the local copyright law, 
 
 if any ; 
 
 2. Where an adequate provision, as pointed out in paragraph 
 
 207, has been made ; or, 
 
 3. After there has been a republication under the licensing system. 
 
 217. A subject of great moment with reference to colonial copy- 
 right, is the propriety of permitting the introduction of colonial 
 reprints into the United Kingdom. This question has given rise to 
 much discussion, as may be seen by reference to the correspondence, 
 which, at the time The Canadian Copyright Act, 1875, was under 
 consideration, passed between the Colonial Office and the Board of 
 Trade. Ultimately the 4th section of that Act was passed by which 
 it is enacted, that, where any British copyright work has acquired 
 copyright in Canada under the colonial Act by republication, it is 
 unlawful for any person other than the owner to import Canadian 
 reprints into the United Kingdom. This provision is analogous to 
 that in force in the case of books reprinted in foreign countries. 
 
 218. We have been urged to recommend the repeal of that section, 
 so far at all events as to admit the importation into the United King- 
 dom of copies published with the consent of the copyright owner. 
 
 219. We may state generally that authors and publishers, who are 
 the persons most interested in copyrights, are strongly opposed to the 
 introduction of colonial reprints into the United Kingdom, on the 
 following grounds : — That the cheaper price of those reprints would 
 cause great pecuniary loss to the owners of copyrights : — that the 
 present system of trade, which has been found most remunerative to 
 authors and publishers, would be disarranged : — and that publishers 
 would not be willing or able to offer so much to authors for their works. 
 
 220. It is argued that, if importation is allowed, no copyright 
 owner will consent to republication in the colonies by himself or 
 others, because all such republications, being made with his consent,
 
 266 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 would be liable to be introduced here, and that the colonial readers 
 would therefore suffer to a certain extent by the alteration in the law. 
 This last argument will, however, lose its force, if effect is given to 
 our suggestion of permitting republication in the Colonies under a 
 licensing system. 
 
 221. The arguments in favor of admission of colonial reprints are 
 based on consideration of the public interest, which is alleged to be 
 greatly injured by the high prices at which books are now published 
 — prices that are altogether prohibitory to the great mass of the 
 reading public ; and it is said that if the cheaper colonial editions 
 were to be allowed in this country, the necessary effect would be that 
 prices generally would be greatly reduced. 
 
 222. It is also urged that if the law gives British copyright owners 
 the benefit of copyright throughout the empire, and the exclusive 
 command of the colonial market, it is unfair to the British public 
 that they should be deprived of the advantage they might derive 
 from that extended copyright, and that they should be the only sec- 
 tion of Your Majesty's subjects who are debarred from participating 
 in the advantages of cheap colonial editions. 
 
 223. It is also said that it is a mistake to suppose that authors 
 would really be injured by the introduction into the United King- 
 dom of the colonial editions, for that the profit which would be de- 
 rived from the extended market would more than compensate for the 
 loss resulting from publication at lower prices. Thus the public 
 would derive the benefit of cheap literature, while authors would 
 reap profit equal to or greater than that they now enjoy. 
 
 224. The witness who principally advocated the introduction of 
 these reprints was Mr. Farrer, the Permanent Secretary to the Board 
 of Trade, which is the department specially charged with legislation 
 affecting copyright. Having regard to the great attention he has 
 devoted to the subject and to his official position, we desire to state 
 that we think his opinions are entitled to much consideration. The 
 arguments adduced by him will be found fully stated in his evidence. 
 
 225. We have carefully weighed this evidence with the views of 
 other persons who are opposed to the introduction of colonial reprints 
 into the United Kingdom ; and on the whole we think that the ad- 
 mission of such reprints would probably operate injuriously towards 
 British authors and publishers, and that it is doubtful if it would be 
 attended in many cases with the result anticipated by Mr. Farrer, 
 that is to say, the cheapening of books for home consumption. We
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 267 
 
 think the almost certain result would be, that it would operate as a 
 preventive to republication in the colonies by authors themselves, 
 so that, if no publisher republished under the licensing system, 
 the colonial reader would be in no better condition than he is now. 
 
 226. We therefore think that colonial reprints of copyright works 
 first published in the United Kingdom should not be admitted into 
 the United Kingdom without the consent of the copyright owners ; 
 and, conversely, that reprints in the United Kingdom of copyright 
 works first published in any colony should not be admitted into such 
 colony without the consent of the copyright owners. 
 
 227. It will have been observed that in suggesting the above alter- 
 ations in the existing law of copyright, we have not proposed to 
 interfere with the existing powers of colonial legislatures to deal 
 with this subject. An author who first publishes in a colony should 
 only be entitled to secure copyright throughout the British dominions, 
 if he complies with the requirements of the copyright law for the 
 time being of that colony. It will rest, therefore, with each colonial 
 legislature to determine the nature of those requirements, such as 
 registration, deposit of copy, and so forth ; and we cannot doubt 
 that they will be alive to the expediency of adopting for the colony, 
 so far as it is practicable, the principal provisions of the Imperial 
 Act, which, if effect be given to our suggestions, will, as to all such 
 matters of detail, be hereafter limited to the United Kingdom. By 
 this means uniformity of practice will be secured throughout Your 
 Majesty's dominions, and certain difficulties will be avoided, which 
 might arise if, for example, registration were in some colonies com- 
 pulsory, and in others voluntary. 
 
 228. But important as uniformity is in matters of detail, it be- 
 comes still more important in respect to the term to be fixed for the 
 duration of copyright. As the law now stands, we apprehend that 
 each colony has a right to decide what shall be the term during 
 which an author who publishes in the colony shall have copyright 
 therein. The exercise of this power does not, it is true, override the 
 provisions of the Imperial Act, which gives copyright in such colony 
 to a work first published in the United Kingdom, but the existence 
 of this double term is inconvenient. If, as we recommend, publica- 
 tion in any colony shall for the future secure copyright throughout 
 all Your Majesty's dominions, in the same way and for the same 
 term as if the work had been first published in this country, the 
 necessity for fixing a term for duration of a copyright in a colony
 
 268 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 will practically cease. In truth the difference between colonial and 
 imperial copyright will disappear, as colonial copyright will merge 
 into imperial copyright ; and we may fairly assume that where, as 
 in Canada and at the Cape, a term has been fixed for copyright in 
 the colony different from that fixed by the Imperial Act, the colonial 
 legislature will be ready to repeal pro tanto the colonial law, and to 
 confine legislation to matters of detail. 
 
 229. Should, however, our anticipations on this point be incorrect, 
 it will become a question whether, with a view to secure uniformity, 
 the concession to any colony might not be made conditional upon 
 the adoption by the legislature of such colony of the same term as 
 that fixed for the time being by the Imperial Act. 
 
 230. In concluding our remarks upon this part of the subject, we 
 recommend that the production of a copy of the colonial register 
 (if any), certified by some duly authorized officer in that behalf, shall 
 be prifnd facie evidence in Your Majesty's Courts of compliance 
 with the requirements of the local law, and of the title to copyright 
 of the person named therein. A provision to this effect would have 
 to be made by the different colonial legislatures for the guidance of 
 colonial courts. 
 
 231. It has been suggested to us that some re-registration, or 
 notice of the original registration, should be made in England of a 
 work published in a colony, and that a copy of every work published 
 in the colonies should be deposited at the British Museum, within a 
 certain time after publication. Upon the whole we are not disposed 
 to recommend the adoption of either of these suggestions. Publi- 
 cation in a colony will give copyright throughout the British domin- 
 ions, and if re-registration of the work is desirable in England, it is 
 equally so in all the other British possessions in which the work ob- 
 tains copyright. But to require such a general re-registration would 
 throw a considerable burden upon the owners of colonial copyright, 
 and it appears to us not unreasonable to call upon a person who 
 desires to reprint a work which has already been published to take 
 the necessary steps to ascertain whether the work has been duly pub- 
 lished and, if necessary, registered in the place of publication, and 
 whether the term of copyright has expired. Should, however, a 
 notice of registration be thought desirable, we suggest that it should 
 be officially given by the registering department in the United 
 Kingdom or colony ; and the fee for original registration might be 
 made to cover the expenses of giving such notice.
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 269 
 
 232. As regards the second suggestion, we are of opinion that the 
 Trustees of the British Museum may fairly be expected to purchase 
 such colonial works as they want, considering that the author or 
 owner of the copyright will doubtless be required by local law to 
 deposit a copy in the place of publication. Indeed it was stated to 
 us by officers of the British Museum that many such works are now 
 purchased. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 
 
 The American Question. 
 
 233. As to continental nations, few questions have, in the course 
 of our inquiry, been raised with regard to the general regulations of 
 international copyright ; but we find it to be impossible to exclude 
 from examination the present condition of the copyright question 
 between Great Britain and the United States. There is no inter- 
 national protection of copyright as between ourselves and the 
 Americans, although, owing to causes to be presently referred to, 
 the United States is of all nations the one in which British authors 
 are most concerned, — the nation in regard to which the absence of a 
 copyright convention gives rise to the greatest hardships. 
 
 234. When deciding upon the terms in which we should report 
 upon this subject, we have felt the extreme delicacy of our position 
 in expressing an opinion upon the policy and laws of a friendly 
 nation, with regard to which a keen sense of injury is entertained by 
 British authors. Nevertheless, we have deemed it our duty to state 
 the facts brought to our knowledge, and frankly to draw the conclu- 
 sions to which they lead. 
 
 235. Although with most of the nations of the continent treaties 
 have been made, whereby reciprocal protection has been secured for 
 the authors of those countries and Your Majesty's subjects, it has 
 hitherto been found impracticable to arrange any terms with the 
 American people. We proceed to indicate what in our view are the 
 difficulties which have impeded a settlement. 
 
 236. The main difficulty undoubtedly arises from the fact that, 
 although the language of the two countries is identical, the original 
 works published in America are, as yet, less numerous than those 
 published in Great Britain. This naturally affords a temptation to 
 the Americans to take advantage of the works of the older country, 
 and at the same time tends to diminish the inducement to publish
 
 270 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 original works. It is the opinion of some of those who gave evi- 
 dence on this subject, and it appears to be plain, that the effect of 
 the existing state of things is to check the growth of American lit- 
 erature, since it is impossible for American authors to contend at a 
 profit with a constant supply of works, the use of which costs the 
 American publisher little or nothing. 
 
 237. Were there in American law no recognition of the rights of 
 authors, no copyright legislation, the position of the United States 
 would be logical. But they have copyright laws ; they afford pro- 
 tection to citizen or resident authors, while they exclude all others 
 from the benefit of that protection. The position of the American 
 people in this respect is the more striking, from the circumstance 
 that, with regard to the analogous right of patents for inventions, 
 they have entered into a treaty with this country for the reciprocal 
 protection of inventors. 
 
 238. Great Britain is the nation which naturally suffers the most 
 from this policy. The works of her authors and artists may be and 
 generally are taken without leave by American publishers, sometimes 
 mutilated, issued at cheap rates to a population of forty millions, 
 perhaps the most active readers in the world, and not seldom in 
 forms objectionable to the feelings of the original author or artist. 
 
 239. Incidentally, moreover, the injury is intensified. The circu- 
 lation of such reprints is not confined to the United States. They 
 are exported to British colonies, and particularly to Canada, in all 
 of which the authors are theoretically protected by the Imperial law. 
 The attempts which were made, by legalizing the introduction of 
 these reprints into Canada, to secure a fair remuneration to British 
 copyright owners have, as we have shown, completely failed. 
 
 240. This system of reproduction is not confined to books, but 
 extends to music and the drama, and we have been told that it is not 
 an uncommon thing when a new play by an author of eminence is 
 produced in London, for shorthand writers to attend and take down 
 the words of the play for transmission to the United States. 
 
 241. But though there is no law in the United States to protect a 
 foreign work from republication by any number of publishers, the 
 natural result of general publication and rivalry was to make the 
 competition which arose disastrous to those engaged in it. Firms of 
 eminence and respectability rivaled each other in the efforts of their 
 agents in England to secure early sheets of important works, but 
 when the sheets were obtained, and an edition issued at a moderate 
 price, some other firm would undertake to supply the public with
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 271 
 
 the same article at a lesser rate. American publishers were thus 
 obliged to take steps for their own protection. This was effected by 
 an arrangement among themselves. The terms of this understand- 
 ing are, that the trade generally will recognize the priority of right 
 to republication of a British work as existing in the American pub- 
 lisher who can secure priority of issue in the United States. This 
 priority may be secured either by an arrangement with the author, or 
 in any other way. The understanding, however, is not legally binding, 
 and is rather a result of convenience and of a growing disposition 
 to recognize the claims of British authors, than of actual agreement. 
 
 242. The effect of this trade understanding has no doubt been 
 profitable to a certain number of British copyright owners, since, 
 now that American publishers are practically secured from competi- 
 tion at home, it is worth while for them to rival each other abroad 
 in their offers for early sheets of important works. We are assured 
 that there are cases in which authors reap substantial results from 
 these arrangements, and instances are even known in which an Eng- 
 lish author's returns from the United States exceed the profits of his 
 British sale, but in the case of a successful book by a new author it 
 would appear that this understanding affords no protection. Even 
 in the case of eminent men, we have no reason to believe that the 
 arrangements possible under the existing conditions are at all equiv- 
 alent to the returns which they would secure under a copyright con- 
 vention between Your Majesty and the United States. 
 
 243. We may remark in this place that as authors of books in 
 some cases obtain payment for early sheets from American publish- 
 ers, so also dramatic authors of note sometimes obtain remuneration 
 for the right to perform their plays. There appears, however, to be a 
 difference in the law relating to books and plays in the United States ; 
 for although the English author of a book can give no copyright to an 
 American publisher, yet it is stated that the author of an English play 
 can give an American theatrical manager a right of representation, if the 
 play has not been published anywhere as a book, and for this purpose a 
 distinction is made between such publication and public performance. 
 
 244. It is, without doubt, a general opinion that a copyright con- 
 vention with the United States is most desirable. We have, there- 
 fore, endeavored during our inquiry to ascertain the feeling of Amer- 
 icans on the subject, and wherein, if at all, their interests would be 
 prejudiced. We have also endeavored to find out what practical 
 difficulty there is in the way of such a convention, and if by any 
 means such difficulty can be surmounted.
 
 272 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 245. It may be stated that American authors have not the same 
 need of a convention as those of Great Britain, since our law affords 
 copyright protection throughout the British dominions to foreigners 
 as well as to Your Majesty's subjects, provided they publish their 
 books in the United Kingdom before bringing them out elsewhere, 
 while the American law, unlike ours, does not make first publication 
 at home a condition for obtaining copyright. It is consequently the 
 practice of some American authors to publish their books first in 
 England, and so to obtain British copyright, and then to republish 
 them in the United States and obtain American copyright, or to 
 publish in the two countries almost simultaneously. 
 
 246. We have it in evidence from Mr. Putnam, a member of a 
 large American publishing firm, that American authors are unani- 
 mous as to the advantage of international copyright between the 
 United States and this country. We have also been told by another 
 American witness that as publishers can bring out reprints of Eng- 
 lish books without paying the authors, it is so much more to their 
 interest to do so than to pay American authors, that they frequently 
 refuse to publish American works unless at a low rate of payment. 
 Hence it appears that, in the opinion of many Americans, interna- 
 tional copyright is desirable for American authors. 
 
 247. This question has been before the United States legislature 
 on more than one occasion, and the Senate has twice agreed in a 
 recommendation made to them by the Government on the subject. 
 
 248. We are therefore satisfied that, though there are other ob- 
 stacles, the most active opposition in the United States arises from 
 the publishing and printing interests. It is feared that if there were 
 international copyright, British authors would be able to select their 
 own mode of manufacturing their books, and to choose their own 
 publishers, and that they would in many cases have their books 
 printed in this country, and perhaps prepared for sale, so as to avoid 
 the expense of producing them in America. Moreover, the Ameri- 
 can publisher fears the competition of the English publisher, because 
 at the present time books cannot be as cheaply manufactured in the 
 United States as in Great Britain ; and, but for the protective tariff, 
 there would no doubt be a great inducement to British publishers to 
 compete with those of America in the large and important market of 
 the United States. 
 
 249. These fears have indeed been urged with a discouraging 
 effect upon the negotiations and proposals for international copy- 
 right, and have induced the Americans to claim that the privilege of
 
 REPORT OF THE BRITISH COMMISSION. 273 
 
 copyright in the United States should only be granted on condition 
 that the book is wholly re-manufactured and republished in America. 
 On the other hand the British copyright owner feels that such condi- 
 tions would lead, in many cases, to a useless outlay for the re-manufact- 
 ure of stereotype plates and the reproduction of illustrations, practically 
 at his expense and to his loss, because this outlay would have to be 
 taken into account by the publisher in considering the sum he could 
 afford to pay for authorship. While the English author desires not to 
 be restricted in the selection of a publisher, he apparently does not 
 care much whether the publisher be an American or an Englishman. 
 
 250. Although it has hitherto been the practice, we believe, of 
 Your Majesty's Government to make international copyright treaties 
 only with countries which are willing to give British subjects the full 
 advantage of their domestic copyright laws, untrammeled by com- 
 mercial restrictions, in exchange for the protection afforded to their 
 subjects by our own copyright laws, yet we think it not unreason- 
 able for the American people to wish to insure the publication of 
 editions suited to their large and peculiar market, if they enter into 
 a copyright treaty with this country. On the whole, therefore, we 
 are of opinion that an arrangement by which British copyright 
 owners could acquire United States copyright by reprinting and 
 republishing their books in America, but without being put under 
 the condition of reproducing the illustrations or re-manufacturing 
 the stereotype plates there, would not be unsatisfactory to Your 
 Majesty's subjects, and that it would be looked upon more favorably 
 in the United States than any other plan now before us. 
 
 251. It has been suggested to us that this country would be justi- 
 fied in taking steps of a retaliatory character, with a view of enforc- 
 ing, incidentally, that protection from the United States which we 
 accord to them. This might be done by withdrawing from the 
 Americans the privilege of copyright on first publication in this 
 country. We have, however, come to the conclusion that, on the 
 highest public grounds of policy and expediency, it is advisable that 
 our law should be based on correct principles, irrespective of the 
 opinions or the policy of other nations. We admit the propriety of 
 protecting copyright, and it appears to us that the principle of copy- 
 right, if admitted, is one of universal application. We therefore 
 recommend that this country should pursue the policy of recognizing 
 the author's rights, irrespective of nationality. 
 
 ****** 
 294. In concluding our labors we beg leave to express our hope 
 18
 
 274 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 that we have duly considered and made our report upon all the mat- 
 ters intended to be referred to us by Your Majesty's Commission. 
 We are conscious that there may be points of detail upon which we 
 have not touched, but these, if noticed by us, would have lengthened 
 our Report, without, as we think, affording any substantial assistance 
 to those upon whom the duty of legislating may hereafter devolve. 
 
 All which is humbly submitted to Your Majesty's gracious con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Dated the 24th day of May 1878. 
 
 JOHN MANNERS. 
 
 Subject to my Dissent from a part of paragraph 150. 
 
 DEVON. 
 
 CHARLES LAWRENCE YOUNG. 
 
 Subject to my Note appended hereto. 
 
 H. T. HOLLAND. 
 JOHN ROSE. 
 
 Subject to Dissent and Separate Report. 
 
 H. DRUMMOND WOLFF. 
 
 Subject to my Separate Report and Dissent from part 
 of paragraph 150. 
 
 J. F. STEPHEN. 
 
 Subject to a Note appended hereto. 
 
 JULIUS BENEDICT. 
 
 F. HERSCHELL. 
 
 EDWARD JENKINS. 
 
 Subject to my Separate Report. 
 
 WM. SMITH. 
 
 Subject to my Dissent from a part of paragraph 150. 
 
 J. A. FROUDE. 
 ANTHONY TROLLOPE. 
 
 Subject to my Note of Dissent as to paragraphs 153 
 and 154. 
 FREDERICK RICHARD DALDY. 
 
 Subject to my Note of Dissent as to paragraphs 147 
 and 154. 
 
 For the Notes of Dissent referred to by certain of the signers, 
 space for which could not conveniently be found in this volume, the 
 reader is referred to the Report of the Commission contained in the 
 Blue Book, No. 2036, series of 1878. — Editor.
 
 XV. 
 
 THE COPYRIGHT BILL OF THE BRITISH 
 SOCIETY OF AUTHORS, INTRODUCED 
 INTO THE HOUSE OF LORDS, NO- 
 VEMBER 26TH, 1890. BY LORD MONKS- 
 WELL. 1 
 
 GENERAL PROVISIONS AND LITERARY COPYRIGHT. 
 
 6. This Act shall, except when expressly provided to the contrary, 
 apply only to copyright works other than paintings and sculpture first 
 published after, and to paintings and sculpture which shall be or 
 shall have been made, and which shall not have been sold or dis- 
 posed of before the passing of this Act, and not to copyrights existing 
 at the commencement, nor to such works published, sold, or disposed 
 of respectively before the commencement of this Act, nor to any 
 copyright to which a person may be entitled under any law of a British 
 possession ; and all expressions in this Act referring to copyright 
 shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as referring 
 to copyright under this Act only, and all rights and remedies to which 
 a person may be entitled under this Act shall be in addition to and 
 not in derogation of any rights and remedies to which he may be 
 entitled in any British possession under the law of that possession. 
 
 7. — (1.) The copyright or performing right which at the time of the 
 passing of this Act shall be subsisting in any book or other subject 
 of copyright or performing right theretofore published, sold, or dis- 
 posed of (as the case may be), shall endure for the term limited by 
 the existing enactments, or for the term fixed by this Act, which- 
 ever is the longer, and shall be the property of the person who at the 
 time of passing this Act shall be the proprietor of such copyright or 
 performing right. 
 
 1 Space is found here only for a summary of the more important 
 provisions.
 
 276 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 (2.) Provided always, that in all cases in which such copyright or 
 performing right shall belong in whole or in part to a publisher or 
 other person who shall have acquired it for other consideration than 
 that of natural love and affection, such copyright or performing right 
 shall not be extended by this Act, but shall endure for the term 
 which shall subsist therein at the time of passing this Act, and no 
 longer, unless the original copyright owner, if he shall be living, or 
 his personal representative if he shall be dead, and the proprietor of 
 such copyright or performing right shall, before the expiration of 
 such term, agree to accept the benefits of this Act in respect of such 
 book or other subject of copyright or performing right, and shall 
 cause a minute of such consent in the form in that behalf given in 
 Schedule Three to this Act to be entered in the proper register, in 
 which case such copyright or performing right shall endure for the 
 term fixed by this Act, and shall be the property of such person or 
 persons as in such minute shall be expressed. 
 
 8. The Acts or parts of Acts specified in the First Schedule to this 
 Act are hereby repealed as from the commencement of this Act, ex- 
 cept with relation to copyrights already existing, and works other 
 than paintings and sculpture already published at, and paintings and 
 sculpture sold or disposed of before the commencement of this Act, 
 but the said Acts shall remain in as full force and effect for the pur- 
 pose of and with relation to such copyrights and works as if this Act 
 had not been passed. 
 
 9. Copyright and performing right shall respectively be deemed to 
 be personal property in England, and personal and movable estate 
 in Scotland, and subject to the provisions of this Act, shall be capable 
 of assignment and transmission by operation of law as such. 
 
 10. The copyright and performing right in a posthumous work shall 
 belong in the case of a book, musical composition, dramatic work, 
 lecture, piece for recitation, address or sermon, to the owner of the 
 manuscript ; in the case of a print to the owner of the plate, stone or 
 other thing on which the design is engraved ; and, in the case of a 
 photograph, to the owner of the negative. 
 
 11. — (1.) Every assignment of copyright or performing right other 
 than an assignment by operation of law or testamentary disposition, 
 shall be in writing, signed by the assignor or his agent, duly author- 
 ized in writing. 
 
 (2.) No assignment of or other dealing with any subject of copy- 
 right or performing right (other than an assignment by operation of
 
 THE MONKSWELL BILL. 2JJ 
 
 law or testamentary disposition) shall pass the copyright or perform- 
 ing right therein unless the intention to assign the same shall be ex- 
 pressly evidenced in writing, signed as aforesaid. 
 
 12. If the owner of the copyright or performing right in any work 
 shall give permission to another person to copy, imitate, perform or 
 otherwise repeat such work, such permission shall not, in the absence 
 of an express agreement to the contrary, disentitle such owner from 
 giving a similar or any other permission with respect to the same 
 work, even though the first person to whom such permission was 
 given has acquired copyright or performing right in his work. 
 
 13. It shall be lawful for Her Majesty in Council, on complaint 
 that the owner of copyright in any book, musical composition, or 
 dramatic work, after the death of its author or composer, has refused 
 to republish or allow republication or public performance of the same, 
 and that by reason of such refusal such book, musical composition or 
 dramatic work is withheld from the public, to grant a license to the 
 complainant to republish such book, musical composition or dramatic 
 work, or to publicly perform or procure public performances of the 
 same in such manner and subject to such conditions as She may 
 think fit. 
 
 14. After the commencement of this Act the following persons 
 and their assigns, whether British subjects or aliens, shall, subject to 
 the provisions of this Act, be entitled to copyright therein, through- 
 out the British dominions, provided such works shall have been first 
 published in some part of the British dominions ; that is to say — 
 
 (a.) In the case of books, the author of any original work : 
 
 (b.) In the case of lectures, pieces for recitation, addresses or ser- 
 mons, the author of any original lecture, piece for recitation, address 
 or sermon : 
 
 {c.) Provided always that if a British subject who, under the pro- 
 visions of this section, would otherwise be entitled to copyright in 
 any work shall first publish such work in some state, the subjects 
 whereof shall not, at the date of such publication, be entitled to copy- 
 right in the British dominions, under the provisions of this Actor of 
 the Acts mentioned in the Second Schedule hereto, he shall, on re- 
 publishing such work in the British dominions within three years of 
 such first publication, be entitled to copyright therein as fully as if 
 he had first published such work in the British dominions. 
 
 15. Copyright in books, lectures, pieces for recitation, addresses 
 and sermons shall endure for the following terms : —
 
 278 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 (1.) If the work is published in the lifetime and in the true name 
 of the original copyright owner, for the life of the original copy- 
 right owner, and thirty years after the end of the year in which his 
 death shall take place : 
 
 (2.) If the work is written or composed by two or more persons 
 jointly, for the life of the longest liver, and thirty years after the end 
 of the year in which his death shall take place: 
 
 (3.) In the case of posthumous works, for thirty years from the 
 end of the year in which the same shall have been first published : 
 
 (4.) In the case of an anonymous or pseudonymous work for 
 thirty years from the end of the year in which the same shall have 
 been first published : Provided always that upon the original copy- 
 right owner thereof or his personal representative, during the con- 
 tinuance of the said term of thirty years, with the consent of the 
 registered copyright owner, making a declaration of the true name 
 of the " original copyright owner" and the insertion thereof, in the 
 form set forth in the Schedule Three of this Act in the Register, the 
 copyright shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be extended to 
 the full term of copyright under this Act. 
 
 16. — (1.) In the case of any article, essay, or other work whatso- 
 ever, being the subject of copyright, first published in and forming 
 part of a collective work for the writing, composition, or making of 
 which the original copyright owner shall have been paid or shall be 
 entitled to be paid by the proprietor of the collective work, the copy- 
 right therein shall, subject as is herein-after mentioned, and in the 
 absence of any agreement to the contrary, belong to such proprie- 
 tor for the term of thirty years next after the end of the year in 
 which such work shall have been first published : 
 
 (2.) Except in the case where such article, essay, or other work is 
 first published in an encyclopaedia, the original copyright owner 
 thereof and his assigns shall, after the term of three years from the 
 first publication thereof, have the exclusive right to publish the same 
 in a separate form, and shall have copyright therein as a separate 
 publication for the term provided by section fifteen of this Act, and, 
 notwithstanding anything herein-before contained, the proprietor of 
 the collective work shall not, either during the said term of three 
 years, nor afterwards during the continuance of copyright therein, 
 be entitled to publish such article, essay, or other work, or any part 
 thereof, in a separate form, without the consent in writing of the 
 original copyright owner or his assigns.
 
 THE MONKSWELL BILL. 279 
 
 17. The original copyright owner of any article, essay, or other 
 work first published in and forming part of a collective work, may 
 register the same as a separate book in the manner herein-after pro- 
 vided (but without the deposit or delivery of any copy thereof at, or 
 for the use of, the British Museum or other libraries), and shall there- 
 upon be entitled to prevent and obtain damages for the publication 
 of, or other infringement of the copyright in such article, essay, or 
 other work as if it were a separate book, notwithstanding that the 
 said term of three years has not elapsed. 
 
 18. — (1.) The copyright in a joint work being a book, lecture, 
 piece for recitation, address or sermon shall, in the absence of any 
 agreement to the contrary, belong to the persons by whom the same 
 is written or composed jointly, and no one of such persons shall be 
 deemed to be the owner of the copyright in any particular part of 
 the work to the exclusion of the other or others. 
 
 (2.) In the event of the death of any one of such joint owners, 
 his interest shall, in the absence of any testamentary or other dis- 
 position to the contrary, vest in the person or persons who would be 
 entitled to the copyright in any work of which he had been the sole 
 writer or composer. 
 
 19. The copyright given by this Act in respect of newspapers 
 shall extend only to articles, paragraphs, communications, and other 
 pans which are compositions of a literary character, and not to any 
 articles, paragraphs, communications, or other parts which are de- 
 signed only for the publication of news, or to advertisements. 
 
 20. Whereas by an Act passed in the fifteenth year of King 
 George the Third, certain copyrights in books are now, or might 
 hereafter become, vested in the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, in the colleges or houses of learning within the same, the 
 four universities of Scotland, or the several colleges of Eton, West- 
 minster, and Winchester, in perpetuity, and certain special and 
 peculiar penalties are provided against persons who infringe such 
 copyright : And whereas the said Act is repealed by this Act, but it 
 is not desirable or just that the said universities and colleges should 
 be deprived of the copyrights they already possess, by virtue of the 
 said Act ; be it enacted, that the repeal of the said Act shall not 
 operate to deprive the said universities and colleges of any copy- 
 rights they already possess in perpetuity under the said Act, and 
 that instead of the special and peculiar penalties provided by the 
 said Act the said universities and colleges respectively shall, in case
 
 280 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 of infringement of their said copyrights, be entitled to the remedies 
 and to enforce the forfeitures and penalties provided for infringe- 
 ment of copyright in books by this Act. 
 
 21. The following acts by any person other than the copyright 
 owner, and without his consent in writing, shall be deemed to 
 be infringements of copyright, unless such acts shall be specially 
 permitted by the terms of this or some other Act not hereby 
 repealed : 
 
 (i.) In the case of books, printing or otherwise multiplying, or 
 causing to be printed or otherwise multiplied, for distribution, sale, 
 hire, or exportation, copies, abridgments, or translations of any 
 copyright book or any part thereof ; exporting for sale or hire any 
 such copies, abridgments, or translations, printed unlawfully in any 
 part of the British dominions ; importing any such copies, abridg- 
 ments, or translations, whether printed unlawfully in any other part 
 of the British dominions or printed without the consent of the copy- 
 right owner in any foreign state ; or knowing such copies to have 
 been so printed or imported, distributing, selling, publishing, or 
 exposing them for sale or hire, or causing or permitting them to be 
 distributed, sold, published, or exposed for sale or hire : 
 
 (2.) In the case of a book which is a work of fiction it shall also 
 be an infringement of the copyright therein if any person shall, 
 without the consent of the owner of the copyright, take the dialogue, 
 plot, or incidents related in the book, and use them for or convert 
 them into or adapt them for a dramatic work, or knowing such 
 dramatic work to have been so made, shall permit or cause public 
 performance of the same : 
 
 (3.) In the case of lectures, pieces for recitation, addresses, or 
 sermons, whether before or after they are published in print by the 
 owner of the copyright, the same acts as herein-before declared to 
 be infringements in the case of books, and if they be not published 
 in print, by the owner of the copyright, re-delivering them or caus- 
 ing them to be re-delivered in public. 
 
 22. Notwithstanding anything in this Act contained, the making 
 of fair and moderate extracts from a book in which there is subsist- 
 ing copyright, and the publication thereof in any other work, shall 
 not be deemed to be infringement of copyright if the source from 
 which the extracts have been taken is acknowledged. 
 
 23. It shall not be deemed an infringement of copyright in a lect- 
 ure, piece for recitation, address, or sermon to report the same in a
 
 THE MONKSWELL BILL. 28l 
 
 newspaper, unless the person delivering the same shall have pre- 
 viously given notice that he prohibits the same being reported. 
 
 24. For the purposes of this Act any second or subsequent edi- 
 tion of a book which is published with any additions or alterations, 
 whether in the letterpress or in the maps or illustrations belonging 
 thereto, shall be deemed to be a new book. 
 
 25- — (1.) The publisher of every book first published in the 
 United Kingdom shall within one month after publication deliver, 
 at his own expense, a copy of the book to the trustees of the 
 British Museum. 
 
 (2.) He shall also within the same time deliver at his own expense 
 a copy of the book to, or in accordance with the directions of, the 
 authority having the control of each of the following libraries, 
 namely : the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Public Library at 
 Cambridge, the Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh, 
 and the Library of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Eliz- 
 abeth near Dublin, or, at the option of the publisher, to the regis- 
 trar under this Act, to be by him so delivered. 
 
 (3.) The copy delivered to the trustees of the British Museum 
 shall be a copy of the whole book with all maps and illustrations 
 belonging thereto, finished and colored in the same manner as the 
 best copies of the book are published, and shall be bound, sewed, or 
 stitched together, and on the best paper on which the book is 
 printed. 
 
 (4.) The copy delivered to the other authorities mentioned in this 
 section shall be on the paper on which the largest number of copies 
 of the book is printed for sale, and shall be in the like condition as 
 the books prepared for sale. 
 
 (5.) Delivery of a copy to the registrar on registration under this 
 Act shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed delivery to 
 the trustees of the British Museum. 
 
 (6.) If a publisher fails to comply with this section, he shall incur 
 a fine not exceeding five pounds and the value of the book, and this 
 fine shall be paid to the trustees or authority to whom the book 
 ought to be delivered. 
 
 26. — (1.) There shall continue to be charged on and paid out of 
 the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom such annual com- 
 pensation as is at the passing of this Act payable in pursuance of 
 any Act as compensation to a library for the loss of the right to 
 receive gratuitous copies of books.
 
 232 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 (2.) Such compensation shall not be paid to a library in any year 
 unless the Treasury shall be satisfied that the compensation for the 
 previous year has been applied in the purchase of books for the use 
 of and to be preserved in the library. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE BILL. 
 By Sir Frederick Pollock. 
 
 The following Memorandum sets out its contents, 
 and shows the various authorities for the changes 
 in present legislation suggested by the Bill. 
 
 Memorandum. 
 
 This Bill is intended to consolidate and amend the Law of Copy- 
 right other than copyright in designs. 
 
 The existing law on the subject consists of no less than 18 Acts of 
 Parliament, besides common law principles, which are to be found 
 only by searching the Law Reports. Owing to the manner in which 
 these Acts have been drawn, the law is in many cases hardly intel- 
 ligible, and is full of arbitrary distinctions for which it is impossible 
 to find a reason. (See paragraphs 9 to 13 of the Report of the Royal 
 Commission on Copyright of 187S.) 
 
 For instance, the term of copyright in books is the life of the author 
 and 7 years, or 42 years from publication, whichever period is the 
 longer ; in lectures, when printed and published, the term is proba- 
 bly the life of the author or 28 years ; in engravings, 28 years ; and 
 in sculpture, 14 years, with a possible further extension for another 
 14 years ; while the term of copyright in music and lectures which 
 have been publicly performed or delivered but not printed is wholly 
 uncertain. 
 
 Again the necessity for and effect of registration is entirely differ- 
 ent with regard to (1) books, (2) paintings, (3) dramatic works. 
 
 In consolidating these enactments (all of which it is proposed to 
 repeal) it has been thought advisable to deal separately with the vari- 
 ous subjects of copyright, viz., (1) Literature, (2) Music and Dramatic 
 Works, and (3) Works of Art, and to make the part of the Bill deal-
 
 THE MONKSWELL BILL. 283 
 
 ing with each of these as far as possible complete in itself. This 
 will account for certain repetitions which might otherwise seem un- 
 necessary. 
 
 The alterations proposed to be made in the law are for the most 
 part those suggested in the Report of the Royal Commission on Copy- 
 right of 1S78, and embodied in a Bill introduced at the end of the 
 Session of 1879 by Lord John Manners, Viscount Sandon, and the 
 Attorney-General on behalf of the then Government. References 
 will be found in the margin of the present Bill both to the Report of 
 the Commission and the Bill of 1879. 
 
 The most important of these alterations may be summarized as 
 follows : — 
 
 1. A uniform term of copyright is introduced for all classes of 
 work, consisting of the life of the author and 30 years after his 
 death. The only exceptions are in the cases of engravings and 
 photographs, and anonymous and pseudonymous works for which, 
 owing to the difficulty or impossibility of identifying the author, the 
 term is to be 30 years only, with power for the author of an anony- 
 mous or pseudonymous work at any time during such 30 years to 
 declare his true name and acquire the full term of copyright. 
 
 2. The period after which the author of an article or essay in a 
 collective work (other than an encyclopaedia) is to be entitled to the 
 right of separate publication, is reduced from 28 years to 3 years. 
 
 3. The right to make an abridgment of a work is for the first 
 time expressly recognized as part of the copyright, and an abridg- 
 ment by a person other than the copyright owner is made an infringe- 
 ment of copyright. 
 
 4. The authors of works of fiction are given the exclusive right of 
 dramatizing the same as part of their copyright, and the converse 
 right is conferred on authors of dramatic works. 
 
 5. The exhibition of photographs taken on commission, except 
 with the consent of the person for whom they are taken, is rendered 
 illegal. 1 
 
 6. Registration is made compulsory for all classes of work in which 
 copyright exists, except painting and sculpture : that is to say, no 
 proceedings for infringement or otherwise can be taken before regis- 
 tration, nor can any proceedings be taken after registration in respect 
 
 1 At present it seems to be merely a matter of implied contract (see 
 Pollard vs. The Photographic Co., 40 Ch. D., 345).
 
 284 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 of anything done before the date of registration, except on payment 
 of a penalty. This penalty, it should be mentioned, was not recom- 
 mended by the Royal Commission, but is introduced in order that an 
 accidental omission to register may not entirely deprive the copyright 
 owner of his remedies. Registration of paintings and sculpture is 
 made optional owing to their being so frequently subject to altera- 
 tion that it is practically impossible to say when they are completed, 
 so as to be capable of registration. 
 
 7. Provision is made (in Clause 89) for the seizure of piratical 
 copies of copyright works which are being hawked about or offered 
 for sale. Some such provision is required particularly for the pro- 
 tection of works of Art, and was recommended by the Royal Com- 
 mission. 
 
 The part of the Bill which relates to the fine arts and photography 
 is taken, almost without alteration, from the Copyright (Works of 
 Fine Art) Bill which was introduced into the House of Commons in 
 the session of 18S6 by Mr. Hastings, Mr. Gregory, and Mr. Agnew. 
 That Bill received the general approval of those interested in the fine 
 arts ; and although it does not altogether follow the recommendations 
 of the Royal Commission, there does not appear to be any serious 
 reason against adopting its provisions. 
 
 The part of the Bill which relates to Foreign and Colonial Copy- 
 right is practically a re-enactment of the provisions of the Interna- 
 tional Copyright Act, 1886, which was passed in order to carry into 
 effect the " Berne Convention" for giving to authors of literary and 
 artistic works first published in one of the countries parties to the 
 Convention, copyright in such works throughout the other countries 
 parties to the Convention. 
 
 By the earlier parts of the Bill, the same rights are given to Colo- 
 nial as to British authors ; while the right of the Colonial Legislatures 
 to deal with the subject is expressly recognized and preserved. The 
 Foreign Reprints Act of 1847 (10 and II Vict. c. 95) is re-enacted in 
 the form adopted in the Bill of 1879, but it has not been found possi- 
 ble to frame provisions for the introduction of any such licensing 
 system of republication in the Colonies as that suggested by the 
 Royal Commission. There appear to be great difficulties in provid- 
 ing for the practical working of any such system, and even if they 
 could be overcome, it is felt that while it is more than doubtful 
 whether the colonial reader would benefit to any great extent, the 
 British copyright owner must suffer considerable loss.
 
 THE MONKSWELL BILL. 285 
 
 With regard to registration, the Bill (as was recommended by the 
 Royal Commission) provides for the establishment of a Copyright 
 Registration Office, under the control of Government, in lieu of the 
 present office at Stationers' Hall, established under 5 and 6 Vict. c. 
 45. This office has even under the present law been found inade- 
 quate, and would be still more so upon the introduction of compul- 
 sory registration in all cases. 
 
 It is felt, however, that the details and formalities of any scheme 
 of registration can only be satisfactorily settled by Government 
 officials, and the provisions of Part V. of the Bill are put forward 
 rather by way of suggestion than as a definitely settled scheme. It 
 will probably be found desirable either now or hereafter to combine 
 the Copyright Registration Office with the Registry of Designs and 
 Trade Marks, and this part of the Bill has, therefore, as far as pos- 
 sible, been modeled on the corresponding provisions of the Patents 
 Designs and Trade Marks Act, 1883. 
 
 The chief points on which the recommendations of the Royal 
 Commission are departed from in the present Bill are as follows : — 
 
 1. The Commissioners recommended that the universities and 
 
 libraries (other than the British Museum) which are now 
 entitled to receive a copy of every book published in the 
 United Kingdom, should be left to purchase the books they 
 required in the market, and that their present privilege should 
 be taken away. But from communications which have been 
 received from the librarians, it appears that they are most 
 anxious to retain their present privilege ; that the libraries 
 could not be properly supplied if it was abolished, and that 
 the cases in which it can cause any real hardship are very few. 
 The Bill, therefore, provides for the continuance of the 
 supply to these institutions. 
 
 2. With regard to the Fine Arts, the Commissioners were of opin- 
 
 ion that the copyright in paintings, etc. , should pass to the pur- 
 chaser unless specially reserved to the artist. Under the Bill, 
 however, the copyright will remain in the artist, unless ex- 
 pressly assigned to the purchaser. This, it is believed, is in 
 accordance with the general wish of artists, and as no replica 
 can be produced without the consent of the owner of the 
 original painting, no injury will be inflicted on purchasers, 
 who will moreover have the right (under section 46) of pre-
 
 286 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 venting unauthorized reproductions, even though they have 
 not (as of course it will be open to them to do) taken an 
 express assignment of the copyright. Practically the only 
 effect of the artist retaining the copyright after parting with 
 the picture, will be to give him a control over its reproduction 
 by engraving or otherwise, and this control it seems proper 
 that he should have. 
 
 3. The exception made in the Act, 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 65, with 
 
 respect to lectures delivered in universities and elsewhere, is 
 not proposed to be re-enacted in the present Bill. What the 
 exact meaning and effect of that exception may be seems to 
 be far from clear (see the observations of the Lords in Caird 
 vs. Sime, L.J?. 12 App. Ca. 326), and moreover, it does not 
 by any means seem to follow that because a lecture is deliv- 
 ered in a university, or in virtue of an endowment or founda- 
 tion, the lecturer should be deprived of rights conferred on 
 all other lecturers whether they are paid for their services or 
 not. 
 
 4. The omission of any provisions for the introduction of a licens- 
 
 ing system into the Colonies ; and 
 
 5. The right given to a copyright owner of taking proceedings in 
 
 respect of infringements, committed before he registers his 
 title on payment of a penalty, have been already noticed and 
 explained. 
 
 London, January, 1891.
 
 XVI. 
 
 CONVENTION CONCERNING THE CREA- 
 TION OF AN INTERNATIONAL UNION 
 FOR THE PROTECTION OF LITERARY 
 AND ARTISTIC WORKS. 
 
 Ratified at Berne, Switzerland, Sept. 5th, 1887. 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, Empress of India ; His Majesty the German Emperor, 
 King of Prussia ; His Majesty the King of the Belgians ; Her 
 Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of His Catholic 
 Majesty the King of Spain ; the President of the French Republic ; 
 the President of the Republic of Hayti ; His Majesty the King 
 of Italy ; the President of the Republic of Liberia ; the Federal 
 Council of the Swiss Confederation ; His Highness the Bey of 
 Tunis, 
 
 Being equally animated by the desire to protect effectively, and in 
 as uniform a manner as possible, the rights of authors over their 
 literary and artistic works, 
 
 Have resolved to conclude a convention to that effect, and have 
 named for their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say : 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, Empress of India, Sir Francis Ottiwell Adams, Knight 
 Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. 
 George, Companion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, her 
 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Berne ; and 
 John Henry Gibbs Bergne, Esquire, Companion of the Most Dis- 
 tinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Director of a De- 
 partment in the Foreign Office at London. 
 
 His Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia, M. Otto von 
 Blilow, Privy Councilor of Legation, and Chamberlain of His 
 Majesty, his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to 
 the Swiss Confederation.
 
 288 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 His Majesty the King of the Belgians, M. Maurice Delfosse, his 
 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Con- 
 federation. 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of His 
 Catholic Majesty the King of Spain ; the Count de la Almina y 
 Castro, Senator, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary 
 to the Swiss Confederation ; M. Don Jose Villa-Amil, Chief of the 
 Section of Intellectual Property in the Ministry of Public Instruc- 
 tion, Doctor of Civil and Canon Law, Member of the Facultative 
 Corps of Archivists, Librarians, and Archaeologists, and of the 
 Academies of History, of the Fine Arts of St. Ferdinand, and of 
 the Academy of Sciences at Lisbon. 
 
 The President of the French Republic, M. Francois Victor-Em- 
 manuel Arago, Senator, Ambassador from the French Republic to the 
 Swiss Confederation. 
 
 The President of the Republic of Hayti, M. Louis Joseph Janvier, 
 Doctor of Medicine of the Faculty of Paris, Prize-man of the Faculty 
 of Medicine of Paris, bearing Diplomas from the School of Political 
 Sciences of Paris (Administrative and Diplomatic Sections), deco- 
 rated with the Haytian Medal of the third class. 
 
 His Majesty the King of Italy, M. Charles Emmanuel Beccaria 
 des Marquis dTncisa, Chevalier of the Orders of Saints Maurice and 
 Lazarus, and of the Crown of Italy, his Charge d'Affaires to the 
 Swiss Confederation. 
 
 The President of the Republic of Liberia, M. William Kcentzer, 
 Imperial Councilor, Consul-General, Member of the Chamber of 
 Commerce of Vienna. 
 
 The Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, M. Numa Droz, 
 Vice-President of the Federal Council, Head of the Department of 
 Commerce and Agriculture ; M. Louis Ruchonnet, Federal Coun- 
 cilor, Chief of the Department of Justice and Police ; M. A. d'Orelli, 
 Professor of Law at the University of Zurich. 
 
 His Highness the Bey of Tunis, M. Louis Renault, Professor to 
 the Faculty of Law of Paris, and to the Free School of Political 
 Sciences, Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor, and Chev- 
 alier of the Order of the Crown of Italy. 
 
 Who, having communicated to each other their respective full 
 powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the follow- 
 ing Articles :—
 
 THE BERNE CONVENTION. 289 
 
 Article I. 
 
 The Contracting States are constituted into an Union for the pro- 
 tection of the rights of authors over their literary and artistic works. 
 
 Article II. 
 
 Authors of any of the countries of the Union, or their lawful rep- 
 resentatives, shall enjoy in the other countries for their works, 
 whether published in one of those countries or unpublished, the 
 rights which the respective laws do now or may hereafter grant to 
 natives. 
 
 The enjoyment of these rights is subject to the accomplishment of 
 the conditions and formalities prescribed by law in the country of 
 origin of the work, and cannot exceed in the other countries the term 
 of protection granted in the said country of origin. 
 
 The country of origin of the work is that in which the work is first 
 published, or if such publication takes place simultaneously in several 
 countries of the Union, that one of them in which the shortest term 
 of protection is granted by law. 
 
 For unpublished works the country to which the author belongs is 
 considered the country of origin of the work. 
 
 Article III. 
 The stipulations of the present Convention apply equally to the 
 publishers of literary and artistic works published in one of the 
 countries of the Union, but of which the authors belong to a country 
 which is not a party to the Union. 
 
 Article IV. 
 The expression "literary and artistic works" comprehends books, 
 pamphlets, and all other writings ; dramatic, or dramatico-musical 
 works, musical compositions with or without words ; works of de- 
 sign, painting, sculpture, and engraving ; lithographs, illustrations, 
 geographical charts ; plans, sketches, and plastic works relative to 
 geography, topography, architecture, or science in general ; in fact, 
 every production whatsoever in the literary, scientific, or artistic do- 
 main which can be published by any mode of impression or reproduc- 
 tion. 
 
 Article V. 
 
 Authors of any of the countries of the Union, or their lawful rep- 
 resentatives, shall enjoy in the other countries the exclusive right of 
 19
 
 290 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 making or authorizing the translation of their works until the expira- 
 tion of ten years from the publication of the original work in one of 
 the countries of the Union. 
 
 For works published in incomplete parts (" livraisons ") the period 
 of ten years commences from the date of publication of the last part 
 of the original work. 
 
 For works composed of several volumes published at intervals, as 
 well as for bulletins or collections (" cahiers") published by literary 
 or scientific Societies, or by private persons, each volume, bulletin, 
 or collection is, with regard to the period of ten years, considered as 
 a separate work. 
 
 In the cases provided for by the present Article, and for the calcu- 
 lation of the period of protection, the 31st December of the year in 
 which the work was published is admitted as the date of publication. 
 
 Article VI. 
 
 Authorized translations are protected as original works. They 
 consequently enjoy the protection stipulated in Articles II. and III. 
 as regards their unauthorized reproduction in the countries of the 
 Union. 
 
 It is understood that, in the case of a work for which the tranikt- 
 ing right has fallen into the public domain, the translator cannot 
 oppose the translation of the same work by other writers. 
 
 Article VII. 
 
 Articles from newspapers or periodicals published in any of the 
 countries of the Union may be reproduced in original or in trans- 
 lation in the other countries of the Union, unless the authors or 
 publishers have expressly forbidden it. For periodicals it is suffi- 
 cient if the prohibition is made in a general manner at the beginning 
 of each number of the periodical. 
 
 This prohibition cannot in any case apply to articles of political 
 discussion, or to the reproduction of news of the day or current topics. 
 
 Article VIII. 
 
 As regards the liberty of extracting portions from literary or artistic 
 works for use in publications destined for educational or scientific 
 purposes, or for chrestomathies, the matter is to be decided by the 
 legislation of the different countries of the Union, or by special 
 arrangements existing or to be concluded between them.
 
 THE BERNE CONVENTION. 291 
 
 Article IX. 
 
 The stipulations of Article II. apply to the public representation of 
 dramatic or dramatico-musical works, whether such works be pub- 
 lished or not. 
 
 Authors of dramatic or dramatico-musical works, or their lawful 
 representatives, are, during the existence of their exclusive right of 
 translation, equally protected against the unauthorized public repre- 
 sentation of translations of their works. 
 
 The stipulations of Article II. apply equally to the public perform- 
 ance of unpublished musical works, or of published works in which 
 the author has expressly declared on the title-page or commencement 
 of the work that he forbids the public performance. 
 
 Article X. 
 
 Unauthorized indirect appropriations of a literary or artistic work, 
 of various kinds, such as adaptations, arrangements of music, etc., 
 are specially included amongst the illicit reproductions to which the 
 present Convention applies, when they are only the reproduction of 
 a particular work, in the same form, or in another form, with non- 
 essential alterations, additions, or abridgments, so made as not to 
 confer the character of a new original work. 
 
 It is agreed that, in the application of the present Article, the 
 Tribunals of the various countries of the Union will, if there is occa- 
 sion, conform themselves to the provisions of their respective laws. 
 
 Article XL 
 
 In order that the authors of works protected by the present Con- 
 vention shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be considered 
 as such, and be consequently admitted to institute proceedings 
 against pirates before the Courts of the various countries of the 
 Union, it will be sufficient that their name be indicated on the work 
 in the accustomed manner. 
 
 For anonymous or pseudonymous works, the publisher whose 
 name is indicated on the work is entitled to protect the rights 
 belonging to the author. He is, without other proof, reputed the 
 lawful representative of the anonymous or pseudonymous author. 
 
 It is, nevertheless, agreed that the Tribunals may, if necessary, 
 require the production of a certificate from the competent authority 
 to the effect that the formalities prescribed by law in the country of 
 origin have been accomplished, as contemplated in Article II,
 
 2Q2 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Article XII. 
 
 Pirated works may be seized on importation into those countries 
 of the Union where the original work enjoys legal protection. 
 
 The seizure shall take place conformably to the domestic law of 
 each State. 
 
 Article XIII. 
 
 It is understood that the provisions of the present Convention 
 cannot in any way derogate from the right belonging to the Govern- 
 ment of each country of the Union to permit, to control, or to pro- 
 hibit, by measures of domestic legislation or police, the circulation, 
 representation, or exhibition of any works or productions in regard 
 to which the competent authority may find it necessary to exercise 
 that right. 
 
 Article XIV. 
 
 Under the reserves and conditions to be determined by common 
 agreement, 1 the present Convention applies to all works which at 
 the moment of its coming into force have not yet fallen into the 
 public domain in the country of origin. 
 
 Article XV. 
 
 It is understood that the Governments of the countries of the 
 Union reserve to themselves respectively the right to enter into 
 separate and particular arrangements between each other, provided 
 always that such arrangements confer upon authors or their lawful 
 representatives more extended rights than those granted by the 
 Union, or embody other stipulations not contrary to the present 
 Convention. 
 
 Article XVI. 
 
 An international office is established, under the name of "Office 
 of the International Union for the Protection of Literary and 
 Artistic Works." 
 
 This office, of which the expenses will be borne by the Adminis- 
 trations of all the countries of the Union, is placed under the high 
 authority of the Superior Administration of the Swiss Confedera- 
 
 1 See paragraph 4 of Final Protocol.
 
 THE BERNE CONVENTION. 293 
 
 tion, and works under its direction. The functions of this Office 
 are determined by common accord between the countries of the 
 Union. 
 
 Article XVII. 
 
 The present Convention may be submitted to revisions in order to 
 introduce therein amendments calculated to perfect the system of 
 the Union. 
 
 Questions of this kind, as well as those which are of interest to 
 the Union in other respects, will be considered in Conferences to be 
 held successively in the countries of the Union by Delegates of the 
 said countries. 
 
 It is understood that no alteration in the present Convention shall 
 be binding on the Union except by the unanimous consent of the 
 countries composing it. 
 
 Article XVIII. 
 
 Countries which have not become parties to the present Conven- 
 tion, and which grant by their domestic law the protection of rights 
 secured by this Convention, shall be admitted to accede thereto on 
 request to that effect. 
 
 Such accession shall be notified in writing to the Government of 
 the Swiss Confederation, which will communicate it to all the other 
 countries of the Union. 
 
 Such accession shall imply full adhesion to all the clauses and 
 admission to all the advantages provided by the present Convention. 
 
 Article XIX. 
 
 Countries acceding to the present Convention shall also have the 
 right to accede thereto at any time for their Colonies or foreign 
 possessions. 
 
 They may do this either by a general declaration comprehending 
 all their Colonies or possessions within the accession, or by specially 
 naming those comprised therein, or by simply indicating those which 
 are excluded. 
 
 Article XX. 
 
 The present Convention shall be put in force three months after 
 the exchange of the ratifications, and shall remain in effect for an
 
 294 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 indefinite period until the termination of a year from the day on 
 which it may have been denounced. 
 
 Such denunciation shall be made to the Government authorized to 
 receive accessions, and shall only be effective as regards the country 
 making it, the Convention remaining in full force and effect for the 
 other countries of the Union. 
 
 Article XXI. 
 
 The present Convention shall be ratified, and the ratifications ex- 
 changed at Berne, within the space of one year at the latest. 
 
 In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed 
 the same, and have affixed thereto the seal of their arms. 
 
 Done at Berne, the 9th day of September, 1886. 
 
 F. O. ADAMS. 
 
 J. H. G. BERGNE. 
 
 OTTO von BULOW. 
 
 MAURICE DELFOSSE. 
 
 COMTE DE LA ALMINA Y CASTRO. 
 
 JOSE VILLA-AMIL. 
 
 EMMANUEL ARAGO. 
 
 LOUIS-JOSEPH JANVIER. 
 
 E. DI BECCARIA. 
 
 KOENTZER. 
 
 DROZ. 
 
 L. RUCHONNET. 
 
 A. D'ORELLI. 
 
 L. RENAULT. 
 
 Additional Article. 
 
 The Plenipotentiaries assembled to sign the Convention concern- 
 ing the creation of an International Union for the protection of 
 literary and artistic works have agreed upon the following Addi- 
 tional Article, which shall be ratified together with the Convention 
 to which it relates : — 
 
 The Convention concluded this day in nowise affects the main- 
 tenance of existing Conventions between the Contracting States, 
 provided always that such Conventions confer on authors, or their 
 lawful representatives, rights more extended than those secured by
 
 THE BERNE CONVENTION. 295 
 
 the Union, or contain other stipulations which are not contrary to 
 the said Convention. 
 
 In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed 
 the present Additional Article. 
 
 Done at Berne, the 9th day of September, 1886. 
 
 (Signed) F. O. ADAMS. 
 
 J. H. G. BERGNE. 
 
 OTTO von BULOW. 
 
 MAURICE DELFOSSE. 
 
 ALMINA. 
 
 VILLA-AMIL. 
 
 EMMANUEL ARAGO. 
 
 LOUIS-JOSEPH JANVIER. 
 
 E. DI BECCARIA. 
 
 KCENTZER. 
 
 DROZ. 
 
 L. RUCHONNET. 
 
 A. D'ORELLI. 
 
 L. RENAULT. 
 
 Final Protocol. 
 
 In proceeding to the signature of the Convention concluded this 
 day, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries have declared and stipulated 
 as follows : 
 
 1. As regards Article IV., it is agreed that those countries of 
 the Union where the character of artistic works is not refused to 
 photographs, engage to admit them to the benefits of the Convention 
 concluded to-day, from the date of its coming into effect. They 
 are, however, not bound to protect the authors of such works 
 further than is permitted by their own legislation, except in the case 
 of international engagements already existing, or which may here- 
 after be entered into by them. 
 
 It is understood that an authorized photograph of a protected 
 work of art shall enjoy legal protection in all the countries of the 
 Union, as contemplated by the said Convention, for the same period 
 as the principal right of reproduction of the work itself subsists, 
 and within the limits of private arrangements between those who 
 have legal rights. 
 
 2. As regards Article IX., it is agreed that those countries of the
 
 296 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Union whose legislation implicitly includes choregraphic works 
 amongst dramatico-musical works, expressly admit the former works 
 to the benefits of the Convention concluded this day. 
 
 It is, however, understood that questions which may arise on the 
 application of this clause shall rest within the competence of the 
 respective Tribunals to decide. 
 
 3. It is understood that the manufacture and sale of instruments 
 for the mechanical reproduction of musical airs which are copy- 
 right, shall not be considered as constituting an infringement of 
 musical copyright. 
 
 4. The common agreement alluded to in Article XIV. of the Con- 
 vention is established as follows : 
 
 The application of the Convention to works which have not fallen 
 into the public domain at the time when it comes into force, shall 
 operate according to the stipulations on this head which may be 
 contained in special Conventions either existing or to be concluded. 
 
 In the absence of such stipulations between any countries of the 
 Union, the respective countries shall regulate, each for itself by its 
 domestic legislation, the manner in which the principle contained in 
 Article XIV. is to be applied. 
 
 5. The organization of the International Office established in 
 virtue of Article XVI. of the Convention shall be fixed by a Regu- 
 lation which will be drawn up by the Government of the Swiss 
 Confederation. 
 
 The official language of the International Office will be French. 
 
 The International Office will collect all kinds of information 
 relative to the protection of the rights of authors over their literary 
 and artistic works. It will arrange and publish such information. 
 It will study questions of general utility likely to be of interest to 
 the Union, and, by the aid of documents placed at its disposal by 
 the different Administrations, will edit a periodical publication in 
 the French language treating questions which concern the Union. 
 The Governments of the countries of the Union reserve to them- 
 selves the faculty of authorizing, by common accord, the publication 
 by the Office of an edition in one or more other languages if experi- 
 ence should show this to be requisite. 
 
 The International Office will always hold itself at the disposal of 
 members of the Union, with the view to furnish them with any 
 special information they may require relative to the protection of 
 literary and artistic works.
 
 THE BERNE CONVENTION. 
 
 297 
 
 The Administration of the country where a Conference is about 
 to be held, will prepare the programme of the Conference with the 
 assistance of the International Office. 
 
 The Director of the International Office will attend the sittings 
 of the Conferences, and will take part in the discussions without a 
 deliberative voice. He will make an annual Report on his admin- 
 istration, which shall be communicated to all the members of the 
 Union. 
 
 The expenses of the Office of the International Union shall be 
 shared by the Contracting States. Unless a fresh arrangement be 
 made, they cannot exceed a sum of 60,000 fr. a year. This sum 
 may be increased by the decision of one of the Conferences pro- 
 vided for in Article XVII. 
 
 The share of the total expense to be paid by each country shall be 
 determined by the division of the contracting and acceding States 
 into six classes, each of which shall contribute in the proportion of a 
 certain number of units, viz. : — 
 
 First Class 
 
 Second 
 
 Third 
 
 Fourth 
 
 Fifth 
 
 Sixth 
 
 25 units. 
 20 " 
 15 " 
 10 
 
 5 " 
 3 " 
 
 These co-efficients will be multiplied by the number of States of 
 each class, and the total product thus obtained will give the number 
 of units by which the total expense is to be divided. The quotient 
 will give the amount of the unity of expense. 
 
 Each State will declare at the time of its accession, in which of the 
 said classes it desires to be placed. 
 
 The Swiss Administration will prepare the Budget of the Office, 
 superintend its expenditure, make the necessary advances, and draw 
 up the annual account, which shall be communicated to all the other 
 Administrations. 
 
 6. The next Conference shall be held at Paris, between four and 
 six years from the date of the coming into force of the Convention. 
 
 The French Government will fix the date within these limits after 
 having consulted the International Office. 
 
 7. It is agreed that, as regards the exchange of ratifications con-
 
 298 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 templated in Article XXI., each Contracting Party shall give a single 
 instrument, which shall be deposited, with those of the other States, 
 in the Government archives of the Swiss Confederation. Each party 
 shall receive in exchange a copy of the proces-verbal of the exchange 
 of ratifications, signed by the Plenipotentiaries present. 
 
 The present Final Protocol, which shall be ratified with the Con- 
 vention concluded this day, shall be considered as forming an integral 
 part of the said Convention, and shall have the same force, effect, and 
 duration. 
 
 In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the 
 same. 
 
 Done at Berne, the 9th day of September, 1886. 
 
 (Signed) F. O. ADAMS. 
 
 J. H. G. BERGNE. 
 
 OTTO von BULOW. 
 
 MAURICE DELFOSSE. 
 
 ALMINA. 
 
 VILLA-AMIL. 
 
 EMMANUEL ARAGO. 
 
 LOUIS-JOSEPH JANVIER. 
 
 E. DI BECCARIA. 
 
 KGENTZER. 
 
 DROZ. 
 
 L. RUCHONNET. 
 
 A. D'ORELLI. 
 
 L. RENAULT. 
 
 Proces-verbal of Signature. 
 
 The undersigned Plenipotentiaries, assembled this day to proceed 
 with the signature of the Convention with reference to the creation 
 of an International Union for the protection of literary and artistic 
 works, have exchanged the following declarations : — ■ 
 
 1. With reference to the accession of the Colonies or foreign pos- 
 sessions provided for by Article XIX. of the Convention :
 
 THE BERNE CONVENTION. 299 
 
 The Plenipotentiaries of His Catholic Majesty the King of Spain 
 reserve to the Government the power of making known His Ma- 
 jesty's decision at the time of the exchange of ratifications. 
 
 The Plenipotentiary of the French Republic states that the 
 accession of his country carries with it that of all the French Colo- 
 nies. 
 
 The Plenipotentiaries of Her Britannic Majesty state that the ac- 
 cession of Great Britain to the Convention for the protection of 
 literary and artistic works comprises the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, and all the Colonies and foreign possessions of 
 Her Britannic Majesty. 
 
 At the same time they reserve to the Government of Her Britannic 
 Majesty the power of announcing at any time the separate denuncia- 
 tion of the Convention by one or several of the following Colonies or 
 possessions, in the manner provided for by Article XX. of the Con- 
 vention, namely : — 
 
 India, the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, the Cape, Natal, 
 New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Aus- 
 tralia, Western Australia, and New Zealand. 
 
 2. With respect to the classification of the countries of the Union 
 having regard to their contributory part to the expenses of the 
 International Bureau (No. 5 of the Final Protocol) : 
 
 The Plenipotentiaries declare that their respective countries 
 should be ranked in the following classes, namely : — 
 
 Germany in the first class. Hayti in the fifth class. 
 
 Belgium in the third class. Italy in the first class. 
 
 Spain in the second class. Switzerland in the third class. 
 
 France in the first class. Tunis in the sixth class. 
 
 Great Britain in the first class. 
 
 The Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Liberia states that the 
 powers which he has received from his Government authorize him 
 to sign the Convention, but that he has not received instructions as 
 to the class in which his country proposes to place itself with respect 
 to the contribution to the expenses of the International Bureau. 
 He therefore reserves that question to be determined by his Gov- 
 ernment, which will make known its intention on the exchange of 
 ratifications.
 
 300 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed 
 the present proch-verbal. 
 
 Done at Berne, the 9th day of September, 1886. 
 
 (Signed) For Great Britain . . F. O. ADAMS. 
 
 J. H. G. BERGNE. 
 For Germany . . . . OTTO von BULOW. 
 For Belgium . . . . MAURICE DELFOSSE. 
 For Spain ALMINA. 
 
 VILLA-AMIL. 
 For France . . . . EMMANUEL ARAGO. 
 
 For Hayti LOUIS-JOSEPH JANVIER. 
 
 For Italy E. DI BECCARIA. 
 
 For Liberia . . . . KCENTZER. 
 For Switzerland . . DROZ. 
 
 L. RUCHONNET. 
 
 A. D'ORELLI. 
 For Tunis L. RENAULT. 
 
 Proch-verbal recording Deposit of Ratifications. 
 
 In accordance with the stipulations of Article XXL, paragraph I, 
 of the Convention for the creation of an International Union for 
 the protection of literary and artistic works, concluded at Berne on 
 9th September, 1886, and in consequence of the invitation addressed 
 to that effect by the Swiss Federal Council to the Governments of 
 the High Contracting Parties, the Undersigned assembled this day 
 in the Federal Palace at Berne for the purpose of examining and 
 depositing the ratifications of : — 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of 
 India, 
 
 His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia, 
 
 His Majesty the King of the Belgians, 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, in the name of His 
 Catholic Majesty the King of Spain, 
 
 The President of the French Republic, 
 
 The President of the Republic of Hayti, 
 
 His Majesty the King of Italy,
 
 THE BERNE CONVENTION. 301 
 
 The Council of the Swiss Confederation, 
 His Highness the Bey of Tunis, 
 
 to the said International Convention, followed by an Additional 
 Article and Final Protocol. 
 
 The instruments of these acts of ratification having been pro- 
 duced and found in good and due form, they have been delivered 
 into the hands of the President of the Swiss Confederation, to be 
 deposited in the archives of the Government of that country, in 
 accordance with clause No. 7 of the Final Protocol of the Inter- 
 national Convention. 
 
 In witness whereof the Undersigned have drawn up the present 
 proces-verbal, to which they have affixed their signatures and the 
 seals of their arms. 
 
 Done at Berne, the 5th September, 1S87, in nine copies, one of 
 which shall be deposited in the archives of the Swiss Confederation 
 with the instruments of ratification. 
 
 For Great Britain . . F. O. ADAMS. 
 
 For Germany 
 For Belgium 
 For Spain . . 
 For France 
 For Hayti . . 
 For Italy . . 
 
 ALFRED von BULOW. 
 HENRY LOUMYER. 
 COMTE DE LA ALMINA. 
 EMMANUEL ARAGO. 
 LOUIS-JOSEPH JANVIER. 
 FE. 
 
 For Switzerland . . DROZ. 
 
 For Tunis H. MARCHAND. 
 
 Protocol. 
 
 On proceeding to the signature of the proces-verbal recording the 
 deposit of the acts of ratification given by the High Parties Signatory 
 to the Convention of the gth September, 18S6, for the creation of an 
 International Union for the protection of literary and artistic works, 
 the Minister of Spain renewed, in the name of his Government, the 
 declaration recorded in the proces-verbal of the Conference of the 
 9th September, 1886, according to which the accession of Spain to 
 the Convention includes that of all the territories dependent upon 
 the Spanish Crown.
 
 302 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 The Undersigned have taken note of this declaration. 
 In witness whereof they have signed the present Protocol, done at 
 Berne, in nine copies, the 5th September, 1887. 
 
 For Great Britain . . F. O. ADAMS. 
 
 For Germany . . . . ALFRED VON BULOW. 
 
 For Belgium .. .. HENRY LOUMYER. 
 
 For Spain COMTE DE LA ALMINA. 
 
 For France .. .. EMMANUEL ARAGO. 
 
 ForHayti LOUIS-JOSEPH JANVIER. 
 
 For Italy FE. 
 
 For Switzerland . . DROZ. 
 
 For Tunis H. MARCHAND. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT ACT, 1 886. 
 [49 & 50 Vict., c. 33-] 
 
 Arrangement of Sections. 
 
 Section. 
 
 1. Short titles and construction . 
 
 2. Amendment as to extent and effect of order under International Copy- 
 
 right Acts. 
 
 3. Simultaneous publication. 
 
 4. Modification of certain provisions of International Copyright Acts. 
 
 5. Restriction on translation. 
 
 6. Application of Act to existing works. 
 
 7. Evidence of foreign copyright. 
 
 8. Application of Copyright Acts to Colonies. 
 
 9. Application of International Copyright Acts to Colonies. 
 
 10. Making of Orders ia Council. 
 
 11. Definitions. 
 
 12. Repeal of Acts. 
 Schedules. 
 
 An act to amend the Law respecting International and Colonial 
 Copyright. [25th June, 1886.] 
 
 Whereas, by the International Copyright Acts Her Majesty is 
 authorized by Order in Council to direct that as regards literary and 
 artistic works first published in a foreign country the author shall 
 have copyright therein during the period specified in the order, not 
 exceeding the period during which authors of the like works first 
 published in the United Kingdom have copyright :
 
 THE BRITISH ACT OF 1 886. 303 
 
 And whereas, at an international conference held at Berne in the 
 month of September one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five a 
 draft of a convention was agreed to for giving to authors of literary 
 and artistic works first published in one of the countries parties to 
 the convention copyright in such works throughout the other coun- 
 tries parties to the convention ; 
 
 And whereas, without the authority of Parliament such convention 
 cannot be carried into effect in Her Majesty's dominions and conse- 
 quently Her Majesty cannot become a party thereto, and it is expe- 
 dient to enable Her Majesty to accede to the convention : 
 
 Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, 
 by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
 poral, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by 
 the authority of the same, as follows : 
 
 1. — (1.) This Act may be cited as the International Copyright 
 Act, 1886. 
 
 (2.) The Acts specified in the first part of the First Schedule to 
 this Act are in this Act referred to and may be cited by the short 
 titles in that schedule mentioned, and those Acts, together with the 
 enactment specified in the second part of the said schedule, are in 
 this Act collectively referred to as the International Copyright Acts. 
 
 The Acts specified in the Second Schedule to this Act may be 
 cited by the short titles in that schedule mentioned, and those Acts 
 are in this Act referred to, and may be cited collectively as the 
 Copyright Acts. 
 
 (3.) This Act and the International Copyright Acts shall be con- 
 strued together, and may be cited together as the International 
 Copyright Acts, 1844 to 1886. 
 
 2. The following provisions shall apply to an Order in Council 
 under the International Copyright Acts : — 
 
 (1.) The order may extend to all the several foreign countries 
 named or described therein : 
 
 (2.) The order may exclude or limit the rights conferred by the 
 International Copyright Acts in the case of authors who are not 
 subjects or citizens of the foreign countries named or described in 
 that or any other order, and if the order contains such limitation 
 and the author of a literary or artistic work first produced in one of 
 those foreign countries is not a British subject, nor a subject or citi- 
 zen of any of the foreign countries so named or described, the pub- 
 lisher of such work, unless the order otherwise provides, shall, for
 
 304 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the purpose of an,y legal proceedings in the United Kingdom for 
 protecting any copyright in such work, be deemed to be entitled to 
 such copyright as if he were the author, but this enactment shall not 
 prejudice the rights of such author and publisher as between them- 
 selves : 
 
 (3.) The International Copyright Acts and an order made there- 
 under shall not confer on any person any greater right or longer 
 term of copyright in any work than that enjoyed in the foreign 
 country in which such work was first produced. 
 
 3. — (1.) An Order in Council under the International Copyright 
 Acts may provide for determining the country in which a literary or 
 artistic work, first produced simultaneously in two or more countries, 
 is to be deemed, for the purpose of copyright, to have been first 
 produced, and for the purposes of this section "country" means 
 the United Kingdom and a country to which an order under the said 
 Acts applies. 
 
 (2.) Where a work produced simultaneously in the United King- 
 dom, and in some foreign country or countries, is by virtue of an 
 Order in Council under the International Copyright Acts deemed for 
 the purpose of copyright to be first produced in one of the said 
 foreign countries, and not in the United Kingdom, the copyright in 
 the United Kingdom shall be such only as exists by virtue of pro- 
 duction in the said foreign country, and shall not be such as would 
 have been acquired if the work had been first produced in the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 4. — (1.) Where an order respecting any foreign country is made 
 under the International Copyright Acts the provisions of those Acts 
 with respect to the registry and delivery of copies of works shall not 
 apply to works produced in such country except so far as provided 
 by the order. 
 
 (2.) Before making an Order in Council under the International 
 Copyright Acts in respect of any foreign country, Her Majesty in 
 Council shall be satisfied that that foreign country has made such 
 provisions (if any) as it appears to Her Majesty expedient to require 
 for the protection of authors of works first produced in the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 5. — (1.) Where a work being a book or dramatic piece is first pro- 
 duced in a foreign country to which an Order in Council under the 
 International Copyright Acts applies, the author or publisher, as 
 the case may be, shall, unless otherwise directed by the Order, have
 
 THE BRITISH ACT OF 1 886. 305 
 
 the same right of preventing the production in and importation into 
 the United Kingdom of any translation not authorized by him of the 
 said work as he has of preventing the production and importation of 
 the original work. 
 
 (2.) Provided that if after the expiration of ten years, or any other 
 term prescribed by the order, next after the end of the year in which 
 the work, or in the case of a book published in numbers each num- 
 ber of the book, was first produced, an authorized translation in the 
 English language of such work or number has not been produced, 
 the said right to prevent the production in and importation into the 
 United Kingdom of an unauthorized translation of such work shall 
 cease. 
 
 (3.) The law relating to copyright, including this Act, shall apply 
 to a lawfully produced translation of a work in like manner as if it 
 were an original work. 
 
 (4.) Such of the provisions of the International Copyright Act, 
 1852, relating to translations, as are unrepealed by this Act shall 
 apply in like manner as if they were re-enacted in this section. 
 
 6. Where an Order in Council is made under the International 
 Copyright Acts with respect to any foreign country, the author and 
 publisher of any literary or artistic work first produced before the 
 date at which such order comes into operation shall be entitled to 
 the same rights and remedies as if the said Acts and this Act and 
 the said order had applied to the said foreign country at the date of 
 the said production : Provided that where any person has before the 
 date of the publication of an Order in Council lawfully produced 
 any work in the United Kingdom, nothing in this section shall 
 diminish or prejudice any rights or interests arising from or in con- 
 nection with such production which are subsisting and valuable at 
 the said date. 
 
 7. Where it is necessary to prove the existence or proprietorship 
 of the copyright of any work first produced in a foreign country to 
 which an Order in Council under the International Copyright Acts 
 applies, an extract from a register, or a certificate, or other docu- 
 ment stating the existence of the copyright, or the person who is the 
 proprietor of such copyright, or is for the purpose of any legal pro- 
 ceedings in the United Kingdom deemed to be entitled to such copy- 
 right, if authenticated by the official seal of a Minister of State of 
 the said foreign country, or by the official seal or the signature of a 
 British diplomatic or consular officer acting in such country, shall be
 
 306 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 admissible as evidence of the facts named therein, and all courts 
 shall take judicial notice of every such official seal and signature as 
 is in this section mentioned, and shall admit in evidence, without 
 proof, the documents authenticated by it. 
 
 8. — (i.) The Copyright Acts shall, subject to the provisions of this 
 Act, apply to a literary or artistic work first produced in a British 
 possession in like manner as they apply to a work first produced in 
 the United Kingdom : 
 
 Provided that — 
 
 (a) the enactments respecting the registry of the copyright in such 
 work shall not apply if the law of such possession provides for 
 the registration of such copyright ; and 
 
 (6) where such work is a book the delivery to any persons or body 
 of persons of a copy of any such work shall not be required. 
 
 (2.) Where a register of copyright in books is kept under the au- 
 thority of the government of a British possession, an extract from 
 that register purporting to be certified as a true copy by the officer 
 keeping it, and authenticated by the public seal of the British pos- 
 session, or by the official seal or the signature of the governor of a 
 British possession, or of a colonial secretary, or of some secretary or 
 minister administering a department of the government of a British 
 possession, shall be admissible in evidence of the contents of that 
 register, and all courts shall take judicial notice of every such seal 
 and signature, and shall admit in evidence, without further proof, 
 all documents authenticated by it. 
 
 (3.) Where before the passing of this Act an Act or ordinance has 
 been passed in any British possession respecting copyright in any 
 literary or artistic works, Her Majesty in Council may make an Order 
 modifying the Copyright Acts and this Act, so far as they apply to 
 such British possession, and to literary and artistic works first pro- 
 duced therein, in such manner as to Her Majesty in Council seems 
 expedient. 
 
 (4.) Nothing in the copyright Acts or this Act shall prevent the 
 passing in a British possession of any Act or ordinance respecting 
 the copyright within the limits of such possession of works first pro- 
 duced in that possession. 
 
 9. Where it appears to Her Majesty expedient that an Order in 
 Council under the International Copyright Acts made after the pass- 
 ing of this Act as respects any foreign country, should not apply 
 to any British possession, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty by the
 
 THE BRITISH ACT OF 1 886. 3°7 
 
 same or any other Order in Council to declare that such Order and fc 
 the International Copyright Acts and this Act shall not, and the 
 same shall not, apply to such British possession, except so far as is 
 necessary for preventing any prejudice to any rights acquired pre- 
 viously to the date of such Order ; and the expressions in the said 
 Acts relating to Her Majesty's dominions shall be construed accord- 
 ingly ; but save as provided by such declaration the said Acts and 
 this Act shall apply to every British possession as if it were part of 
 the United Kingdom. 
 
 10 — (i.) It shall be lawful for Her Majesty from time to time to 
 make Orders in Council for the purpose of the International Copy- 
 right Acts and this Act, for revoking or altering any Order in Council 
 previously made in pursuance of the said Acts, or any of them. 
 
 (2.) Any such Order in Council shall not affect prejudicially any 
 rights acquired or accrued at the date of such Order coming into 
 operation, and shall provide for the protection of such rights. 
 II. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires — 
 The expression "literary and artistic work" means every book, 
 print, lithograph, article of sculpture, dramatic piece, musical com- 
 position, painting, drawing, photograph, and other work of literature 
 and art to which the Copyright Acts or the International Copyright 
 Acts, as the case requires, extend. 
 
 The expression " author " means the author, inventor, designer, 
 engraver, or maker of any literary or artistic work, and includes any 
 person claiming through the author ; and in the case of a posthu- 
 mous work means the proprietor of the manuscript of such work and 
 any person claiming through him ; and in the case of an encyclopae- 
 dia, review, magazine, periodical work, or work published in a series 
 of books or parts, includes the proprietor, projector, publisher, or 
 conductor. 
 
 The expressions "performed" and "performance" and similar 
 words include representation and similar words. 
 
 The expression " produced " means, as the case requires, published 
 or made, or, performed or represented, and the expression "pro- 
 duction " is to be construed accordingly. 
 
 The expression " bookpublished in numbers " includes any review, 
 magazine, periodical work, work published in a series of books or 
 parts, transactions of a society or body, and other books of which 
 different volumes or parts are published at different times. 
 
 The expression " treaty " includes any convention or arrangement.
 
 308 
 
 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 The expression "British possession " includes any part of Her 
 Majesty's dominions exclusive of the United Kingdom ; and where 
 parts of such dominions are under both a central and a local legis- 
 lature, all parts under one central legislature are for the purposes of 
 this definition deemed to be one British possession. 
 
 12. The Acts specified in the Third Schedule to this Act are 
 hereby repealed as from the passing of this Act to the extent in the 
 third column of that schedule mentioned : 
 Provided as follows: 
 
 (a.) Where an Order in Council has been made before the passing 
 of this Act under the said Acts as respects any foreign country 
 the enactments hereby repealed shall continue in full force as 
 respects that country until the said Order is revoked. 
 {b.) The said repeal and revocation shall not prejudice any rights 
 acquired previously to such repeal or revocation, and such 
 rights shall continue and may be enforced in like manner 
 as if the said repeal or revocation had not been enacted or 
 made. 
 
 FIRST SCHEDULE. 
 International Copyright Acts. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 Session and Chapter 
 
 7 & 8 Vict. c. 12 
 
 iS & 16 Vict. c. 12 
 
 39 Vict. c. 12 
 
 Title. 
 
 An Act to amend the law relating to 
 International Copyright. 
 
 An Act to enable Her Majesty to 
 carry into effect a convention with 
 France on the subject of copyright, 
 to extend and explain the Interna- 
 tional Copyright Acts, and to ex- 
 plain the Acts relating to copyright 
 in engravings. 
 
 An Act to amend the law relating to 
 International Copyright. 
 
 Short Title. 
 
 The International 
 Copyright Act, 
 
 1844. 
 
 The International 
 Copyright Act, 
 
 The International 
 Copyright Act. 
 1875-
 
 THE BRITISH ACT OF 1 886. 
 
 309 
 
 FIRST SCHEDULE. 
 Part II. 
 
 Session and Chapter 
 
 Title. 
 
 Enactment referred 
 to. 
 
 25 & 26 Vict. c. 68 
 
 An Act for amending the law relat- 
 ing to copyright in works of the 
 fine arts, and for repressing the 
 commission of fraud in the produc- 
 tion and sale of such works. 
 
 Section twelve. 
 
 SECOND SCHEDULE. 
 Copyright Acts. 
 
 8 Geo. 2. c. 13 
 
 7 Geo. 3. c. 38 
 
 15 Geo. 3. c. 53 
 
 An Act for the encouragement of 
 the arts of designing, engraving, 
 and etching, historical, and other 
 prints by vesting the properties 
 thereof in the inventors and en- 
 gravers during the time therein- 
 mentioned. 
 
 An Act to amend and render more 
 effectual an Act made in the 
 eighth year of the reign of King 
 George the Second, for encourage- 
 ment of the arts of designing, en- 
 graving, and etching, historical 
 and other prints, and for vesting 
 in and securing to Jane Hogarth, 
 widow, the property in certain 
 prints. 
 
 An Act for enabling the two Uni- 
 versities in England, the four 
 Universities in Scotland, and the 
 several Colleges of Eton, West- 
 minster, and Winchester, to hold 
 in perpetuity their copyright in 
 books given or bequeathed to the 
 said universities and colleges for 
 the advancement of useful learn- 
 ing and other purposes of educa- 
 tion ; and for amending so much 
 of an Act of the eighth year of 
 the reign of Queen Anne, as re- 
 lates to the delivery of books to 
 the warehouse-keeper of the Sta- 
 tioners' Company for the use of 
 the several libraries therein men- 
 tioned. 
 
 The Engraving 
 Copyright Act, 
 1734- 
 
 The Engraving 
 Copyright Act, 
 1766. 
 
 The Copyright Act, 
 1775-
 
 3IO THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 SECOND SCHEDULE— Continued. 
 
 Session and Chapter 
 
 17 Geo. 3. c. 57 
 
 54 Geo. 3. c. 56 
 
 3 Will. 4. c. 15 
 
 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 65 
 
 6& 7 Will. 4. c. 69 
 
 6&7 Will. 4. c. no 
 
 S & 6 Vict. c. 45 
 
 10 & 11 Vict. c. 95 
 
 25 & 26 Vict. c. 
 
 An Act for more effectually securing 
 the property of prints to inventors 
 and engravers by enabling them to 
 sue for and recover penalties in 
 certain cases. 
 
 An Act to amend and render more 
 effectual an Act of His present 
 Majesty for encouraging the art 
 of making new models and casts 
 of busts and other things therein 
 mentioned, and for giving further 
 encouragement to such arts. 
 
 An Act to amend the laws relating 
 to Dramatic Literary Property. 
 
 An Act for preventing the publica- 
 tion of Lectures without consent. 
 
 An Act to extend the protection of 
 copyright in prints and engrav- 
 ings to Ireland. 
 
 An Act to repeal so much of an Act 
 of the fifty-fourth year of King 
 George the Third, respecting copy- 
 rights, as requires the delivery of 
 a copy of every published book to 
 the libraries of Sion College, the 
 four Universities of Scotland, and 
 of the King's Inns in Dublin. 
 
 An Act to amend the law of copy- 
 right. 
 
 An Act to amend the law relating to 
 the protection in the Colonies of 
 works entitled to copyright in the 
 United Kingdom. 
 
 An Act for amending the law relat- 
 ing to copyright in works of the 
 fine arts, and for repressing the 
 commission of fraud in the pro- 
 duction and sale of such works. 
 
 Short Title. 
 
 The Prints Copy- 
 right Act, 1777. 
 
 The Sculpture 
 Copyright Act, 
 
 The Dramatic Copy- 
 right Act, 1833. 
 
 The Lectures Copy- 
 right Act, 1835. 
 
 The Prints and En- 
 gravings Copy- 
 right Act, 1836. 
 
 The Copyright 
 Act, 1836. 
 
 The Copyright 
 Act, 1842. 
 
 The Colonial Copy- 
 right Act, 1847. 
 
 The Fine Arts 
 Copyright Act, 
 1862.
 
 THE BRITISH ACT OF 1 886. 
 
 311 
 
 THIRD SCHEDULE. 
 Acts Repealed. 
 
 Session and Chapter 
 
 7& 8 Vict. c. 12 
 
 15 & 16 Vict. c. 12 
 
 25 & 26 Vict. c. 68 
 
 Title. 
 
 An Act to amend the law relating 
 to international copyright. 
 
 An Act to enable Her Majesty to 
 carry into effect a convention with 
 France on the subject of copy- 
 right, to extend and explain the 
 International Copyright Acts, and 
 to explain the Acts relating to 
 copyright engravings. 
 
 An Act for amending the law relat- 
 ing to copyright in works of the 
 fine arts, and for repressing the 
 commission of fraud in the produc- 
 tion and sale of such works. 
 
 Extent of Repeal. 
 
 Sections fourteen, 
 seventeen, and 
 eighteen. 
 
 Sections one to 
 five, both inclu- 
 sive, and sections 
 eight and eleven. 
 
 So much of section 
 twelve as incor- 
 porates any en- 
 actment repealed 
 by this Act. 
 
 ORDER IN COUNCIL. 
 
 At the Court at Windsor, the 28th day of November, 1887. 
 Present, 
 The QUEEN'S Most Excellent Majesty, 
 Lord President, 
 Lord Stanley of Preston, 
 Secretary Sir Henry. Holland, Bart. 
 
 WHEREAS the Convention of which an English translation is set 
 out in the First Schedule to this Order has been concluded between 
 her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland and the foreign countries named in this Order, with 
 respect to the protection to be given by way of copyright to the 
 authors of literary and artistic works : 
 
 And whereas the ratifications of the said Convention were ex- 
 changed on the fifth day of September one thousand eight hundred 
 and eighty-seven, between Her Majesty the Queen and the Govern- 
 ments of the foreign countries following, that is to say : 
 
 Belgium ; France ; Germany ; Hayti ; Italy ; Spain ; Switzer- 
 land ; Tunis : 
 
 21
 
 312 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 And whereas Her Majesty in Council is satisfied that the foreign 
 countries named in this Order have made such provisions as it 
 appears to Her Majesty expedient to require for the protection of 
 authors of works first produced in Her Majesty's dominions : 
 
 Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice of her Privy 
 Council, and by virtue of the authority committed to Her by the 
 International Copyright Acts, 1844 to 1886, doth order ; and it is 
 hereby ordered, as follows : 
 
 1. The Convention as set forth in the First Schedule to this 
 Order, shall, as from the commencement of this Order, have full 
 effect throughout Her Majesty's dominions, and all persons are en- 
 joined to observe the same. 
 
 2. This Order shall extend to the foreign countries following, 
 that is to say : Belgium ; France ; Germany ; Hayti ; Italy ; Spain ; 
 Switzerland ; Tunis ; and the above countries are in this Order 
 referred to as the foreign countries of the Copyright Union, and 
 those foreign countries, together with Her Majesty's dominions, are 
 in this Order referred to as the countries of the Copyright Union. 
 
 3. The author of a literary or artistic work which, on or after the 
 commencement of this Order, is first produced in one of the foreign 
 countries of the Copyright Union shall, subject as in this Order and 
 in the International Copyright Acts, 1844 to 1886, mentioned, have 
 as respects that work throughout Her Majesty's dominions, the same 
 right of copyright, including any right capable of being conferred 
 by an Order in Council under section two or section five of the 
 International Copyright Act, 1844, or under any other enactment, 
 as if the work had been first produced in the United Kingdom, and 
 shall have such right during the same period ; 
 
 Provided, that the author of a literary or artistic work shall not 
 have any greater right or longer term of copyright therein, than that 
 which he enjoys in the country in which the work is first produced. 
 
 The author of any literary or artistic work first produced before 
 the commencement of this Order shall have the rights and remedies 
 to which he is entitled under section six of the International Copy- 
 right Act, 1886. 
 
 4. The rights conferred by the International Copyright Acts, 1844 
 to 1886, shall, in the case of a literary or artistic work first produced 
 in one of the foreign countries of the Copyright Union by an 
 author who is not a subject or citizen of any of the said foreign 
 countries, be limited as follows, that is to say, the author shall not
 
 THE BRITISH ACT OF 1 886. 313 
 
 be entitled to take legal proceedings in Her Majesty's dominions for 
 protecting any copyright in such work, but the publisher of such 
 work shall, for the purpose of any legal proceedings in Her 
 Majesty's dominions for protecting any copyright in such work, be 
 deemed to be entitled to such copyright as if he were the author, 
 but without prejudice to the rights of such author and publisher as 
 between themselves. 
 
 5. A literary or artistic work first produced simultaneously in two 
 or more countries of the Copyright Union shall be deemed for the 
 purpose of copyright to have been first produced in that one of those 
 countries in which the term of copyright in the work is shortest. 
 
 6. Section six of the International Copyright Act, 1852, shall not 
 apply to any dramatic piece to which protection is extended by virtue 
 of this Order. 
 
 7. The Orders mentioned in the Second Schedule to this Order are 
 hereby revoked ; 
 
 Provided that neither such revocation, nor anything else in this 
 Order, shall prejudicially affect any right acquired or accrued before 
 the commencement of this Order, by virtue of any Order hereby re- 
 voked, and any person entitled to such right shall continue entitled 
 thereto, and to the remedies for the same, in like manner as if this 
 Order had not been made. 
 
 8. This Order shall be construed as if it formed part of the Inter- 
 national Copyright Act, 1886. 
 
 9. This Order shall come into operation on the sixth day of Decem- 
 ber, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, which day is in 
 this Order referred to as the commencement of this Order. 
 
 And the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury are to 
 give the necessary orders herein accordingly. 
 
 C. L. Peel.
 
 XVII. 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE REPORT OF THE 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT CON- 
 VENTION OF SOUTH AMERICA, 
 HELD AT MONTEVIDEO, JANUARY 
 
 ii, 1889. 
 
 The Congress held at Montevideo for the revision 
 of international laws came to some important de- 
 cisions regarding international copyright. The 
 seven states represented were the Argentine Re- 
 public, Bolivia, Brazil, Chili, Paraguay, Peru, and 
 Uruguay. In the main the articles of agreement 
 closely followed the provisions of the Berne Con- 
 ference of 1886. We briefly summarize a few im- 
 portant differences : 
 
 1. The South American treaty secures its benefits to all authors 
 who have published a work in one of the contracting states, without 
 regard to his nationality. The Convention of Berne only protects 
 authors born in one of the contracting countries. It modifies this 
 rule by protecting the publisher of a work issued in one of the 
 countries of the Union, although the author is an alien. The pro- 
 tection to the work is the same, but it is the publisher who profits 
 by it. 
 
 2. In South America the rights for translations are exactly the 
 same as the right of the author in the original work, whereas the 
 Berne Conference only assures the exclusive right of translation up 
 to the expiration of ten years from the date of publication of the 
 original work in one of the countries of the Union. 
 
 3. In the enumeration of what is understood under the expression
 
 THE MONTEVIDEO CONVENTION. 315 
 
 "literary and artistic works," photographs and choregraphic works 
 are specifically mentioned, whereas the Berne Conference merely 
 makes a general mention of processes of reproduction. 
 
 4. The treaty of South America contains no clause relating to pub- 
 lic performances or representations of protected works, whereas the 
 Berne Conference decrees that such works shall not be publicly per- 
 formed or reprinted if the author has declared on the title-page that 
 he forbids public performances, which declaration makes such per- 
 formances a violation of original copyright. 
 
 5. The South American treaty may be extended to other nations 
 which did not take part in the Congress. The Berne Convention 
 guarantees admission to such countries as shall assure within their 
 jurisdiction the protection which is the object of the Convention. 
 
 6. The South American treaty says nothing of the formalities of 
 registering and depositing works to be protected. According to the 
 Berne Convention these formalities can only be exacted in the 
 country of origin and according to the laws enacted by that country. 
 
 7. The South American treaty makes no mention of works pub- 
 lished before its going into force, whereas the Berne Convention has 
 made provision in a special protocol for works published before its 
 decisions went into force. 
 
 It may be of interest to note that these contracting South Ameri- 
 can countries represent a total population of 24,800.000. 
 
 The treaty embodying these points was signed by the delegates of^ 
 the seven states, and it is to go into operation between such states as' 
 may ratify it as soon as ratified by them, no time being specified 
 for such ratification. 1 
 
 1 The above summary is based upon the report of the Publishers' 
 Weekly. — Editor.
 
 XVIII. 
 
 STATES WHICH HAVE BECOME PARTIES 
 TO THE CONVENTION OF BERNE, JAN- 
 UARY, 1896. 
 
 Germany. 
 
 France, with Algeria and Colonies. 
 Great Britain, with Colonies. 
 Hayti. 
 Italy. 
 Belgium. 
 
 Spain, with Colonies. 
 ' Luxembourg. 
 Morocco. 
 Montenegro. 
 Switzerland. 
 Tunis.
 
 XIX. 
 
 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF COPY- 
 RIGHT. 
 
 By R. R. Bowker. 
 
 Copyright (from the Latin copia, plenty) means, 
 in general, the right to copy, to make plenty. In 
 its specific application it means the right to multiply 
 copies of those products of the human brain known 
 as literature and art. 
 
 There is another legal sense of the word " copy- 
 right " much emphasized by several English justices. 
 Through the low Latin use of the word copia, our 
 word " copy " has a secondary and reversed mean- 
 ing, as the pattern to be copied or made plenty, in 
 which sense the schoolboy copies from the "copy" 
 set in his copy-book, and the modern printer calls 
 for the author's " copy." Copyright, accordingly, 
 may also mean the right in copy made (whether the 
 original work or a duplication of it), as well as the 
 right to make copies, which by no means goes with 
 the work or any duplicate of it. Said Lord St. 
 Leonards: " When we are talking of the right of an 
 author we must distinguish between the mere right
 
 318 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 to his manuscript, and to any copy which he may 
 choose to make of it, as his property, just like any 
 other personal chattel, and the right to multiply 
 copies to the exclusion of every other person. Noth- 
 ing can be more distinct than these two things. 
 The common law does give a man who has com- 
 posed a work a right to it as composition, just as 
 he has a right to any other part of his personal 
 property ; but the question of the right of excluding 
 all the world from copying, and of himself claiming 
 the exclusive right of forever copying his own com- 
 position after he has published it to the world, is a 
 totally different thing." Baron Parks, in the same 
 case, pointed out expressly these two different legal 
 senses of the word copyright, the right in copy, a 
 right of possession, always fully protected by the 
 common law, and the right to copy, a right of mul- 
 tiplication, which alone has been the subject of 
 special statutory protection. 
 
 There is nothing which may more properly be 
 called property than the creation of the individual 
 brain. For property means a man's very own, and 
 there is nothing more his own than the thought, 
 created, made out of no material thing (unless the 
 nerve-food which the brain consumes in the act of 
 thinking be so counted), which uses material things 
 only for its record or manifestation. The best 
 proof of tfww-ership is that, if this individual man or 
 woman had not thought this individual thought, 
 realized in writing or in music or in marble, it would 
 not exist. Or if the individual, thinking it, had put 
 it aside without such record, it would not, in any
 
 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF COPYRIGHT. 319 
 
 practical sense, exist. We cannot know what " might 
 have beens " of untold value have been lost to the 
 world where thinkers, such as inventors, have had 
 no inducement or opportunity to so materialize 
 their thoughts. 
 
 It is sometimes said, as a bar to this idea of prop- 
 erty, that no thought is new — that every thinker is 
 dependent upon the gifts of nature and the thoughts 
 of other thinkers before him, as every tiller of the 
 soil is dependent upon the land as given by nature 
 and improved by the men who have toiled and 
 tilled before him — a view of which Henry C. Carey 
 has been the chief exponent in this country. But 
 there is no real analogy — aside from the question 
 whether the denial of individual property in land 
 would not be setting back the hands of progress. If 
 Farmer Jones does not raise potatoes from a piece 
 of land, Farmer Smith can ; but Shakespeare can- 
 not write Paradise Lost nor Milton Much Ado, 
 though before both Dante dreamed and Boccaccio 
 told his tales. It was because of Milton and Shake- 
 speare writing, not because of Dante and Boccaccio, 
 who had written, that these immortal works are 
 treasures of the English tongue. It was the very 
 self of each, in propria persona, that gave these form 
 and worth, though they used words that had come 
 down from generations as the common heritage of 
 English-speaking men. Property in a stream of 
 water, as has been pointed out, is not in the atoms 
 of the water but in the flow of the stream. 
 
 Property right in unpublished works has never 
 been effectively questioned — a fact which in itself
 
 320 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 confirms the view that intellectual property is a 
 natural inherent right. The author has " supreme 
 control " over an unpublished work, and his manu- 
 script cannot be utilized by creditors as assets with- 
 out his consent. " If he lends a copy to another," 
 says Baron Parkes, " his right is not gone ; if he 
 sends it to another under an implied undertaking 
 that he is not to part with it or publish it he has a 
 right to enforce that undertaking." The receiver of 
 a letter, to whom the paper containing the writing 
 has undoubtedly been given, has no right to publish 
 or otherwise use the letter without the writer's con- 
 sent. The theory that, by permitting copies to be 
 made, an author dedicates his writing to the public, 
 as an owner of land dedicates a road to the public 
 by permitting public use of it for twenty-one years, 
 overlooks the fact that in so doing the author only 
 conveys to each holder of his book the right to indi- 
 vidual use, and not the right to multiply copies ; as 
 though the landowner should not give, but sell, per- 
 mission to individuals to pass over his road, without 
 any permission to them to sell tickets for the same 
 privilege to other people. The owner of a right does 
 not forfeit a right by selling a privilege. 
 
 It is at the moment of publication that the un- 
 disputed possessory right passes over into the much- 
 disputed right to multiply copies, and that the vexed 
 question of the true theory of copyright property 
 arises. The broad view of literary property holds 
 that the one kind of copyright is involved in the 
 other. The right to have is the right to use. An 
 author cannot use — that is, get beneficial results
 
 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF COPYRIGHT. 321 
 
 from — his work, without offering copies for sale. He 
 would be otherwise like the owner of a loaf of bread 
 who was told that the bread was his until he wanted 
 to eat it. That sale would seem to contain " an im- 
 plied undertaking " that the buyer has liberty to use 
 his copy but not to multiply it. Peculiarly in this 
 kind of property the right of ownership consists in 
 the right to prevent use of one's property by others 
 without the owner's consent. The right of exclu- 
 sion seems to be, indeed, a part of ownership. In the 
 case of land the owner is entitled to prevent trespass 
 to the extent of a shot-gun, and in the same way, 
 the law recognizes the right to use violence, even to 
 the extreme, in preventing others from possession 
 of one's own property of any kind. The owner of 
 a literary property has, however, no physical means 
 of defence or redress ; the very act of publication by 
 which he gets a market for his productions opens 
 him to the danger of wider multiplication and pub- 
 lication without his consent. There is, therefore, no 
 kind of property which is so dependent on the help 
 of the law for the protection of the real owner. 
 
 The inherent right of authors is a right at what is 
 called common law — that is, natural or customary 
 law. So far as concerns the undisputed rights be- 
 fore publication, the copyright laws are auxiliary 
 merely to common law. Rights exist before reme- 
 dies ; remedies are merely invented to enforce rights. 
 " The seeking for the law of the right of property in 
 the law of procedure relating to the remedies," says 
 Copinger, " is a mistake similar to supposing that the 
 mark on the ear of an animal is the cause, instead 
 
 21
 
 322 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 of the consequence, of property therein." After 
 the invention of printing it became evident that 
 new methods of procedure must be devised to en- 
 force common law rights. Copyright became, there- 
 fore, the subject of statute law, by the passage of 
 laws imposing penalties for a theft which, without 
 such laws, could not be punished. 
 
 These laws, covering, naturally enough, only the 
 country of the author, and specifying a time during 
 which the penalties could be enforced, and providing 
 means of registration by which authors could regis- 
 ter their property rights, as the title to a house is 
 registered when it is sold, had an unexpected result. 
 The statute of Anne, which is the foundation of 
 present English copyright law, intended to protect 
 authors' rights by providing penalties against their 
 violation, had the effect of limiting those rights. It 
 was doubtless the intention of those who framed 
 the statute of Anne to establish, for the benefit of 
 authors, specific means of redress. Overlooking, 
 apparently, the fact that law and equity, as their 
 principles were then established, enabled authors to 
 use the same means of redress, so far as they held 
 good, which persons suffering wrongs as to other 
 property had, the law was so drawn that, in I774> 
 the English House of Lords (against, however, the 
 weight of one half of English judicial opinion) de- 
 cided that, instead of giving additional sanction to a 
 formerly existing right, the statute of Anne had 
 substituted a new and lesser right, to the exclusion 
 of what the majority of English judges held to have 
 been an old and greater right. Literary and like
 
 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF COPYRIGHT. $2$ 
 
 property to this extent lost the character of copy- 
 right, and became the subject of copy --privilege, de- 
 pending on legal enactment for the security of the 
 private owner. American courts, wont to follow 
 English precedent, have rather taken for granted 
 this view of the law of literary property, and our 
 Constitution, in authorizing Congress to secure " for 
 limited terms to authors and inventors the exclusive 
 right to their respective writings and discoveries," 
 was evidently drawn from the same point of view, 
 though it does not in itself deny or withdraw the 
 natural rights of the author at common law.
 
 XX. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 By Brander Matthews. 
 (Reprinted from the Political Science Quarterly.) 
 
 " THE only thing that divides us on the question 
 of copyright seems to be a question as to how much 
 property there is in books," said James Russell 
 Lowell, two or three years ago ; and he continued, 
 
 ' ' but that is a question we may be well content to waive till we have 
 decided that there is any property at all in them. I think that, in 
 order that the two sides should come together, nothing more is neces- 
 sary than that both should understand clearly that property, whether 
 in books or in land or in anything else, is artificial ; that it is purely 
 a creature of law ; and, more than that, of lo'cal and municipal law. 
 When we have come to an agreement of this sort, I think we shall not 
 find it difficult to come to an agreement that it will be best for us to 
 get whatever acknowledgment of property we can, in books, to start 
 with." 
 
 " An author has no natural right to a property in 
 his production," said the late Matthew Arnold, in 
 his acute and suggestive essay on copyright, 
 
 " but then neither has he a natural right to anything whatever which 
 he may produce or acquire. What is true is that a man has a strong 
 instinct making him seek to possess what he has produced or ac- 
 quired, to have it at his own disposal ; that he finds pleasure in so 
 having it, and finds profit. The instinct is natural and salutary, 
 although it may be over-stimulated and indulged to excess. One of
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 3 2 5 
 
 the first objects of men, in combining themselves in society, has been 
 to afford to the individual, in his pursuit of this instinct, the sanction 
 and assistance of the laws, so far as may be consistent with the gen- 
 eral advantage of the community. The author, like other people, 
 seeks the pleasure and the profit of having at his own disposal what 
 he produces. Literary production, wherever it is sound, is its own 
 exceeding great reward ; but that does not destroy or diminish the 
 author's desire and claim to be allowed to have at his disposal, like 
 other people, that which he produces, and to be free to turn it to 
 account. It happens that the thing which he produces is a thing 
 hard for him to keep at his own disposal, easy for other people to 
 appropriate ; but then, on the other hand, he is an interesting pro- 
 ducer, giving often a great deal of pleasure by what he produces, and 
 not provoking Nemesis by any huge and immoderate profits on his 
 production, even when it is suffered to be at his own disposal. So 
 society has taken him under its protection, and has sanctioned his 
 property in his work, and enabled him to have it at his own disposal." 
 
 Perhaps a consideration of the evolution of copy- 
 right in the past will conduce to a closer understand- 
 ing of its condition at present, and to a clearer 
 appreciation of its probable development in the 
 future. It is instructive as well as entertaining to 
 trace the steps by which men, combining themselves 
 in society, in Arnold's phrase, have afforded to the 
 individual author the sanction of the law in possess- 
 ing what he has produced ; and it is no less in- 
 structive to note the successive enlargements of 
 jurisprudence by which property in books — which 
 is, as Lowell says, the creature of local municipal 
 law — has slowly developed until it demands and re- 
 ceives international recognition. 
 
 I. 
 
 The maxim that " there is no wrong without a 
 remedy," indicates the line of legal development.
 
 326 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 The instinct of possession is strong; and in the 
 early communities, where most things were in com- 
 mon, it tended more and more to assert itself. 
 When anything which a man claimed as his own 
 was taken from him, he had a sense of wrong, and 
 his first movement was to seek vengeance— much as 
 a dog defends his bone, growling when it is taken 
 from him, or even biting. If public opinion sup- 
 ported the claim of possession, the claimant would 
 be sustained in his effort to get revenge. So, from 
 the admission of a wrong, would grow up the recog- 
 nition of a right. The moral right became a legal 
 right as soon as it received the sanction of the State. 
 The State first commuted the right of vengeance, 
 and awarded damages, and the action of tort was 
 born. For a long period property was protected 
 only by the action for damages for disseizin ; but 
 this action steadily widened in scope until it became 
 an action for recovery ; and the idea of possession 
 or seizin broadened into the idea of ownership. 
 This development went on slowly, bit by bit and 
 day by day, under the influence of individual self- 
 assertion and the resulting pressure of public opin- 
 ion, which, as Lowell once tersely put it, is like 
 that of the atmosphere: "You can't see it, but it is 
 fifteen pounds to the square inch all the same." 
 
 The individual sense of wrong stimulates the 
 moral growth of society at large ; and in due course 
 of time, after a strenuous struggle with those who 
 profit by the denial of justice, there comes a calm at 
 last, and ethics crystallize into law. In more mod- 
 ern periods of development, the recognition of new
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 327 
 
 forms of property generally passes through three 
 stages. First, there is a mere moral right, asserted 
 by the individual and admitted by most other indi- 
 viduals, but not acknowledged by society as a whole. 
 Second, there is a desire on the part of those in 
 authority to find some means of protection for this 
 admitted moral right, and the action in equity is 
 allowed — this being an effort to command the con- 
 science of those whom the ordinary policeman is 
 incompetent to deal with. And thirdly, in the full- 
 ness of time, there is declared a law setting forth 
 clearly the privileges of the producer and the means 
 whereby he can defend his property and recover 
 damages for an attack on it. This process of legis- 
 lative declaration of rights is still going on all about 
 us and in all departments of law, as modern life de- 
 velops and spreads out and becomes more and more 
 complex ; and we have come to a point where we 
 can accept Jhering's definition of a legal right as "a 
 legally protected interest." 
 
 As it happens, this growth of a self-asserted claim 
 into a legally protected interest can be traced with 
 unusual ease in the evolution of copyright, because 
 copyright itself is comparatively a new thing. The 
 idea of property was probably first recognized in 
 the tools which early man made for himself, and in 
 the animals or men whom he subdued ; later, in the 
 soil which he cultivated. In the beginning the idea 
 attached only to tangible things — to actual physical 
 possession — to that which a man might pass from 
 hand to hand. Now, in the dawn of history nothing 
 was less a physical possession than literature ; it was
 
 328 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 not only intangible, it was invisible even. There 
 was literature before there was any writing, before 
 an author could set down his lines in black and 
 white. Homer and the rhapsodists published their 
 poems by word of mouth. Litera scripta manet ; 
 but the spoken poem flew away with the voice of 
 the speaker and lingered only in the memory. Even 
 after writing was invented, and after parchment and 
 papyrus made it possible to preserve the labors of 
 the poet and the historian, these authors had not, 
 for many a century yet, any thought of making 
 money by multiplying copies of their works. 
 
 The Greek dramatists, like the dramatists of to- 
 day, relied for their pecuniary reward on the public 
 performance of their plays. There is a tradition 
 that Herodotus, when an old man, read his History 
 to an Athenian audience at the Panathenaic festival, 
 and so delighted them that they gave him as a 
 recompense ten talents — more than twelve thou- 
 sand dollars of our money. In Rome, where there 
 were booksellers having scores of trained slaves to 
 transcribe manuscripts for sale, perhaps the success- 
 ful author was paid for a poem, but we find no trace 
 of copyright or of anything like it. Horace (Ars 
 Poetica, 345) speaks of a certain book as likely to 
 make money for a certain firm of booksellers. In 
 the other Latin poets, and even in the prose writers 
 of Rome, we read more than one cry of suffering 
 over the blunders of the copyists, and more than 
 one protest in anger against the mangled manu- 
 scripts of the hurried, servile transcribers. But 
 nowhere do we find any complaint that the author's
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 3 2 9 
 
 rights have been infringed; and this, no doubt, was 
 because the author did not yet know that he had 
 any wrongs. Indeed, it was only after the inven- 
 tion of printing that an author had an awakened 
 sense of the injury done him in depriving him of 
 the profit of vending his own writings ; because it 
 was only after Gutenberg had set up as a printer 
 that the possibility of definite profit from the sale 
 of his works became visible to the author. Before 
 then he had felt no sense of wrong ; he had thought 
 mainly of the honor of a wide circulation of his 
 writings ; and he had been solicitous chiefly about 
 the exactness of the copies. With the invention of 
 printing there was a chance of profit ; and as soon 
 as the author saw this profit diminished by an un- 
 authorized reprint, he was conscious of injury, and 
 he protested with all the strength that in him lay. 
 He has continued to protest from that day to this ; 
 and public opinion has been aroused, until by slow 
 steps the author is gaining the protection he claims. 
 
 It is after the invention of printing that we must 
 seek the origin of copyright. Mr. De Vinne shows 
 that Gutenberg printed a book with movable types, 
 at Mentz, in 145 1. Fourteen years later, in 1465, 
 two Germans began to print in a monastery near 
 Rome, and removed to Rome itself in 1467; and in 
 1469 John of Spira began printing in Venice. Louis 
 XI. sent to Mentz Nicholas Jenson, who introduced 
 the art into France in 1469. Caxton set up the 
 first press in England in 1474. 
 
 In the beginning these printers were publishers also; 
 most of their first books were Bibles, prayer-books,
 
 330 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 and the like ; but in 1465, probably not more than 
 fifteen years after the first use of movable types, 
 Fust and Schoeffer put forth an edition of Cicero's 
 Offices — " the first tribute of the new art to polite 
 literature," Hallam calls it. The original editing of 
 the works of a classic author, the comparison of 
 manuscripts, the supplying of lacuna, the revision 
 of the text, called for scholarship of a high order ; 
 this scholarship was sometimes possessed by the 
 printer-publisher himself ; but more often than not 
 he engaged learned men to prepare the work for him 
 and to see it through the press. This first edition 
 was a true pioneer's task ; it was a blazing of the 
 path and a clearing of the field. Once done, the 
 labor of printing again that author's writings in a 
 condition acceptable to students would be easy. 
 Therefore the printer-publisher who had given time 
 and money and hard work to the proper presenta- 
 tion of a Greek or Latin book was outraged when a 
 rival press sent forth a copy of his edition, and sold 
 the volume at a lower price, possibly, because there 
 had been no need to pay for the scholarship which 
 the first edition had demanded. That the earliest 
 person to feel the need of copyright production 
 should have been a printer-publisher is worthy of 
 remark ; obviously, in this case, the printer-publisher 
 stood for the author and was exactly in his position. 
 He was prompt to protest against this disseizin ' 
 
 1 If any lawyer objects to the use of the word " disseizin " in con- 
 nection with other than real property, he is referred to Prof. J. B. 
 Ames's articles on Disseizin of Chattels, in the Harvard Law 
 Review, Jan. — March, 1S90.
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 33 1 
 
 of the fruit of his labors ; and the earliest legal 
 recognition of his rights was granted less than a 
 score of years after the invention of printing had 
 made the injury possible. It is pleasant for us 
 Americans to know that this first feeble acknowledg- 
 ment of copyright was made by a republic. The 
 Senate of Venice issued an order, in 1469, that John 
 of Spira should have the exclusive right for five 
 years to print the epistles of Cicero and of Pliny. 1 
 
 This privilege was plainly an exceptional exercise 
 of the power of the sovereign state to protect the 
 exceptional merit of a worthy citizen ; it gave but 
 a limited protection ; it guarded but two books, for 
 a brief period only, and only within the narrow 
 limits of one commonwealth. But, at least, it 
 established a precedent — a precedent which has 
 broadened down the centuries until now, four hun- 
 dred years later, any book published in Venice is, 
 by international conventions, protected from pillage 
 for a period of at least fifty years, through a terri- 
 tory which includes almost every important country 
 of continental Europe. If John of Spira were to 
 issue to-day his edition of Tully's Letters, he need 
 not fear an unauthorized reprint anywhere in the 
 kingdom of which Venice now forms a part, or in 
 his native land, Germany, or in France, Belgium, or 
 Spain, or even in Tunis, Liberia, or Hayti. 
 
 The habit of asking for a special privilege from 
 the authorities of the State wherein the book was 
 printed spread rapidly. In 1491 Venice gave the pub- 
 
 1 Sanuto, Script. Rerum. Italic, t xxii., p. 1189; cited by Hallarn, 
 History of Middle Ages, chap. ix. , part ii.
 
 332 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 licist, Peter of Ravenna, and the publisher of his 
 choice the exclusive right to print and sell his PJice?iix x 
 — the first recorded instance of a copyright awarded 
 directly to an author. Other Italian states " en- 
 couraged printing by granting to different printers 
 exclusive rights for fourteen years, more or less, 
 of printing specified classics," and thus the time 
 of the protection accorded to John of Spira was 
 doubled. In Germany the first privilege was issued 
 at Nuremberg, in 1501. In France the privilege 
 covered but one edition of a book ; and if the work 
 went to press again, the publisher had to seek a 
 second patent. 
 
 In England, in 15 18, Richard Pynson, the King's 
 Printer, issued the first book cum privilegio ; the 
 title-page declaring that no one else should print or 
 import in England any other copies for two years ; 
 and in 1530 a privilege for seven years was granted 
 to John Palsgrave " in the consideration of the value 
 of his work and the time spent on it ; this being the 
 first recognition of the nature of copyright as fur- 
 nishing a reward to the author for his labor." 2 In 
 1 533 Wynkyn de Worde obtained the king's privi- 
 lege for his second edition of Witinton's Grammar. 
 The first edition of this book had been issued ten 
 years before, and during the decade it had been re- 
 printed by Peter Trevers without leave — a despoil- 
 ment against which Wynkyn de Worde protested 
 vigorously in the preface to the later edition, and 
 on account of which he applied for and secured pro- 
 
 1 Bowker, Copyright, p. 5. 
 
 3 T. E. Scrutton, Laws of Copyright, p. 72.
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 333 
 
 tection. Here again is evidence that a man does 
 not think of his rights until he feels a wrong. Jhe- 
 ring bases the struggle for law on the instinct of 
 ownership as something personal, and the feeling 
 that the person is attacked whenever a man is de- 
 prived of his property ; and, as Walter Savage 
 Landor wrote : " No property is so entirely and 
 purely and religiously a man's own as what comes 
 to him immediately from God, without intervention 
 or participation." The development of copyright, 
 and especially its rapid growth within the past cent- 
 ury, is due to the loud protests of authors deprived 
 of the results of their labors, and therefore smarting 
 as acutely as under a personal insult.' 
 
 The invention of printing was almost simultaneous 
 with the Reformation, with the discovery of Amer- 
 ica, and with the first voyage around the Cape of 
 Good Hope. There was in those days a ferment 
 throughout Europe, and men's minds were making 
 ready for a great outbreak. Of this movement, in- 
 tellectual on one side and religious on the other, the 
 governments of the time were afraid ; they saw that 
 the press was spreading broadcast new ideas which 
 might take root in the most inconvenient places, 
 and spring up at the most inopportune moments ; 
 so they sought at once to control the printing of 
 books. In less than a century after Gutenberg had 
 cast the first type, the privileges granted for the 
 encouragement and reward of the printer-publisher 
 and of the author were utilized to enable those in 
 authority to prevent the sending forth of such works 
 
 1 Jhering, The Struggle for Law (translated by J. J. Lalor).
 
 334 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 as they might choose to consider treasonable or 
 heretical. P'or a while, therefore, the history of the 
 development of copyright is inextricably mixed with 
 the story of press-censorship. In France, for ex- 
 ample, the edict of Moulins, in 1566, forbade "any 
 person whatsoever printing or causing to be printed 
 any book or treatise without leave and permission 
 of the king, and letters of privilege." 1 Of course, 
 no privilege was granted to publisher or to author if 
 the royal censors did not approve of the book. 
 
 In England the " declared purpose of the Sta- 
 tioners' Company, chartered by Philip and Mary in 
 1556, was to prevent the propagation of the Pro- 
 testant Reformation." 2 The famous " Decree of 
 Star Chamber concerning printing," issued in 1637, 
 set forth, 
 
 "that no person or persons whatsoever shall at anytime print or 
 cause to be imprinted any book or pamphlet whatsoever, unless the 
 same book or pamphlet, and also all and every the titles, epistles, 
 prefaces, proems, preambles, introductions, tables, dedications, and 
 other matters and things whatsoever thereunto annexed, or therewith 
 imprinted, shall be first lawfully licensed." 
 
 In his learned introduction to the beautiful edition 
 of this decree, made by him for the Grolier Club, 
 Mr. De Vinne remarks that at this time the people 
 of England were boiling with discontent ; and, " an- 
 noyed by a little hissing of steam," the ministers of 
 Charles I. " closed all the valves and outlets, but did 
 not draw or deaden the fires which made the steam ; " 
 
 1 Alcide Darras, Du Droit des Auteurs, p. 169. 
 
 2 E. S. Drone, A Treatise on the Law of Property in Intellectual 
 Productions, p. 56.
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 335 
 
 then " they sat down in peace, gratified with their 
 work, just before the explosion which destroyed 
 them." This decree was made the eleventh day of 
 July, 1637; and in 1641 the Star Chamber was 
 abolished ; and eight years later the king was 
 beheaded at Whitehall. 
 
 The slow growth of a protection, which was in the 
 beginning only a privilege granted at the caprice of 
 the officials, into a legal right, to be obtained by the 
 author by observing the simple formalities of regis- 
 tration and deposit, is shown in a table given in the 
 appendix (page 370) to the Report of the Copyright 
 Commission (London, 1878). The salient dates in 
 this table are these : 
 
 " 1637. — Star Chamber Decree supporting copyright. 
 
 1643. — Ordinance of the Commonwealth concerning licensing. 
 
 Copyright maintained, but subordinate to political objects. 
 1662. — 13 and 14 Car. II., c. 33. — Licensing Act continued by suc- 
 cessive Parliaments ; gives copyright coupled with license. 
 1710. — 8 Anne, c. 19. — First Copyright Act. Copyright to be for 
 
 fourteen years, and if author then alive, for fourteen years 
 
 more. Power to regulate price. 
 1814. — 54 Geo. III., c. 156. — Copyright to be for twenty-eight 
 
 years absolutely, and further for the life of the author, if then 
 
 living. 
 1842. — 5 and 6 Vict., c. 45. — Copyright to be for the life of the 
 
 author and seven years longer, or for forty-two years, whichever 
 
 term last expires." 
 
 From Mr. Bowker's chapter on the History of 
 Copyright in the United States, it is easy to draw up 
 a similar table showing the development in this 
 country : 
 
 " 1793- — Connecticut, in January, and Massachusetts, in March, 
 passed acts granting copyrights for twenty-one years. In May
 
 336 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Congress recommended the States to pass acts granting copy- 
 right for fourteen years — seemingly a step backward from the 
 Connecticut and Massachusetts statutes. 
 
 1785 and 1786. — Copyright Acts passed in Virginia, New York, and 
 New Jersey. 
 
 17S6. — Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, authoriz- 
 ing Congress ' to promote the progress of science and useful 
 arts by securing for limited times, to authors and inventors, the 
 exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.' 
 
 1790. — First United States Copyright Act. Copyright to citizens or 
 residents for fourteen years, with a renewal for fourteen years 
 more if the author were living at the expiration of the first 
 term. 
 
 1831. — Copyright to be for twenty-eight years, with a renewal for 
 fourteen years more, if the author, his widow, or his children are 
 living at the expiration of the first term. 
 
 1856. — Act securing to dramatists stage-right; that is, the sole right 
 to license the performance of a play. 
 
 1873-4. — The Copyright Laws were included in the Revised Statutes 
 (sections 4948 to 4971)." 
 
 From the exhaustive and excellent work of M. 
 Lyon-Caen and M. Paul Delalain on Literary and 
 Artistic Property^ we see that France, now, perhaps, 
 the foremost of all nations in the protection it ac- 
 cords to literary property, lagged behind Great 
 Britain and the United States in taking the second 
 step in the evolution of copyright. It was in 1710 
 that the act of Anne gave the British author a legal 
 right independent of the caprice of any official ; and 
 as soon as the United States came into being, the 
 same right was promptly confirmed to our citizens; 
 but it was not until the fall of the ancient regime 
 that a Frenchman was enabled to take out a copy- 
 
 1 La ProprUte Litter aire et A rtistique : Lois Francaises et J^trangeres 
 (Paris, Pichon, 1889, 2 vols.).
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 337 
 
 right at will. Up to the eve of the Revolution of 
 1789, French authors could do no more, say MM. 
 Lyon-Caen and Delalain, " than ask for a privilege 
 which might always be refused them " (page 8). As 
 was becoming in a country where the drama has 
 ever been the most important department of lit- 
 erature, the first step taken was a recognition of 
 the stage-right of the dramatist, in a law passed in 
 1 791. Before that, a printed play could have been 
 acted in France by any one, but thereafter the ex- 
 clusive right of performance was reserved to the 
 playwright ; and at one bound the French went far 
 beyond the limit of time for which any copyright 
 was then granted either in England or America, 
 as the duration of stage-right was to be for the 
 author's life and for five years more. It is to be 
 noted, also, that stage-right was not acquired by 
 British and American authors for many years after 
 1791. 
 
 Two years after the French law protecting stage- 
 right, in the dark and bloody year of 1793, an act 
 was passed in France granting copyright for the 
 life of the author and for ten years after his death. 
 It is worthy of remark that, as soon as the privi- 
 leges and monopolies of the monarchy were abol- 
 ished, the strong respect the French people have 
 always felt for literature and art was shown by the 
 extension of the term of copyright far beyond that 
 then accorded in Great Britain and the United 
 States ; and although both the British and the 
 American term of copyright has been prolonged 
 
 since 1793, so also has the French, and it is now 
 22
 
 338 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 for life of the author and for fifty years after his 
 death. 
 
 The rapid development of law within the past 
 century and the effort it makes to keep pace with 
 the moral sense of society — a sense that becomes 
 finer as society becomes more complicated and as 
 the perception of personal wrong is sharpened — can 
 be seen in this brief summary of copyright develop- 
 ment in France, where, but a hundred years ago, an 
 author had only the power of asking for a privilege 
 which might be refused him. The other countries 
 of Europe, following the lead of France as they 
 have been wont to do, have formulated copyright 
 laws not unlike hers. In prolonging the duration 
 of the term of copyright, one country has been even 
 more liberal. Spain extends it for eighty years 
 after the author's death. Hungary, Belgium, and 
 Russia accept the French term of the author's life 
 and half a century more. Germany, Austria, and 
 Switzerland grant only thirty years after the author 
 dies. Italy gives the author copyright for his life, 
 with exclusive control to his heirs for forty years 
 after his death ; after that period the exclusive 
 rights cease, but a royalty of five per cent, on the 
 retail price of every copy of every edition, by 
 whomsoever issued, must be paid to the author's 
 heirs for a further term of forty years: thus a 
 quasi-copyright is granted for a period extending 
 to eighty years after the author's death, and the 
 Italian term is approximated to the Spanish. Cer- 
 tain of the Spanish-American nations have exceeded 
 the liberality of the mother-country : in Mexico, in
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 339 
 
 Guatemala, and in Venezuela the author's rights are 
 not terminated by the lapse of time, and copyright 
 is perpetual. 1 
 
 To set down with precision what has been done 
 in various countries will help us to see more clearly 
 what remains to be done in our own. It is only by 
 considering the trend of legal development that we 
 can make sure of the direction in which efforts to- 
 ward improvement can be guided most effectively. 
 For example : the facts contained in the preceding 
 paragraphs show that no one of the great nations of 
 continental Europe grants copyright for a less term 
 than the life of the author and a subsequent period 
 varying from thirty to eighty years. A comparison 
 also of the laws of the various countries, as con- 
 tained in the invaluable volumes of MM. Lyon- 
 Caen and Delalain, reveals to us the fact that there 
 is a steady tendency to lengthen this term of years, 
 and that the more recent the legislation the more 
 likely is the term to be long. In Austria, for in- 
 stance, where the term was fixed in 1846, it is for 
 thirty years after the author's death ; while in the 
 twin-kingdom of Hungary, where the term was fixed 
 in 1884, it is for fifty years. 
 
 On a contrast of the terms of copyright granted 
 by the chief nations of continental Europe with 
 those granted by Great Britain and the United 
 
 1 Here again it may be noted that certain decisions in the United 
 States courts, to the effect that the performance of a play is not pub- 
 lication, and that therefore an unpublished play is protected by the 
 common law and not by the copyright acts, recognize the perpetual 
 stage-right of any dramatist who will forego the doubtful profit of 
 appearing in print.
 
 340 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 States, it will be seen that the English-speaking 
 race, which was first to make the change from priv- 
 ilege to copyright, and was thus the foremost in 
 the protection of the author, now lags sadly behind. 
 The British law declares that the term of copyright 
 shall be for the life of the author and only seven 
 years thereafter, or for forty-two years, whichever 
 term last expires. The American law does not even 
 give an author copyright for the whole of his life, 
 if he should be so unlucky as to survive forty-two 
 years after the publication of his earlier books ; it 
 grants copyright for twenty-eight years only, with a 
 permission to the author himself, his widow, or his 
 children to renew for fourteen years more. This is 
 niggardly when set beside the liberality of France, 
 to say nothing of that of Italy and Spain. Those 
 who are unwilling to concede that the ethical devel- 
 opment of France, Italy, and Spain is more advanced 
 than that of Great Britain and the United States, at 
 least as far as literary property is concerned, may 
 find some comfort in recalling the fact that the 
 British act was passed in 1842 and the American in 
 1 83 1 — and in threescore years the world moves. 
 
 There is no need to dwell on the disadvantages of 
 the existing American law, and on the injustice 
 which it works. It may take from an author the 
 control of his book at the very moment when he is 
 at the height of his fame and when the infirmities of 
 age make the revenue from his copyrights most nec- 
 essary. An example or two from contemporary 
 American literature will serve to show the demerits 
 of the existing law. The first part of Bancroft's
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 34 1 
 
 History of the United States, the history of the 
 colonization, was published in three successive vol- 
 umes in 1834, 1837, and 1840; and although the au- 
 thor, before his death, revised and amended this 
 part of his work, it has been lawful, since 1882, for 
 any man to take the unrevised and incorrect first 
 edition and to reprint it, despite the protests of the 
 author, and in competition with the improved ver- 
 sion which contains the results of the author's 
 increased knowledge and keener taste. 
 
 At this time of writing (1890) all books published 
 in the United States prior to 1848 are open to 
 any reprinter ; and the reprinter has not been slow 
 to avail himself of this permission. The children 
 of Fenimore Cooper are alive, and so are the 
 nieces of Washington Irving ; but they derive no 
 income from the rival reprints of the LeatJierstocking 
 Tales or of the Sketch Book, reproduced from the 
 earliest editions without any of the authors' later 
 emendations. 1 Though the family of Cooper and 
 the family of Irving survive, Cooper and Irving are 
 dead themselves, and cannot protest. But there 
 are living American authors besides Bancroft who 
 are despoiled in like manner. Half a dozen vol- 
 umes were published by Mr. Whittier and by Dr. 
 Holmes before 1848, and these early, immature, 
 uncorrected verses are now reprinted and offered 
 to the public as " Whittier s Poems" and "Holmes's 
 Poems." Sometimes the tree of poesy flowers early 
 and bears fruit late. So it is with Lowell, whose 
 
 1 The emendations, having been made within forty-two years, are, 
 of course, still guarded by copyright.
 
 34 2 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Heartsease and Rue we received with delight only a 
 year or two ago, but whose Legend of Brittany, Vision 
 of Sir Lanufal, Fable for Critics and first series of 
 Biglow Papers were all published forty-two years 
 ago or more, and are therefore no longer the prop- 
 erty of their author, but have passed from his con- 
 trol absolutely and forever. 
 
 Besides the broadening of a capricious privilege 
 into a legal right, and besides the lengthening of 
 the time during which this right is enforced, a 
 steady progress of the idea that the literary laborer 
 is worthy of his hire is to be seen in various newer 
 and subsidiary developments. With the evolution 
 of copyright, the author can now reserve certain 
 secondary rights of abridgment, of adaptation, and 
 of translation. In all the leading countries of the 
 world the dramatist can now secure stage-right, 1 
 i.e., the sole right to authorize the performance 
 of a play on a stage. Copyright and stage-right 
 are wholly different ; and a dramatist is entitled to 
 both. The author of a play has made something 
 which may be capable of a double use, and it seems 
 proper that he should derive profit from both uses. 
 His play may be read only and not acted, like 
 Lord Tennyson's Harold and Longfellow's Spanish 
 Student, in which case the copyright is more valu- 
 able than the stage-right. Or the play may be acted 
 only, like the imported British melodramas, and of 
 so slight a literary merit that no one would care 
 
 1 Mr. Drone uses the word "playright," but this is identical in 
 sound with "playwright," and it seems better to adopt the word 
 " stage-right," first employed by Charles Reade.
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 343 
 
 to read it, in which case the stage-right would be 
 more valuable than the copyright. Or the drama 
 may be both readable and actable, like Shakespeare's 
 and Sheridan's plays, like Augier's and Labiche's, 
 in which case the author derives a double profit, 
 controlling the publication by copyright and con- 
 trolling performance by stage-right. It was in 1791, 
 as we have seen, that France granted stage-right. 
 In England, " the first statute giving to dramatists 
 the exclusive right of performing their plays was 
 the 3 and 4 William IV., c. 15, passed in 1833," says 
 Mr. Drone (page 601). In the United States, stage- 
 right was granted in 185 1 to dramatists who had 
 copyrighted their plays here. 
 
 Closely akin to the stage-right accorded to the 
 dramatist is the sole right of dramatization accorded 
 to the novelist. Indeed, the latter is an obvious 
 outgrowth of the former. Until the enormous in- 
 crease of the reading public in this century, conse- 
 quent upon the spread of education, the novel was 
 an inferior form to the drama and far less profitable 
 pecuniarily. It is only within the past hundred 
 years — one might say, fairly enough, that it is only 
 since the Waverley novels took the world by storm — 
 that the romance has claimed equality with the play. 
 Until it did so, no novelist felt wronged when his 
 tale was turned to account on the stage, and no 
 novelist ever thought of claiming a sole right to the 
 theatrical use of his own story. Lodge, the author 
 of Rosalynde, would have been greatly surprised if 
 any one had told him that Shakespeare had made an 
 improper use of his story in founding on it As You
 
 344 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Like It. On the contrary, in fact, literary history 
 would furnish many an instance to prove that the 
 writer of fiction felt that a pleasant compliment had 
 been paid him when his material was made over by 
 a writer for the stage. Scott, for example, aided 
 Terry in adapting his novels for theatrical perform- 
 ance ; and he did this without any thought of re- 
 ward. But by the time that Dickens succeeded 
 Scott as the most popular of English novelists the 
 sentiment was changing. In Nicholas Nickleby the 
 author protested with acerbity against the hack 
 playwrights who made haste to put a story on the 
 stage even before its serial publication was finished. 
 His sense of injury was sharpened by the clumsy 
 disfiguring of his work. Perhaps the injustice was 
 never so apparent as when a British playwright, one 
 Fitzball, captured Fenimore Cooper's Pilot in 1826 
 and turned Long Tom Coffin into a British sailor ! 
 — an act of piracy which a recent historian of the 
 London theatres, Mr. H. B. Baker, records with 
 hearty approval. The possibility of an outrage like 
 this still exists in England. In France, of course, 
 the novelist has long had the exclusive right to 
 adapt his own story to the stage ; and in the United 
 States, also, he has it, if he gives notice formally 
 on every copy of the book itself that he desires to 
 reserve to himself the right of dramatization. But 
 England has not as yet advanced thus far ; and no 
 English author can make sure that he may not see 
 a play ill-made out of his disfigured novel. Charles 
 Reade protested in vain against unauthorized dram- 
 atization of his novels, and then, with character-
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 345 
 
 istic inconsistency, made plays out of novels by 
 Anthony Trollope and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett with- 
 out asking their consent. But the unauthorized 
 British adapter may not lawfully print the play he 
 has compounded from a copyright novel, as any 
 multiplication of copies would be an infringement 
 of the copyright ; and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett suc- 
 ceeded in getting an injunction against an unauthor- 
 ized dramatization of Little Lord Fauntleroy on proof 
 that more than one copy of the unauthorized play 
 had been made for use in the theatre. It is likely 
 that one of the forthcoming modifications of the 
 British law will be the extension to the novelist of 
 the sole right to dramatize his own novel. 
 
 II. 
 
 From a consideration of the lengthening of the 
 term of copyright and the development of certain 
 subsidiary rights now acquired by an author, we 
 come to a consideration of the next step in the 
 process of evolution. This is the extension of an 
 author's rights beyond the boundaries of the country 
 of which he is a citizen, so that a book formally 
 registered in one country shall by that single act 
 and without further formality be protected from 
 piracy x throughout the world. This great and 
 needful improvement is now in course of accom- 
 
 1 "Piracy" is a term available for popular appeal but perhaps 
 lacking in scientific precision. The present writer used it in a little 
 pamphlet on American Authors and British Pirates rather by way of 
 retort to English taunts. Yet the inexact use of the word indicates 
 the tendency of public opinion.
 
 346 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 plishment ; it is still far from complete, but year 
 by year it advances farther and farther. 
 
 In the beginning the sovereign who granted a 
 privilege, or at his caprice withheld it, could not, 
 however strong his good-will, protect his subject's 
 book beyond the borders of his realm ; and even 
 when privilege broadened into copyright, a book 
 duly registered was protected only within the State 
 wherein the certificate was taken out. Very soon 
 after Venice accorded the first privilege to John of 
 Spira, the extension of the protection to the limits 
 of a single State only was found to be a great dis- 
 advantage. Printing was invented when central Eu- 
 rope was divided and subdivided into countless lit- 
 tle states almost independent, but nominally bound 
 together in the Holy Roman Empire. What is 
 now the kingdom of Italy was cut up into more than 
 a score of separate states, each with its own laws 
 and its own executive. What is now the German Em- 
 pire was then a disconnected medley of electorates, 
 margravates, duchies, and grand-duchies, bishoprics 
 and principalities, free towns and knight-fees, with 
 no centre, no head, and no unity of thought or of 
 feeling or of action. The printer-publisher made an 
 obvious effort for wider protection when he begged 
 and obtained a privilege not only from the authori- 
 ties of the State in which he was working but also 
 from other sovereigns. Thus, when the Florentine 
 edition of the Pandects was issued in 1553, the pub- 
 lisher secured privileges in Florence first, and also 
 in Spain, in the Two Sicilies, and in France. But 
 privileges of this sort granted to non-residents were
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 347 
 
 very infrequent, and no really efficacious protection 
 for the books printed in another State was practically 
 attainable in this way. Such protection, indeed, was 
 wholly contrary to the spirit of the times, which 
 held that an alien had no rights. In France, for 
 example, a ship wrecked on the coasts was seized by 
 the feudal lord and retained as his, subject only to 
 the salvage claim. 1 In England a wreck belonged 
 to the king unless a living being (man, dog, or cat) 
 escaped alive from it ; and this claim of the crown 
 to all the property of the unfortunate foreign owner 
 of the lost ship was raised as late as 1771, when Lord 
 Mansfield decided against it. When aliens were 
 thus rudely robbed of their tangible possessions, 
 without public protest, there was not likely to be 
 felt any keen sense of wrong at the appropriation 
 of a possession so intangible as copyright. 
 
 What was needed was, first of all, an amelioration 
 of the feeling toward aliens as such ; and second, 
 such a federation of the petty states as would make a 
 single copyright effective throughout a nation, and as 
 would also make possible an international agreement 
 for the reciprocal protection of literary property. 
 Only within the past hundred years or so, has this 
 consolidation into compact and homogeneous nation- 
 alities taken place. In the last century, for example, 
 Ireland had its own laws, and Irish pirates reprinted 
 at will books covered by English copyright. In the 
 preface to Sir Charles Grandison, published in 1753, 
 Richardson, novelist and printer, inveighed against 
 
 1 A. C. Bernheim, History of the Law of Aliens (N. Y., 1885), 
 p. 58.
 
 343 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the piratical customs of the Hibernian publishers. In 
 Italy, what was published in Rome had no protection 
 in Naples or Florence. In Germany, where Luther 
 in his day had protested in vain against the reprint- 
 ers, Goethe and Schiller were able to make but 
 little money from their writings, as these were con- 
 stantly pirated in the other German states, and even 
 imported into that in which they were protected, to 
 compete with the author's edition. In 1826, Goethe 
 announced a complete edition of his works, and, as 
 a special honor to the poet in his old age, " the 
 Bundestag undertook to secure him from piracy in 
 German cities." * With the union of Ireland and 
 Great Britain, with the accretion about the kingdom 
 of Sardinia of the other provinces of Italy, with 
 the compacting of Germany under the hegemony 
 of Prussia, this inter-provincial piracy has wholly 
 disappeared within the limits of these national 
 states. 
 
 The suppression of international piracy passes 
 through three phases. First, the nation whose 
 citizens are most often despoiled — and this nation 
 has nearly always been France — endeavors to nego- 
 tiate reciprocity treaties, by which the writers of 
 each of the contracting countries may be enabled to 
 take out copyrights in the other. Thus France had, 
 prior to 1852, special treaties with Holland, Sardinia, 
 Portugal, Hanover, and Great Britain. Secondly, a 
 certain number of nations join in an international 
 convention, extending to the citizens of all the 
 copyright advantages that the citizens of each 
 
 1 G. H. Lewes, Life and Works of Goethe, p. 545.
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF COPYRIGHT. 349 
 
 enjoy at home. Third, a State modifies its own 
 local copyright law so as to remove the disability of 
 the alien. This last step was taken by France in 
 1852; and in 1886 Belgium followed her example. 
 
 The French, seeking equity, are willing to do 
 equity ; they ask no questions as to the nationality 
 or residence of an author who offers a book for 
 copyright ; and they do not demand reciprocity as 
 a condition precedent. Time was when the chief 
 complaint of French authors was against the Bel- 
 gian reprinters ; but the Belgians, believing that the 
 ship of state was ill-manned when she carried pirates 
 in her crew, first made a treaty with France and 
 then modified their local law into conformity with 
 the French. These two nations, one of which was 
 long the headquarters of piracy, now stand forward 
 most honorably as the only two which really protect 
 the full rights of an author. 
 
 Most of the states which had special copyright 
 treaties one with another have adhered to the con- 
 vention of Berne, finally ratified in 1887. Among 
 them are France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, 
 Great Britain, and Switzerland. The adhesion of 
 Austro-Hungary, Holland, Norway, and Sweden is 
 likely not long to be delayed. The result of this 
 convention is substantially to abolish the distinction 
 between the subjects of the adhering powers and to 
 give to the authors of each country the same faculty 
 of copyright and of stage-right that they enjoy at 
 home, without any annoying and expensive formali- 
 ties of registration or deposit in the foreign State. 
 
 The United States of America is now the only
 
 350 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 one of the great powers of the world which abso- 
 lutely refuses the protection of its laws to the books 
 of a friendly alien. 1 From having been one of the 
 foremost states of the world in the evolution of 
 copyright, the United States has now become one 
 of the most backward. Nothing could be more 
 striking than a contrast of the liberality with which 
 the American law treats the foreign inventor and 
 the niggardliness with which it treats the foreign 
 author. In his Popular Government (page 247) the 
 late Sir Henry Sumner Maine declared that " the 
 power to grant patents by federal authority has 
 . . made the American people the first in the 
 world for the number and ingenuity of the inven- 
 tions by which it has promoted the ' useful arts ; ' 
 while, on the other hand, the neglect to exercise this 
 power for the advantage of foreign writers has con- 
 demned the whole American community to a liter- 
 ary servitude unparalleled in the history of thought." 
 
 1 If a foreign dramatist chooses to keep his play in manuscript, 
 then the American courts will defend his stage-right ; but the for- 
 eign dramatist is the only alien author whose literary property is 
 assured to him by our courts. 
 
 November, 1890.
 
 XXI. 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 
 
 AN HISTORICAL SKETCH. 
 
 By Geo. Haven Putnam. 
 
 (Originally published in 1884, in Mason and Lalor's Cyclopcedia of 
 Political Science. ) 
 
 During the past twenty years there has been a 
 very considerable increase in the extent of interna- 
 tional literary exchanges, and a fuller recognition, 
 at least in Europe, of the propriety and necessity of 
 bringing these under the control of international 
 law. Americans also are beginning to appreciate 
 how largely the intellectual development of their 
 nation must be affected by all that influences the 
 development of the national literature, and to rec- 
 ognize the extent to which such development must 
 depend upon the inducements extended to literary 
 producers, as well as upon the character of the com- 
 petition with which these producers have to contend. 
 
 Literary property is defined by Drone as " the 
 exclusive right of the owner to possess, use, and 
 dispose of intellectual productions," and copyright 
 as " the exclusive right of the owner to multiply and 
 to dispose of copies of an intellectual production." 
 
 The English statute (5 and 6 Vict.) defines copy-
 
 352 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 right to mean "the sole and exclusive liberty of 
 printing or otherwise multiplying copies of any 
 subject to which the word is herein applied." 
 
 The American statute (U. S. Rev. Stat., § 4952) 
 speaks of copyright in a book as " the sole liberty 
 of printing, reprinting, publishing, . . . and 
 vending the same." 
 
 The French Constitutional Convention adopted, 
 in January, 1791, a report prepared by Chopelin, 
 which declares that : La plus sacrS, la plus inatta- 
 qaable, et, si je puis, parler aiusi, la plus personelle de 
 toutes les proprietes, est Vouvrage, fruit de la pense'e 
 d'un ecrivain. And in the decree rendered by the 
 convention, July 10, 1793, the preamble (written by 
 Lakanal) declares that de toutes les proprieties, la 
 moins susceptible de contestation, cest, sans contre'dit, 
 cclle des productions du ge'nie : et si quelque chose peut 
 e'tonner, cest qu'il ait fallu reconnaitre cette propriety, 
 assurer son libre exercice par une loi positive ; cest 
 qiiune aussi grande revolution que la uotre ait etc 
 necessaire poiir nous ramener sur ce point, comme sur 
 tout d'autres, aux simples elements de la justice la 
 plus commune. 
 
 The act relating to copyright, adopted by the 
 Reichstag of Germany, in April, 1871, declares that 
 Das Recht, ein Schriftzverk auf mcchanischem Wege 
 zu vervielfaltigen, steht dcm Urheber desselben aus- 
 schliesslich zu. 
 
 Copinger defines copyright as " the sole and ex- 
 clusive right of multiplying copies of an original 
 work or composition," and says that the right of an 
 author " to the productions of his mental exertions
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 353 
 
 may be classed among the species of property 
 acquired by occupancy ; being founded on labor 
 and invention." 
 
 Francis Lieber says (in an address delivered April 
 6, 1868) : " The main roots of all property whatsoever. 
 are appropriation and production. . . . Prop- 
 erty . . . precedes government. If a man ap- 
 propriates what belongs to no one (for instance, the 
 trunk of a tree), and if he produces a new thing (for 
 instance, a canoe) out of that tree, this product is 
 verily his own, . . . and any one who in turn 
 attempts to appropriate it without the process of 
 exchange, is an intruder, a robber. . . . The 
 whole right of property . . . rests on appropri- 
 ation and production : and I appeal to the intuitive 
 conviction of every thinking man to say whether a 
 literary work, such as Baker's description of his 
 toilsome journeys, or Goethe's Faust, is not a pro- 
 duction in the fullest sense of the word, even more 
 so than a barrel of herrings, which have been appro- 
 priated in the North Sea, and pickled and barreled 
 by the fishermen ; and whether any one has a right 
 to meddle with this property by production, any 
 more than you or I with the barrel of herrings." 
 
 Drone says : " There can be no property in a 
 production of the mind unless it is expressed in a 
 definite form of words. But the property is not in 
 the words alone; it is in the intellectual creation, 
 which language is merely a means of expressing and 
 communicating." It is evident that copyright is in 
 its nature akin to patent right, which also represents 
 the legal recognition of the existence of property in
 
 354 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 an idea or a group of ideas, or the form of expres- 
 sion of an idea. 
 
 International patent rights have, however, been 
 recognized and carried into effect more generally 
 than have copyrights. The patentee of an improved 
 toothpick would be able to secure to-day a wider 
 recognition of his right than has been accorded 
 to the author of Uncle Toms Cabin or of Adam 
 Bede. 
 
 Almost the sole exception to this consensus of 
 civilized opinion on the status of literary property 
 is presented by Henry C. Carey. He took the posi- 
 tion that " Ideas are the common property of man- 
 kind. Facts are everybody's facts. Words are free 
 to all men. . . . Examine Macaulay's History 
 of England ', and you will find that the body is com- 
 posed of what is common property." Of Prescott, 
 Bancroft, and Webster he says : " They did nothing 
 but reproduce ideas that were common property." 
 Of Scott and Irving, " They made no contribution 
 to knowledge." (Letters on Copyright, Phila., 1854.) 
 Therefore, the author of a work has no right of 
 property in the book he has made. He took the 
 common stock and worked it over; and one man 
 has just as good a right to it as another. If the 
 author is allowed to be the owner of his works, the 
 public are deprived of their rights. Property in 
 books is robbery. But this is simply a partial or 
 specific application of the well-known formula of 
 Proudhon : " Property is robbery," a theory which 
 it is not necessary to discuss in this paper. 
 
 The conception of literary property was known
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 355 
 
 to the ancients. A recompense of some sort to the 
 author was regarded as a natural right, and any 
 one contravening it as little better than a robber. 
 Klostermann says: "The first germs of a recogni- 
 tion of a property in thought are to be found in the 
 agreements which authors entered into with the 
 booksellers for the multiplication and sale of copies 
 of their works, and in the custom to treat as unlawful 
 any infringement upon the bookseller's right in a 
 work which had been so transferred to him. The 
 booksellers among the Romans succeeded, through 
 the use of slave labor, in producing duplicates of their 
 manuscripts at so low a cost that the use and pro- 
 ductions, centuries later, of the first printing presses, 
 were hardly cheaper." Martial records, in one of 
 his epigrams, that the edition of his Xenii could 
 be bought from the bookseller Tryphon for four 
 sesterces, the equivalent of about twelve and a half 
 cents. He grumbles at this price as being too high, 
 and claims that the bookseller would have been able 
 to get a profit from a charge of half that amount. 
 This poet appears to have had not less than four 
 publishers in charge of the sale of his works, one of 
 whom was a freedman of the second Lucensis. The 
 latter issued a special pocket edition of the Epigrams. 
 The poet prepared the advertisements for the book- 
 sellers, putting these in the form of epigrams, but 
 not neglecting to specify the form and price of each 
 book, as well as the place where it was offered for 
 sale. 1 Horace refers to the brothers Sosius as his 
 
 'Omnis in hoc gracili xeniorum turba libello 
 Constabit nummis quatuor cmpta tibi.
 
 356 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 publishers, but complains that while his works 
 brought gold to them, for their author they earned 
 only fame in distant lands and with posterity. 1 
 Terence sold his EtinncJms to the aediles, and his 
 Hccyra to the player Roscius ; while Juvenal reports 
 that Statius would have starved if he had not suc- 
 ceeded in selling to the actor Paris his tragedy of 
 Agave. " Such sales," says Coppinger, " were con- 
 sidered as founded upon natural justice. No man 
 could possibly have a right to make a profit by the 
 sale of the works of another without the author's 
 consent. It would be converting to his own emol- 
 ument the fruits of another's labor." 
 
 It is apparent from these and from similar refer- 
 ences, that under the Roman Empire authors were in 
 the habit of transferring to booksellers, for such con- 
 sideration as they could obtain, the right to duplicate 
 and to sell their works, and that, under the trade 
 usages, they were protected in so doing. There 
 
 Quatuor est nimium, poterit constare duobus. 
 Et faciet lucrum bibliopola Tryphon. 
 
 (EpigrammatJ, lib. xiii.,ep. 3.) 
 
 Qui tecum cupis esse meos ubicunque libellos. 
 Et comites longse quseris habere viae, 
 Hos eme quos arcet brevibus membrana tabellis : 
 Scrinia da magnis, me manus una capit. 
 ***** 
 
 Libertum docti Lucensis quare secundi 
 Limina post Pacis, Palladiumque Forum. 
 
 Epigrammata, lib. i. , ep. 3.) 
 
 'Hie meret sera liber Sosiis, hie et mare transit, 
 Et longum noto scriptori prorogat alvum. 
 
 {Art. Poet., 345.)
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 357 
 
 was no imperial act covering such transfers, and it 
 does not appear that in any division of the Roman 
 law was there provision for the exclusive right in 
 the " copy " of literary material. 
 
 It is nevertheless the case that the Roman jurists 
 interested themselves in the question of immaterial 
 property, but it was apparently rather as a theo- 
 retical speculation than as a study in practical law. 
 Some of the earlier discussions as to the nature of 
 property in ideas appear to have turned upon the 
 question as to whether such property should take 
 precedence over that in the material which happened 
 to be made use of for the expression of the ideas. 
 The disciples of Proculus maintained that the occu- 
 pation of alien material, so as to make of it a new 
 thing, gave a property right to him who had so 
 reworked or reshaped it ; while the school of Sabinus 
 insisted that the ownership in the material must 
 carry with it the title to whatever was produced 
 upon the material. Justinian, following the opinion 
 of Gaius, took a middle ground, pointing out that 
 the decision must be influenced by the possibility of 
 restoring the material to its original form, and more 
 particularly by the question as to whether the 
 material, or that which had been produced upon 
 it, was the more essential. This opinion of Gaius 
 appears to have had reference to the ownership of a 
 certain table upon which a picture had been painted, 
 and the decision was in favor of the artist. This 
 decision contains an unmistakable recognition of 
 immaterial property, not, to be sure, in the sense of 
 a right to exclusive reproduction, but in the par-
 
 358 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 ticular application that, while material property 
 depends upon the substance, immaterial property, 
 that is to say. property in ideas, depends upon the 
 form. 
 
 For the centuries following the destruction of the 
 Roman Empire, during which literary undertakings 
 were confined almost entirely to the monasteries, the 
 Roman usage, under which authors could dispose 
 of their works to booksellers, and the latter could 
 be secured control of the property purchases, was 
 entirely forgotten. No limitation was placed on 
 the duplication of works of literature. According 
 to YVachter (Das Verlagsreckt t 1857), it was even the 
 case that by a statute of the University of Paris, 
 issued in 1223, the Parisian booksellers (who were 
 in large part dependent upon the university) were 
 enjoined to extend, as far as practicable, the dupli- 
 cation of works of a certain class. The business of 
 bookseller at that time consisted as much in the rent- 
 ing out for reading and copying of authentic manu- 
 script versions as in the sale of manuscript copies. In 
 the University of Paris, as well as in that of Bologna, 
 a statute specified the least number of copies, 
 usually 120, of a manuscript that a bookseller must 
 keep in stock, and the prices for loaning manuscripts 
 were also fixed by statute. The difficulty and 
 expense attending the reproduction of manuscripts 
 was in every case considerable (much greater than 
 in the early days of the Roman Empire), and when, 
 therefore, an author desired to secure a wide circu- 
 lation for his work, he came to regard the reproduc- 
 tion of copies not as a reserved right and source of
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 359 
 
 income, but as a service to himself, which he was 
 very ready to facilitate, and even to compensate. 
 
 Throughout the middle ages, whatever immaterial 
 property in the realms of science, art, or technics 
 obtained recognition and protection, was held in 
 ownership, not by individuals, but by churches, 
 monasteries, or universities. Before the invention 
 of printing, the writers of the middle ages were 
 fortunate if, without a ruinous expenditure, they 
 could succeed in getting their productions before 
 the public. The printing-press brought with it the 
 possibility of a compensation for literary labor. 
 Very speedily, however, the unrestricted rivalry of 
 printers brought into existence competing and 
 unauthorized editions, which diminished the pros- 
 pects of profit, or entailed loss for the authors, 
 editors, and printers of the original issue, and thus 
 discouraged further similar undertakings. 
 
 As there was no general enactment under which 
 the difficulty could be met, protection for the 
 authors and their representatives was sought through 
 special " privileges," obtained for separate works as 
 issued. The earliest privilege of the kind was, 
 according to Putter (Beitrdge sum deutschen Staats- 
 und Fiirstenrecht), that conceded by the republic 
 of Venice, January 3, 1491, to the jurist Peter of 
 Ravenna, securing to him, and to the publishers 
 selected by him, the exclusive right for the printing 
 and sale of his work, PJitznix. No term of years 
 appears to have been named in this " privilege." It 
 appears, however, that most of the early Italian 
 enactments in regard to literature were framed, not
 
 360 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 so much with reference to the protection of authors, 
 as for the purpose of inducing printers (acting also 
 as publishers) to undertake certain literary enter- 
 prises which were believed to be of importance to 
 the community. 
 
 The republic of Venice, the dukes of Florence, 
 and Leo X. and other popes conceded at different 
 times to certain printers the exclusive privilege of 
 printing, for specified terms — rarely, apparently, 
 exceeding fourteen years — editions of certain classic 
 authors. At this time, when the business of the 
 production and the distribution of books was in its 
 infancy, such undertakings must have been attended 
 with exceptional risk, and have called for no little 
 enlightened enterprise on the part of the printers. 
 It is fair to assume that the princes conceding these 
 privileges were not interested in securing profits 
 for the printers, but had in mind simply the en- 
 couragement, for the benefit of the community, of 
 literary ventures on the part of the editors and 
 printers. 
 
 After Italy, it is in France that we find the next 
 formal recognition, on the part of the government, 
 of the rights of property in literature. From the 
 reign of Louis XII. to the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century it became usage for the publisher (at that 
 time identical with the printer), before undertak- 
 ing the publication of a work, to obtain from the 
 king an authorization, or letters patent, the term 
 of which appears to have varied according to the 
 nature of the work and the mood of the monarch 
 or of the advising ministers. At the close of nearly
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 361 
 
 all of the volumes issued previous to the Revolution 
 will be found printed : Les Lettres du Rol, addressed, 
 A nos antes ct feanx conseillers, les gens tenons nos 
 coars de Par lenient . . . et autres nos justiciers, 
 et qui font defenses a tons libr aires et impr linear s ct 
 autres personnes de quelque qualite' et condition qiielles 
 solent, d'lntrodulre aucun Impression ctrangere (that 
 is to say, any unauthorized reprint) dans aucun lieu 
 de notre obeissance. 
 
 These letters were in the first place obtained, as 
 in Italy, for the protection of special editions of the 
 classics, but very speedily the native literature 
 increased in importance, and the list of original 
 works came to outnumber that of the reprints of 
 ancient authors. The rights specified in the letters 
 were, in the first place, nearly always vested in the 
 printers, but it is evident that the longer the terms 
 of the royal concessions the larger the remunera- 
 tion that could be looked for from the work, and 
 the greater the price that the printer would be in a 
 position to pay to author or writer. It is also to be 
 noted that the terms granted to original French 
 works were usually longer than those for the new 
 editions of the classics or of reprints of devotional 
 works. 
 
 According to Lowndes, the penalties for infring- 
 ing copyright were, until the Revolution, heavier 
 in France than anywhere else in Europe. It 
 was argued that such infringement constituted a 
 worse crime than the stealing of goods from the 
 house of a neighbor, for in the latter case some 
 negligence might possibly be imputed to the owner,
 
 362 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 while in the former it was stealing what had been 
 confided to the public honor. 
 
 The status of literary property was further recog- 
 nized and defined by the so-called Ordinances de 
 Moulins of Henry II., in 1556, the declaration of 
 Charles IX., in 1571, and the letters patent of 
 Henry III., in 1576, but the character of the meth- 
 ods of granting and defending copyrights was not 
 changed in any material respects. 
 
 By the decree of the National Assembly of August 
 4, 1789, all the privileges afforded to authors and 
 owners of literary property by the various royal 
 edicts were repealed. In July, 1793, the first general 
 Copyright Act was passed, under which protection 
 was conceded to the author for his life, and to his 
 heirs and assigns for ten years thereafter. 
 
 The imperial Act of 18 10 extended the term to 
 twenty years after the author's death, for widow or 
 children, the term remaining at ten years if the 
 heirs were further removed. In 1872 the act now 
 (1883) in force was passed. Under this the term 
 was extended to fifty years from the death of 
 the author. The provisions of the act were 
 also extended to the colonies. Foreigners and 
 Frenchmen enjoy the right equally, and no restric- 
 tion is made as to the authors being residents at the 
 time the copyright is taken out. It is, further, not 
 necessary that the first publication of the work 
 should be made in France. In case the work be 
 first published abroad, French copyright may subse- 
 quently be secured by depositing two copies at the 
 Ministry of the Interior in Paris, or with the secre-
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 363 
 
 tary of the prefecture in the departments. The 
 provisions of the statute affecting foreigners may 
 be modified by any convention concluded between 
 France and a foreign country. 
 
 The earliest German enactment in regard to 
 literary property was the " privilege " accorded in 
 Nuremberg, in 1501, to the poet Conrad Celtes, for 
 the works of the poet Hrosvvista (Helena von Ros- 
 sow, a nun of the Benedictine cloister of Garders- 
 heim). As this author had been dead for 600 years, 
 the privilege was evidently not issued for her protec- 
 tion, but must rather have been based upon the 
 idea of encouraging Celtes in a praiseworthy (and 
 probably unremunerative) undertaking. Between the 
 years 15 10 and 15 14 we find record of "privileges" 
 issued by the Emperor Maximilian in favor of the 
 sermons of Geiler of Kaisersberg, and the writings 
 of Schottius, Stabius, and others. In 1534 Luther's 
 translation of the Bible was issued in Wittenberg 
 under the protection of the " privilege " of the 
 Elector of Saxony. 
 
 Penalties for piratical reprints were sometimes 
 specified in the special "privileges," but from 1660 
 we find certain general acts under which privileged 
 works could obtain protection, and their owners 
 could secure against reprinters uniform penalties. 
 Decrees of this class were issued by the city of 
 Frankfort in 1657, 1660, and 1775, by Nuremberg 
 in 1623, by the electorate of Saxony in 1661, and by 
 the imperial government in 1646. There were also 
 enactments in Hanover in 1778, and in Austria in 
 1795. All of the above specified acts expressly per-
 
 3^4 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 mitted the reprinting of " foreign " works, that is, 
 of works issued outside of the domain covered by 
 the enactment. Piratical reprinting between the 
 different German states increased, therefore, with 
 the growth of the literature, and although the 
 injury and injustice caused by it were recognized, 
 and measures for its suppression were promised by 
 the emperors Leopold II. and Francis II. (1790 and 
 1792), nothing in this direction could be accom- 
 plished by the unwieldy imperial machinery. 
 
 In 1794 legislation was inaugurated in the Prus- 
 sian parliament, which was accepted by the other 
 states of Germany (excepting Wurtemberg and 
 Mecklenburg), under which all German authors and 
 foreign authors whose works were represented by 
 publishers taking part in the book fairs in Frankfort 
 and Leipzig were protected throughout the states 
 of Germany against unauthorized reprints. 
 
 According to Klostermann, these enactments 
 were only in small part effective, and it was not 
 until forty years later that, under the later acts of 
 the new German confederacy, German authors were 
 able to secure throughout Germany a satisfactory 
 protection. It is, nevertheless, the case that to 
 those who framed the Berlin enactment of 1794 
 must be given the credit of the first steps toward 
 the practical recognition of international copyright. 
 
 The copyright statute now in force in Germany, 
 including Elsass and Lothringen, dates from 1871. 
 The term is for the life of the author and for thirty 
 years thereafter. The copyright registry for the 
 empire is kept at Leipzig. The protection of the
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 365 
 
 law is afforded to the works of citizens, whether 
 published inside or outside of the empire, and also 
 to works of aliens, if these are published by a firm 
 doing business within the empire. 
 
 In Italy, literary copyright rests upon the statute 
 of 1865. The term is for the life of the author and 
 for forty years after his death, or for eighty years 
 from the publication of the work. After the ex- 
 piration of the first forty years, however, or after 
 the death of the author, in case this does not take 
 place until more than forty years have elapsed since 
 the publication, the work is open to publication by 
 any one who will pay to the author of the copyright 
 a royalty of five per cent, of the published price. It 
 is necessary to deposit two copies of the work, to- 
 gether with a declaration in duplicate, at the pre- 
 fecture of the province. No distinction is made be- 
 tween citizens and aliens, and the provisions of the 
 law are applicable to the authors of works first pub- 
 lished in any foreign country, between which and 
 Italy there is no copyright treaty. 
 
 In Austria, the term of literary copyright is for 
 thirty years after the author's death, and the other 
 provisions of the act in force are similar to those of 
 the German statute. 
 
 In Holland and Belgium, copyright, formerly per- 
 petual, is now limited to the life of the author and 
 twenty years thereafter. 
 
 In Denmark, copyright, formerly perpetual, is now 
 limited to thirty years from the date of publication. 
 
 In Sweden, copyright was also, until recently, 
 perpetual. By the Act of 1877, however, it now en-
 
 366 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 dures for the life of the author, and for fifty years 
 thereafter. The provisions of the law are made ap- 
 plicable to the works of foreign authors only on 
 condition of reciprocity. 
 
 In Spain, copyright rests on the Act of 1878, and 
 endures during the life of the author and for eighty 
 years thereafter. If the right be assigned by the 
 author and the author leave no heirs, it belongs to the 
 assignees for eighty years from the author's death. 
 In the case, however, of heirs being left by the au- 
 thor, the assignment holds good for but twenty-five 
 years, after which the ownership reverts to the heirs 
 for the remaining fifty-five years of the term. Owners 
 of foreign works will retain their rights in Spain, 
 provided they adhere to the law of their own coun- 
 try. The copyright registry is kept at the Ministry 
 of the Interior, and, to perfect the registry, a deposit 
 of three copies of the work is required. The Span- 
 ish government is authorized to conclude copyright 
 treaties with foreign countries on the condition of 
 complete reciprocity between the contracting par- 
 ties. Under such an arrangement any author, or 
 his representative, who has legally secured copyright 
 in the one country, would be, without further for- 
 malities, entitled to enjoy it in the other. 
 
 In Russia, copyright endures for the life of the 
 author and for fifty years thereafter. 
 
 In Greece, the term is fifteen years from publica- 
 tion. 
 
 In Japan the law of copyright dates from 1874. 
 Manuscript must be examined by the Department 
 of the Interior, and if found free from disloyal
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 367 
 
 opinions or any matter calculated to injure public 
 morals, a certificate of protection is promptly issued. 
 Three copies of the work must be deposited in the 
 department, and the fees amount to the value of 
 six more copies. 
 
 In China, notwithstanding the large body of na- 
 tional literature, no laws have been enacted for the 
 protection of literary property. 
 
 In Great Britain, the Act of 1842, now (1883) m 
 force, provides as follows : Copyright in a book en- 
 dures for forty-two years from the date of publica- 
 tion, or for the author's life, and for seven years 
 after, whichever of these two terms may be the 
 longer. The first publication of the work must be 
 in Great Britain. The copy can be taken out by 
 any author or owner who is a British citizen, or by 
 an alien who may at the time of the first publication 
 be within the British dominions (in any portion of 
 the British Empire). The work must be registered 
 in the records of the Stationers' Company, and five 
 copies must be delivered to certain institutions 
 specified. A bill is now, however, before Parliament, 
 framed mainly upon the recommendations of the 
 Copyright Commission of 1878, which provides that 
 the term of copyright for books shall be fifty years; 
 that in the case of British subjects copyright ex- 
 tends to all the British dominions; that aliens, 
 wherever resident, shall be entitled to British copy- 
 right on registering their work in that part of the 
 British dominions where it v/as first published. 
 
 The history of the status of literary property in 
 England prior to 1863 is given in detail in the ar-
 
 368 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 tide of Mr. Macleod (vol. i., p. 642). It is in Eng- 
 land that the nature and basis of copyright have 
 received the most thorough consideration, and the 
 English opinions (although representing very wide 
 differences among themselves) have been the most 
 important contributions to the discussion of the 
 subject. It is sufficient to note here that the first 
 record of the recognition of property in literature 
 appears in 1558 (that is, half a century later than 
 in France or Germany), when the earliest entry of 
 titles was made on the register of the Company of 
 Stationers in London. As early as 1534, however, 
 Henry VIII. granted to the University of Cambridge 
 the exclusive right of printing certain books in 
 which the crown claimed a prerogative. Afterward, 
 patents aim privilegio were granted to individuals. 
 Prior to 17 10 there was no legislation creating 
 literary property or confining ownership, nor any 
 abridging its perpetuity or restricting its enjoyment. 
 It was understood, therefore, to owe its existence to 
 common law, and this conclusion, arrived at by the 
 weightiest authorities, remained practically unques- 
 tioned until 1774. For the provisions of the Act of 
 1710 (8 Anne), the details of the cases of Miller vs. 
 Taylor (1769), and Donaldson vs. Becket (1774), the 
 discussions concerning these cases, with the opinions 
 of Lord Mansfield, Lord Camden, and Justice Yates, 
 and also for the debate attending the framing of 
 the Act of 1842, with the arguments of Talfourd, 
 Lord Campbell, Justice Coleridge, Lord Macaulay, 
 and Thomas Hood, the reader is referred to Mr. 
 Macleod's paper.
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 369 
 
 In the United States, the first act in regard to 
 copyright was passed in Connecticut in January, 
 1783. This was followed by the Massachusetts act 
 of March, 1783, that of Virginia in 1785, and New 
 York and New Jersey in 1786. These acts were due 
 more particularly to the efforts of Noah Webster, 
 and their first service was the protection of his fa- 
 mous Speller. Webster journeyed from State capital 
 to State capital, to urge upon governors and legis- 
 latures the immediate necessity of copyright laws, 
 and under his persistency measures had also been 
 promised, and in part framed, in Rhode Island, 
 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Caro- 
 lina. The necessity for State laws on the subject 
 was, however, obviated by the United States 
 statute of 1790. In creating a public and legis- 
 lative opinion which made such a law possible, 
 Webster's writings and personal influence were all- 
 important. 
 
 Previous to the adoption of the Federal Constitu- 
 tion, in 1787, a general copyright law was not within 
 the province of the central government, and in 
 order to encourage the States in the framing of 
 copyright legislation, a resolution, proposed by 
 Madison, was adopted in Congress in May, 1783, 
 recommending to the States the adoption of laws 
 securing copyright for a term of not less than four- 
 teen years. The State acts passed prior to this 
 resolution had conceded a term of twenty-one years. 
 The Act of 1790 provided for the shorter time sug- 
 gested by Madison. The Act of 183 1 extended the 
 fourteen years to twenty-eight, with privilege to the
 
 S70 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 author, his widow, or children, of renewal for fourteen 
 years more. The act of 1834 provided that all deeds 
 for the transferor assignment of copyright should be 
 recorded in the office in which the original entry had 
 been made. In 1846, the act establishing the Smith- 
 sonian Institution required that one copy of the 
 work copyrighted should be delivered to that insti- 
 tution, and one copy to the Library of Congress. 
 This provision was repealed in 1859, by a statute 
 which transferred to the Department of the Interior 
 the custody of the publications and records. In 
 1865 the copies were again ordered to be delivered 
 to the Library of Congress. In ie 61 an act was 
 passed, providing that cases of copyright could, 
 without regard to the amount involved, be appealed 
 to the Supreme Court. 
 
 The act now in force in the United States is that 
 of July, 1870 (see Rev. Stat., §§ 4948-4971). This 
 provides that the business of copyrights shall be 
 under charge of the Librarian of Congress; that copy- 
 rights may be secured by any citizen of the United 
 States or resident therein ; that the term of copy- 
 right shall be twenty-eight years, with the privilege 
 of renewal for the further term of fourteen years by 
 the author, if he be still living, and continues to be 
 a citizen or a resident, or by his widow or children, 
 if he be dead ; that two copies of the work shall be 
 deposited in the Library of Congress ; that the work 
 must first be published in the United States, and 
 that the original jurisdiction of all suits under the 
 copyright laws shall rest with the United States 
 Circuit Courts.
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 37 1 
 
 Under the present interpretation of the courts 
 in both the United States and Europe, copyright 
 in published works exists only by virtue of the 
 statutes defining (or establishing) it, while in works 
 that have not been published, such as compositions 
 prepared exclusively for dramatic representation, 
 the copyright obtains through the common law. 
 Copyright by statute is of necessity limited to the 
 term of years specified in the enactment, while 
 copyright at common law has been held to be per- 
 petual. The leading English decisions have before 
 been referred to. The United States decision, 
 which still serves as a precedent on the point of 
 the statutory limitation of copyright, is that of the 
 United States Supreme Court in 1834, in the case of 
 Wheaton vs. Peters. This decision involved the 
 purport of the United States law of 1790, and the 
 determination of the same question that had been 
 decided by the House of Lords in 1774, viz., 
 whether copyright in a published work existed by 
 the common law, and, if so, whether it had been 
 taken away by statute. The court held that the 
 law had been settled in England, the act of 8 Anne 
 having taken away any right previously existing at 
 common law ; that there was no common law of the 
 United States ; and that the copyright statute of 
 1790 did not affirm a right already in existence, but 
 created one. Justices Thompson and Baldwin, in 
 opposing the decision of the four justices concurring 
 in the decision, took the ground that the common 
 law of England did prevail in the United States, 
 and that copyright at common law had been fully
 
 372 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 recognized ; and that, even if it were admitted that 
 such copyright had been abrogated in England by 
 the statute of Anne, such statute had, of course, no 
 effect either in the colonies or in the United States. 
 " These considerations," says Drone, " deprive 
 Wheaton vs. Peters of much of its weight as an 
 authority." In 1880, in the case of Putnam vs. 
 Pollard, it was claimed by the plaintiff that the 
 decision in Wheaton vs. Peters could in any case 
 only make a precedent for Pennsylvania ; that the 
 English common law obtained in the State of New 
 York, and could not have been affected by the 
 statute of Anne ; but the New York Supreme 
 Court decided that Wheaton vs. Peters consti- 
 tuted a valid precedent. 
 
 What may be the Subject of Copyright. In order 
 to acquire a copyright in a work, it is necessary that 
 it should be original. The originality can, however, 
 consist in the form or arrangement as well as in 
 the substance. Corrections and additions to an old 
 work, not the property of the compiler, can also 
 secure copyright. The copyright of private letters, 
 forming literary compositions, is in the composer 
 and not in the receiver. (Oliver vs. Oliver, Percival 
 vs. Phipps et ah, Story's Com) 
 
 The English statute, 5 and 6 Vict., defines 
 " book " " to mean and include every volume, part 
 or division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of letter- 
 press, sheet of music, map, chart, or plan separately 
 published." The right of property in lectures, 
 whether written or oral, is now confirmed by stat- 
 ute, the most important English decision on the
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. Z7?> 
 
 point being that of Abernethy vs. Hutchinson, and 
 American precedents being Bartlett vs. Crittenden, 
 Keene vs. Kimball, and Putnam vs. Meyer. Copy- 
 right can be secured for original arrangements of 
 common material or novel presentations of familiar 
 facts. In Putnam vs. Meyer the New York Supreme 
 Court held that certain tabular lists of anatomical 
 names, arranged in a peculiar and arbitrary manner 
 for the purpose of facilitating the work of memo- 
 rizing, were entitled to protection. 
 
 Abridgments and abstracts, which can be called 
 genuine and just, are also entitled to copyright. 
 (Lawrence vs. Dana, Gray vs. Russell et al.) Ac- 
 cording to English precedent, copyright cannot 
 exist in a work of libelous, immoral, obscene, or irre- 
 ligious tendency. There is no record in the United 
 States of a case in which the question of copyright 
 in irreligious books has been considered. Drone 
 points out that the uniform construction of the law 
 relating to blasphemy is evidence of the large free- 
 dom of inquiry and discussion allowed in religious 
 matters. On this point the opinion of Justice 
 Cooley (People vs. Ruggles, 8 Johns. Rep., N. Y.) 
 is worth citing : " It does not follow because blas- 
 phemy is punishable as a crime, that therefore one 
 is not at liberty to dispute and argue against the 
 truth of the Christian religion, or of any accepted 
 dogma. Its ' divine origin and truth ' are not so far 
 admitted in the law as to preclude their being con- 
 troverted. To forbid discussions on this subject, 
 except by the various sects of believers, would be to 
 abridge the liberty of speech and of the press on a
 
 374 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 point which, with many, would be regarded as the 
 most important of all." In quoting a similar opin- 
 ion of Justice Story, Drone concludes that "there 
 appears to be no good reason why valid copyright 
 will not rest in a publication in which are denied any 
 or all of the doctrines of the Bible; provided the 
 motives and manner of the author be such as not 
 to warrant the finding of a case of blasphemy or 
 immorality." 
 
 Several of the questions concerning the status 
 and the defence of literary property in this country 
 are only now beginning to come into discussion. 
 The literature of the country is still so young that 
 as yet but a small portion of it has survived the 
 statute term of copyright. From the present time, 
 however, as the terms of works which have estab- 
 lished a position as classics begin in part or in whole 
 to expire, we can look forward to a larger number 
 of issues and of suits connected with alleged in- 
 fringements of copyright. 
 
 The case of Putnam vs. Pollard, decided in the 
 New York Supreme Court in 1881, covered some 
 points that appear to have not before received con- 
 sideration. The defendants had reprinted some 
 fragmentary and unrevised portions of the works of 
 Washington Irving, on which the copyright had 
 expired, and offered these for sale under the desig- 
 nation of Irving s Works. The plaintiff had for a 
 number of years used this title to describe the au- 
 thorized, complete, and revised writings of this 
 author, in the shape in which he had finally pre- 
 pared them for posterity. The plaintiff sought to
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 375 
 
 enjoin the sale, under the above title, of the frag- 
 mentary work, on the several grounds that it misled 
 the public, caused injury to the literary reputation 
 of Irving, and interfered with the property rights of 
 Irving's heirs. The courts decided, however, that 
 as long as the volumes in question contained noth- 
 ing but material which had actually been written by 
 Irving, it was not unlawful to designate them as 
 Irving's Works, even though the writings should 
 not be complete or in their final form ; and the 
 injunction was denied. The question involved was, 
 it will be noted, one of trade-mark, and the decision 
 took the ground that an author's name, combined 
 with the term " works," does not constitute a trade- 
 mark. Under this ruling, it might be proper to add 
 to the title-pages of volumes of " fragments" sold 
 as " works," the caution " Caveat emptor" 
 
 The four theories which have resulted from this dis- 
 cussion of a century are thus summarized by Drone: 
 I. That intellectual productions constitute a species 
 of property founded in natural law, recognized by 
 the common law, and neither lost by publication 
 nor taken away by legislation. 2. That an author 
 has, by common law, an exclusive right to control 
 his works before, and not after, publication. 3. That 
 this right is not lost by publication, but has been 
 destroyed by statute. 4. That copyright is a mo- 
 nopoly of limited duration, created and wholly 
 regulated by the legislature, and that an author 
 has, therefore, no other title to his published works 
 than that given by statute. 
 
 The first country to take action in regard to in-
 
 3?6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 ternational copyright was Prussia, which, in 1836, 
 passed an act conceding the protection of the Prus- 
 sian statute to the writers of every country which 
 should grant reciprocity. In 1837 a copyright con- 
 vention was concluded between the different mem- 
 bers of the German confederation. 
 
 This was followed by the English Act of 1838, 1 
 and 2 Vict., c. 59, amended and extended by 15 
 Vict., c. 12. This act provided that her majesty 
 might, by order in council, grant the privilege of 
 copyright to authors of books, etc., first published 
 in any foreign country to be named in such order, 
 provided always that " due protection had been se- 
 cured by the foreign power so named in such order 
 in council, for the benefit of parties interested in 
 works first published in the British dominions." 
 
 Different provisions may be made in the arrange- 
 ments with different countries. Under the general 
 Copyright Act, no right of property is recognized in 
 any book, etc., not first published in her majesty's 
 dominions. Hence, British as well as foreign au- 
 thors, first publishing abroad, have no protection in 
 Great Britain unless a convention has been framed, 
 under the International Copyright Act, between 
 Great Britain and the country in which the publi- 
 cation is made. It may be noted here that the 
 condition of " first publication," which obtains in 
 the statutes of nearly all countries, has been held to 
 be complied with by a simultaneous publication in 
 two or more countries. 
 
 Under this International Copyright Act, Great 
 Britain has entered into copyright conventions with
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 377 
 
 the following countries: with Saxony, in 1846; 
 France, in 1851 ; Prussia, in 1855; states of Ger- 
 many comprised in the German empire : Anhalt, 
 in 1853; Brunswick, in 1849; Hamburg, in 1853; 
 Hanover, in 1847; Oldenburg, in 1847; Hesse- 
 Darmstadt, in 1862 ; Thuringian Union, in 1847. 
 (It is not clear what effect the absorption of these 
 states into the empire may have had upon their 
 several copyright treaties.) With Spain, in 1857 
 (temporarily renewed in 1880); Belgium, in 1855; 
 and Sardinia, in 1862 (confirmed in 1867 by the 
 kingdom of Italy). 
 
 The conventions with the several German states 
 contain essentially identical provisions, which are as 
 follows : The author of any book to whom the 
 laws of either state (English or German) give copy- 
 right, shall be entitled to exercise that right in the 
 other of such states, for the same term to which an 
 author of a similar work would be entitled if it were 
 first published in such other state. The authors of 
 each state shall enjoy in the other the same protec- 
 tion against piracy and unauthorized republication, 
 and shall have the same remedies before courts of 
 justice, as the law affords to the domestic authors. 
 Translators are protected against a piracy of their 
 translation, but acquire no exclusive right to trans- 
 late a work except in the following case : the 
 author who notifies on the title-page of his book 
 his intention of reserving the right of translation, 
 will, during five years from the first publication of 
 the book, be entitled to protection, in the treaty 
 state, from the publication of any translation not
 
 3/8 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 authorized by him. In order, however, to secure 
 this protection, the author must, within three 
 months of the first publication of his book, register 
 the title and deposit a copy in the proper office in 
 the treaty state ; part of the authorized translation 
 must appear within a year, and the whole of it 
 within three years of the deposit and registration of 
 the original ; and the translation must itself be duly 
 registered and deposited. When a work is issued in 
 parts, each part shall be treated as a separate book ; 
 but notice of the reservation of the right of transla- 
 tion need be printed only on the first page. The 
 importation into either of the two states of unau- 
 thorized copies of works protected by the conven- 
 tion is forbidden. A certified copy of the entry in 
 the registry of either state shall prima facie confer 
 an exclusive right of republication within such state. 
 
 The provisions of the existing conventions be- 
 tween England and France, Spain, Belgium, and 
 Italy, are essentially identical with those of the 
 German treaty. The continental book, on the title- 
 page of which has been duly printed the announce- 
 ment of the reservation of the right of translation, 
 must be duly registered at Stationers' Hall, London. 
 The English work must be registered for France at 
 the Bureau de la Librairie of the Ministry of the In- 
 terior, in Paris, and for Spain and Belgium at the 
 corresponding offices in Madrid and Brussels. 
 
 The provisions of the treaty between Spain and 
 France, which is based upon the Spanish Copyright 
 Act of 1878, have, in the main, been followed in the 
 conventions between Spain and Italy, Spain and
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 379 
 
 Portugal, France and Italy, etc. They are as fol- 
 lows : i. Complete reciprocity between the con- 
 tracting parties. 2. Treatment of each nation by 
 the other as the most favored nation. 3. Any au- 
 thor or his representative who has legally secured 
 copyright in the one country, to enjoy it forthwith 
 in the other, without further formalities. 4. The 
 prohibition in each country of the printing, selling, 
 importation or exportation of works in the language 
 of the other country, without the consent of the 
 owners of the copyright therein. 
 
 The copyright treaty between France and Ger- 
 many, as framed in 1883, is a step in advance in 
 many ways. By Article 10, authors of the two 
 countries are spared all formalities of registration, 
 and the appearance of the writer's name on the title- 
 page is to be considered sufficient proof of his 
 rights, unless the contrary is proved. In the case 
 of anonymous or pseudonymous works the publisher 
 will be regarded as the author's representative. 
 The knotty point of the right of translation has 
 been solved by a compromise. The necessity to 
 print a reserve of the right of translation on the 
 book is abolished, as is the registration of transla- 
 tions. The author is to retain his right of transla- 
 tion for ten years, instead of the five hitherto 
 allowed. When a work is issued in parts, the ten 
 years are to be counted from the issue of the last 
 part. Books and acting plays are put on the same 
 footing ; and the treaty will apply to works already 
 published. 
 
 An international literary association was organ-
 
 380 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 ized some years ago, with Victor Hugo as its first 
 president, and has been of service in calling atten- 
 tion to defects in existing enactments and conven- 
 tions for the protection of property in literature. 
 It has recently called special attention to the ex- 
 ceptional position occupied by the United States 
 toward the literature of other countries. 
 
 Between no two countries has the exchange of 
 literary productions been so considerable or so im- 
 portant as between Great Britain and the United 
 States. The interests of authors, of readers, of pub- 
 lishers, of national literature and of national moral- 
 ity, have alike demanded that the exchange should 
 be placed under international regulation, and that 
 this extensive use by the public of each country of 
 the literature of the other should be conditioned 
 upon an adequate acknowledgment of the rights.of 
 the producers of such literature. 
 
 It is a disgrace that the two great English-speak- 
 ing people, claiming to stand among the most en- 
 lightened of the community of nations, should be 
 practically the only members of such community 
 which have failed to arrive at an agreement in this 
 all-important international issue ; and it is mortify- 
 ing for an American to be obliged to admit that the 
 responsibility for such failure must, in the main, rest 
 with the United States. 
 
 The reproduction of British literature in this 
 country has, during the past century, been much 
 more considerable than that of American literature 
 in Great Britain, and the direct loss to the English 
 authors, through the want of an assured and legal-
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 38 1 
 
 ized remuneration from the American editions of 
 their works, has therefore been greater than the cor- 
 responding direct loss to American authors. For 
 this and for other reasons, the suggestions and prop- 
 ositions for an international arrangement have been 
 more frequent and more pressing on the part of 
 England. And although it is certainly true, that 
 from an early date the rightfulness and desirability 
 of an international copyright have been maintained 
 in this country, not only by authors, but by lead- 
 ing publishers and many others who have given 
 thought and labor to the matter, it is nevertheless 
 the case that the views of these advocates of a 
 measure have not as yet been successful in securing 
 the legislation required to change the national policy. 
 This policy still persistently refuses to recognize the 
 rights of any alien writers, and, through such refusal, 
 continues to inflict a grievous and indefensible wrong, 
 not only upon such alien writers, but also upon the 
 authors and the literature of our own country. 
 
 The history of the efforts made in this country to 
 secure international copyright is not a long one. 
 The attempts have been few, and have been lacking 
 in organization and in unanimity of opinion, and 
 they have for the most part been made with but 
 little apparent expectation of any immediate suc- 
 cess. Those interested seem to have nearly always 
 felt that popular opinion was, on the whole, against 
 them, and that progress could be hoped for only 
 through the slow process of building up by educa- 
 tion and discussion a more enlightened public under- 
 standing.
 
 382 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 In 1838, after the passing of the first International 
 Copyright Act in Great Britain, Lord Palmerston in- 
 vited the American government to co-operate in 
 establishing a copyright convention between the 
 two countries. In the year previous, Henry Clay, 
 as chairman of the joint Library Committee, had re- 
 ported to the Senate very strongly in favor of such 
 a convention, taking the ground that the author's 
 right of property in his work is similar to that of the 
 inventor in his patent. This is a logical position for 
 a protectionist, interested in the rights of labor, to 
 have taken, and the advocates of the so-called pro- 
 tective system, who call themselves the followers of 
 Henry Clay, but who are to-day opposed to any full 
 recognition of authors' rights, would do well to bear 
 in mind this opinion of their ablest leader. 
 
 No action was taken in regard to Mr. Clay's re- 
 port or Lord Palmerston's proposal. In 1840 Mr. 
 G. P. Putnam issued in pamphlet form An Argu- 
 ment in Behalf of International Copyright, the first 
 publication on this subject in the United States of 
 which we find record. It was prepared by himself 
 and Dr. Francis Lieber. In 1843 Mr. Putnam ob- 
 tained the signatures of ninety-seven publishers, 
 printers, and binders to a petition he had prepared, 
 which was duly presented to Congress. It took the 
 broad ground that the absence of an international 
 copyright was " alike injurious to the business of 
 publishing and to the best interests of the people at 
 large." A memorial, originating in Philadelphia, 
 was presented the same year, in opposition to 
 this petition, setting forth, among other consider-
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 383 
 
 ations, that an international copyright would pre- 
 vent the adaptation of English books to American 
 wants. 
 
 In the report made by Mr. Baldwin to Congress 
 twenty-five years later, he remarks that " the muti- 
 lation and reconstruction of American books to suit 
 English wants are common to a shameless extent." 
 
 In 1853 the question of a copyright convention 
 with Great Britain was again under discussion, the 
 measure being favored by Mr. Everett, at that time 
 Secretary of State. A treaty was negotiated by 
 him, in conjunction with Mr. John F. Crampton, 
 minister in London, which provided simply that all 
 authors, artists, composers, etc., who were entitled 
 to copyright in one country, should be entitled to 
 it in the other on the same terms and for the same 
 length of time. The treaty was reported favorably 
 from the Committee on Foreign Relations, but was 
 laid upon the table in the Committee of the Whole. 
 While this measure was under discussion, five of the 
 leading publishing houses in New York addressed a 
 letter to Mr. Everett, in which, while favoring a con- 
 vention, they advised: 1. That the foreign author 
 must be required to register the title of his work in 
 the United States before its publication abroad. 
 2. That the work, to secure protection, must be 
 issued in the United States within thirty days of its 
 publication abroad ; and 3. That the reprint must 
 be wholly manufactured in the United States. 
 
 In 1853 Henry C. Carey published his Letters on 
 International Copyright, in which he took the ground 
 that the facts and ideas in a literary production are
 
 384 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the common property of society, and that property 
 in copyright is indefensible. 
 
 In 1858 a bill was introduced into the House of 
 Representatives by Mr. Morris, of Pennsylvania, 
 providing for international copyright on the basis 
 of an entire remanufacture of the foreign work, and 
 its reissue by an American publisher within thirty 
 days of its publication abroad. This bill does not 
 appear to have received any consideration. 
 
 In March, 1868, a circular letter, headed "Justice 
 to Authors and Artists," was issued by a committee 
 composed of George P. Putnam, S. Irenaeus Prime, 
 Henry Ivison, James Parton, and Egbert Hazard, 
 calling together a meeting for the consideration of 
 the subject of international copyright. The meet- 
 ing was held on the 9th of April, Mr. Bryant pre- 
 siding, and a society was organized under the title 
 of the "Copyright Association for the Protection 
 and Advancement of Literature and Art," of which 
 Mr. Bryant was made president, and E. C. Stedman 
 secretary. The primary object of the association 
 was stated to be " to promote the enactment of a 
 just and suitable international copyright law for 
 the benefit of authors and artists in all parts of the 
 world." A memorial had been prepared by the 
 above-mentioned committee to be presented to Con- 
 gress, which requested Congress to give its early 
 attention to the passage of a bill, " To secure in all 
 parts of the world the right of authors," but which 
 made no recommendations as to the details of any 
 measure. Of the 153 signatures attached to this me- 
 morial, 101 were those of authors, and 19 of publishers.
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 385 
 
 In the fall of 1868 Mr. J. D. Baldwin, member of 
 the House from Massachusetts, reported a bill, the 
 provisions of which had in the main received the 
 approval of the Copyright Association, which pro- 
 vided that a foreign work could secure a copyright 
 in this country, provided it was wholly manufactured 
 here and should be issued for sale by a publisher 
 who was an American citizen. The bill was recom- 
 mitted to the joint Committee on the Library, and 
 no action was taken upon it. Mr. Baldwin was of 
 opinion that an important cause for the shelving of 
 the measure without debate was the impeachment 
 of President Johnson, which was at that time ab- 
 sorbing the attention of Congress and the country. 
 No general expression of opinion was, therefore, 
 elicited upon the question from either Congress or 
 the public, and even up to this date (June, 1883) 
 the question has never reached such a stage as to 
 enable an expression of public opinion to be fairly 
 arrived at. In 1871 Mr. Cox, of New York, intro- 
 duced a bill which was practically identical with Mr. 
 Baldwin's measure, and which was also recommitted 
 to the Library Committee. 
 
 In 1870 a copyright convention was proposed by 
 Lord Clarendon, which called forth some discussion, 
 but concerning which no action was taken on the 
 part of the American government until 1872. 
 
 In 1872 the new Library Committee called upon 
 the authors, publishers, and others interested to 
 assist in framing a bill. At a meeting of the pub- 
 lishers, held in New York, a majority of the firms 
 
 present were in favor of the provision of Mr. Cox's 
 
 25
 
 386 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 bill. The report was, however, dissented from by 
 a large minority, on the ground that the bill was 
 drawn in the interests of the publishers rather than 
 that of the public ; that the prohibition of the use 
 of foreign stereotypes and electrotypes of illustra- 
 tions was an economic absurdity, and that an English 
 publishing house could, in any case, through an Amer- 
 ican partner, retain control of the American market. 
 During the same week a bill was drafted by C. A. 
 Bristed, representing more particularly the views of 
 the authors in the Copyright Association, which pro- 
 vided simply that all rights secured to citizens of the 
 United States by existing copyright laws be hereby 
 secured to the citizens and subjects of every country 
 the government of which secures reciprocal rights 
 to the citizens of the United States. A few weeks 
 later, at a meeting of publishers and others, held in 
 Philadelphia, resolutions were adopted (which will 
 be referred to later) opposing any measure of inter- 
 national copyright. 
 
 These four reports were submitted to the Library 
 Committee, together with one or two individual sug- 
 gestions, of which the most noteworthy were those 
 of Harper & Bros, and of Mr. J. P. Morton, a book- 
 seller of Louisville. Messrs. Harper, in a letter pre- 
 sented by their counsel, took the broad ground that 
 " any measure of international copyright was objec- 
 tionable because it would add to the price of books, 
 and thus interfere with the education of the people." 
 It is to be remarked, in regard to this consideration, 
 that it is equally forcible against any copyright 
 whatever. As Thomas Hood says : " Cheap bread
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 387 
 
 is as desirable and necessary as cheap books, but one 
 does not on that ground appropriate the farmer's 
 wheat stack." Mr. Morton was in favor of an 
 arrangement that should give to any dealer the 
 privilege of reprinting a foreign work, provided he 
 would contract to pay to the author or his represent- 
 ative ten per cent, of the wholesale price. This sug- 
 gestion was afterward incorporated in what was 
 known as the Sherman bill. In view of the wide 
 diversity of the plans and suggestions presented to 
 this committee, there was certainly some ground 
 for the statement made in his report by the chair- 
 man, Senator Lot M. Morrill, that " there was no 
 unanimity of opinion among those interested in the 
 measure." He maintained further, in acceptance of 
 the positions taken by the Philadelphians, " that an 
 international copyright was not called for by reasons 
 of general equity or of constitutional law ; that the 
 adoption of any plan which had been proposed 
 would be of very doubtful advantage to American 
 authors, and would not only be an unquestionable 
 and permanent injury to the interests engaged in 
 the manufacture of books, but a hinderance to the 
 diffusion of knowledge among the people, and to 
 the cause of American education." 
 
 The commission appointed by the British govern- 
 ment in 1876, to make inquiry in regard to the laws 
 and regulations relating to home, colonial, and inter- 
 national copyright, made reference in the following 
 terms to the present relations of British authors 
 with this country : " It has been suggested to us 
 that this countiy would be justified in taking steps
 
 388 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 of a retaliatory character with a view of enforcing, 
 incidentally, that protection from the United States 
 which we accord to them. This might be done by 
 withdrawing from the Americans the privilege of 
 copyright on first publication in this country. We 
 have, however, come to the conclusion that, on the 
 highest public grounds of policy and expediency, it 
 is advisable that our laws should be based on correct 
 principles, without respect to the opinions or the 
 policy of other nations. We admit the propriety of 
 protecting copyright, and it appears to us that the 
 principle of copyright, if admitted, is of universal 
 application. We therefore recommend that this 
 country should pursue the policy of recognizing the 
 rights of authors, irrespective of nationality." Here 
 is a claim for a far-seeing, statesman-like policy, 
 based upon principles of wide equity, and planned 
 for the permanent advantage of literature in Eng- 
 land and throughout the world. 
 
 It is mortifying for Americans, possessed of any 
 sensitiveness, not only for their national honor, but 
 for their national reputation for common sense, to see 
 quoted abroad as " the American view of the copy- 
 right question" such utterances as the resolutions 
 adopted in the meeting previously referred to, held in 
 Philadelphia in January, 1872. The meeting was pre- 
 sided over by Henry Carey Baird, and may be con- 
 sidered as having represented the opinions of the 
 Pennsylvania protectionists — opinions which, while 
 not, as I believe, shared by the majority of our com- 
 munity, do still succeed in shaping the economic pol- 
 icy of the nation. The resolutions are as follows:
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 389 
 
 I. That thought, unless expressed, is the property of 
 the thinker ; when given to the world, it is, as light, 
 free to all. 2. As property, it can only demand the 
 protection of the municipal law of the country to 
 which the thinker is subject. 3. The author, of any 
 country, by becoming a citizen of this, and assuming 
 and performing the duties thereof, can have the 
 same protection that an American author has. 4. 
 The trading of privileges to foreign authors for 
 privileges to be granted to Americans is not just, 
 because the interests of others than themselves may 
 be sacrificed thereby. 5. Because the good of the 
 whole people, and the safety of republican institu- 
 tions, demand that books shall not be made costly 
 for the multitude by giving the power to foreign 
 authors to fix their price here as well as abroad. 
 
 The first proposition is certainly a pretty safe 
 one, as thought, until expressed, can hardly incur 
 any serious risk of being appropriated. 
 
 The second proposition, while admitting for a 
 literary creation its claim to be classed as property, 
 denies to it the rights which are held to pertain to 
 all property in which the owner's title is absolute. 
 The property which would, if it still existed, most 
 nearly approximate to such a definition as above giv- 
 en, is that in slaves. Twenty-five years ago the title 
 to an African chattel, who was worth, in Charleston, 
 say $1,000, became valueless if said chattel succeeded 
 in slipping across to Bermuda. It is this ephemeral 
 kind of ownership, limited by accidental political 
 boundaries, that the Philadelphia protectionists are 
 willing to concede to the creation of a man's mind,
 
 390 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 the productions into which have been absorbed the 
 gray matter of his brain, and, possibly, the best part 
 of his life. 
 
 In regard to the third proposition, it may be said 
 that the protection accorded to American authors 
 is, according to their testimony, most unremuner- 
 ative and unsatisfactory ; and it is difficult to under- 
 stand why an European author, who has before 
 him, under international conventions, the markets 
 of his native country and of all the civilized world, 
 excepting belated America, should be expected to 
 give up these for the poor half loaf accorded to his 
 American brother. 
 
 The fourth proposition strikes one as rather a 
 remarkable protest to come from Philadelphia. Here 
 are a number of American producers (of literature) 
 who ask for a very moderate amount of protection 
 (if that is the proper term to apply to a mere recog- 
 nition of property rights) for their productions ; but 
 the Philadelphians, filled with an unwonted zeal for 
 the welfare of the community at large, say : "No; 
 this won't do ; prices would be higher and consumers 
 would suffer." 
 
 The last proposition appears to show that this 
 want of practical sympathy with the producers of 
 literature is not due to any lack of interest in the 
 public enlightenment. It may well, however, be 
 doubted whether education as a whole, including 
 the important branch of ethics, is advanced by 
 permitting our citizens to appropriate, without com- 
 pensation, the labor of others, while through such 
 appropriation they are also assisting to deprive our
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 39 1 
 
 own authors of a portion of their rightful earnings. 
 But, apart from that, the proposition, as stated, 
 proves too much. It is fatal to all copyright and 
 to all patent right. If the good of the community 
 and the safety of republican institutions demand 
 that, in order to make books cheap, the claim to a 
 compensation for the authors must be denied, why 
 should we continue to pay copyrights to Lowell and 
 Whittier, or to the families of Longfellow and 
 Irving? The so-called owners of these copyrights 
 actually have it in their power, in -operation with 
 their publishers, to " fix the prices " of their books 
 in this market. This monopoly must, indeed, be 
 pernicious and dangerous when it arouses Pennsyl- 
 vania to come to the rescue of oppressed and 
 impoverished consumers against the exactions of 
 greedy producers, and to raise the cry of " free 
 books for free men." 
 
 Early in 1880 a draft of an international copy- 
 right treaty was prepared, which received the sup- 
 port of nearly all the publishers, including Messrs. 
 Harper, who had found reasons since 1872 to modify 
 their views, and of some authors. The latter, 
 together with the publishing firms which had previ- 
 ously been most active in behalf of a measure, gave 
 their assent to this, not because they thought its 
 provisions on the whole wise or desirable, but 
 because the middle ground that it took between 
 an author's bill, without any restrictions, and the 
 extreme " manufacturing view " of the Philadel- 
 phians seemed most likely to secure the general 
 support required ; and it was believed that, if a
 
 39 2 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 copyright could once be inaugurated, it ought not 
 to prove difficult to amend it in the direction of 
 greater liberty and greater simplicity. 
 
 The proposed treaty provided that copyright 
 should be accorded reciprocally to English and 
 American works, the foreign editions of which should 
 be issued not later than three months after the 
 first publication ; the entries for copyright should, 
 however, by means of title-pages, be made simultane- 
 ously in the home and the foreign offices of registry, 
 and the several conditions applicable to the national 
 copyright enactments should be duly complied with. 
 It was further provided, in order to secure the pro- 
 tection of the American copyrights, that the foreign 
 work must be printed and bound in this country, the 
 privilege being accorded of importing stereotype 
 plates and electrotypes of the illustrations. It is to 
 be noted that this last clause indicates an advance in 
 liberality of opinion since the suggestions of 1872 
 and of earlier dates, in nearly all of which it was 
 insisted that the foreign work must be entirely re- 
 manufactured in this country. The authors and 
 publishers who gave their signatures, under protest, 
 to the petition in behalf of this treaty, objected prin- 
 cipally to the brief term allowed for the preparation 
 and issue of the reprinted editions. Many of the 
 authors believed that there should be no limit of 
 time, while some of the leading publishing houses 
 insisted that the limit ought to be twelve months, 
 and should in no case exceed six months. Attention 
 was especially called to the fact that such a limita- 
 tion as three months, while a disadvantage to all
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 393 
 
 authors whose reputations were not sufficiently 
 assured to enable them to make advance agree- 
 ments for their works, would be especially detri- 
 mental to American writers, whose books were rarely 
 undertaken by English or continental reprinters until 
 they had secured a satisfactory home reputation. 
 Chas. Scribner, Henry Holt & Co., and Roberts 
 Bros, united with G. P. Putnam's Sons in a protest 
 against what seemed to them the unwise and illiberal 
 restrictions of the proposed measure. These firms 
 did not, however, think best to withhold their signa- 
 tures from the petition in behalf of the treaty, being 
 of opinion that even if it might not prove practi- 
 cable to amend this before it was put into effect, 
 amendments could at a later date be introduced, and 
 that in any case, even a very faulty treaty would be 
 an advance over the present unsatisfactory and 
 iniquitous state of things. 
 
 In July, 1880, the American members of the 
 International Copyright Committee, which had been 
 appointed by the association for the reform of the 
 law of nations, addressed to Mr. Evarts, Secretary 
 of State, a memorial in behalf of a treaty practically 
 identical with the measure above specified, with the 
 exception of specifying no limit of time for the issue 
 of the reprint. 
 
 In September, 1880, Mr. Lowell, at that time 
 minister in London, submitted to Earl Granville 
 the draft of a treaty based upon the suggestions of 
 American publishers. Lord Granville advised Mr. 
 Lowell, in March, 1881, that the British govern- 
 ment would be interested in completing such treaty,
 
 394 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 but that an extension of the term for republication 
 from three months to six would be considered 
 essential, while a term of twelve months was thought 
 to be much more equitable. 
 
 In March, 1881, the International Literary Asso- 
 ciation adopted the report of a committee appointed 
 to examine the provisions of the proposed treaty 
 between the United States and England. In this 
 report the two countries were congratulated at the 
 prospect of an agreement so important to the authors 
 of each, and the United States was especially con- 
 gratulated upon the first steps being taken to remove 
 from the nation the opprobrium of being the only 
 people from whom authors could not secure just 
 treatment. The provisions of the treaty calling for 
 remanufacture, and the brief term allowed for the 
 preparation of the reprint, were, however, sharply 
 criticised. In the spring of 1881 Sir Edward Thorn- 
 ton, the British minister in Washington, received 
 instructions from London to proceed to the consid- 
 eration of the treaty, provided the term for reprint 
 could be extended. President Garfield had taken a 
 strong interest in the matter, an interest which Mr. 
 Blaine was understood to share, and it was expected 
 that the treaty would be submitted to the Senate in 
 the fall of 1 88 1. The death of Garfield and the 
 change in the State Department appear to have 
 checked the progress of the business, and there has 
 since, to the date of this writing (June, 1883), been 
 no evidence of any interest in it on the part of the 
 present administration. 
 
 It appears as if further consideration for the
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 395 
 
 treaty can be secured only on the strength of a popu- 
 lar demand, based on a correct understanding of the 
 rights and just requirements of authors, American 
 and foreign, and on an intelligent appreciation of 
 the unworthy position toward the question at pres- 
 ent occupied by the United States, which alone 
 among civilized nations has failed to give full recog- 
 nition to literature as property. 
 
 This brief historical sketch of the various national 
 and international enactments relating to copyrights, 
 indicates also the lines along which were developed 
 the ideas relating to authors' rights. The concep- 
 tion of property in literary ideas is of necessity 
 closely bound up with the conception of property in 
 material things. In tracing through successive cent- 
 uries the history of this last, we find a continued 
 development in its range and scope corresponding 
 to the development in civilization itself, of which so 
 large a factor is the recognition of human rights and 
 reciprocal human duties. 
 
 It would be beyond the scope of this paper 
 to go into the history of the property idea. It 
 is sufficient to point out that what a man owned 
 appears in the first place to have been that 
 which he had " occupied," and could defend with 
 his own strong arm. Later, it became what his 
 tribe could defend for him. With the organization 
 of tribes into nations, that which a man had oc- 
 cupied, shaped, or created was recognized as his 
 throughout the territory of his nation. 
 
 The idea of protection by national law was 
 widened into an imperial conception by the Roman
 
 3g6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 control of the imperial world. With the shattering 
 of the empire, the former local views of property 
 rights (or, at least, of property possibilities) again 
 obtained, and were only gradually widened and ex- 
 tended by the growth, through commerce, of inter- 
 national relations — a growth much retarded by feudal 
 claims and feudal strifes. The robber-barons of the 
 Rhine, by their crushing extortions from traders, did 
 what was in their power to stifle commerce, and 
 unwittingly laid the foundations of the so-called 
 protective system ; and later, the little trading com- 
 munities, still hampered by the baronial standard, 
 built up at their gates barriers against the admis- 
 sion of various products from the outer world, the 
 free purchase of which by their own citizens would, 
 as they imagined, in some manner work to their im- 
 poverishment. Barons and traders were alike fight- 
 ing against the international idea of property, under 
 which that which a man has created, or legitimately 
 occupied, is his own, and he is free to exchange it ; 
 that is, entitled to be protected in the free exchange 
 of it, throughout the civilized world, for any other 
 commodities or products. A man's ownership of a 
 thing cannot be called complete if it is to be ham- 
 pered with restrictions as to the place where, or the 
 objects for which, he can exchange it. 
 
 To that extent the idea of international copyright 
 is bound up with the idea of free trade. They both 
 claim a higher and wider recognition for the rights of 
 property, taking the position that what a man has 
 created by his own labor is his own, to do what he 
 will with, subject only to his proportionate contri-
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 397 
 
 bution to the cost of carrying on the organization of 
 the community under the protection of which his 
 labor has been accomplished, and to the single limi- 
 tation that the results of his labor shall not be used 
 to the detriment of his fellow-men. The opponents 
 of free trade would limit the right of the producer 
 to exchange his products, saying, as to certain com- 
 modities, that he shall not be permitted to receive 
 them at all, and, as to others, that he must give 
 of his own product, in addition to the open market 
 equivalent of the article desired, an additional quan- 
 tity as a bonus to some of his favored fellow-citizens. 
 The opponents of international copyright assert that 
 the producers of literary works should be at liberty 
 to sell them only within certain political bounda- 
 ries. The necessary deduction from such a position 
 is, that the extent of an author's remuneration is 
 made to depend, not upon the number of readers 
 whom he had benefited, but upon the extent of the 
 political boundaries of the country in which he hap- 
 pened to be a resident. 
 
 If the recognition of the fact that aliens and 
 citizens of foreign states (the " barbarians-" of the 
 Greeks and Romans) possessed rights deserving 
 of respect, had depended solely upon the develop- 
 ment of international ethics and humanitarian prin- 
 ciples, its growth would have been still slower than 
 has been the case. That growth has, however, 
 been powerfully furthered by utilitarian teachings. 
 When men came to understand that their own wel- 
 fare was not hampered, but furthered, by the pros- 
 perity of their neighbors, reciprocity took the place
 
 39§ THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 of reprisals, and commercial exchanges succeeded 
 Chinese walls. 
 
 The same result, in Europe at least, followed the 
 understanding of the fact that the development of 
 national literature, and the adequate compensation 
 of national authors, is largely dependent upon the 
 proper recognition of the property rights of foreign 
 authors: this understanding, added to the widening 
 conceptions of human rights, irrespective of bound- 
 aries, and the increasing assent to the claim that the 
 producer is entitled to compensation proportioned 
 to the extent of the service rendered by his pro- 
 duction, and to the number of his fellow-men bene- 
 fited by this, have secured international copyright 
 arrangements on the part of all countries where 
 literature exists, excepting only the great republic, 
 which was founded on the " rights of men." 
 
 The question of the proper duration of literary 
 property has called forth a long series of discussions 
 and arguments, the more important of which are 
 referred to in Mr. Macleod's paper in this work. 
 Authors have almost from the beginning taken the 
 position that literary property is the highest kind of 
 property in existence ; that no right or title to a 
 thing can be so perfect as that which is created by 
 a man's own labor and invention ; that the exclusive 
 right of a man to his literary productions and to the 
 use of them for his own profit is as entire and per- 
 fect as the faculties employed and labor bestowed 
 are entirely and perfectly his own. " If this claim 
 be accepted," says Noah Webster, " it is difficult to 
 understand on what logical principle a legislature
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 399 
 
 or court can determine that an author enjoys only 
 a temporary property in his own productions. If a 
 man's right to his own property in writing is as per- 
 fect as to the productions of his farm or his shop, 
 how can the former be abridged or limited while 
 the latter is held without limitations? Why do the 
 productions of manual labor reach higher in the 
 scale of rights of property than the productions of 
 the intellect ? " 
 
 It is the case, however, that, notwithstanding the 
 logic of this position, no nation to-day accords 
 copyright for more than a limited term, of which 
 the longest is eighty years. In the only countries 
 in which the experiment of perpetual copyright has 
 been attempted — Holland, Belgium, Sweden and 
 Denmark — a return was speedily made to protection 
 for a term of years. There appears to have been 
 always apprehension on the part of the public and 
 the governments lest an indefinite copyright might 
 result in the accumulation in the hands of traders 
 of " literary monopolies," under which extortionate 
 prices would be demanded from successive genera- 
 tions for the highest and most necessary produc- 
 tions of national literature. It is hardly practicable 
 to estimate how well founded such apprehensions 
 may be, as no opportunities have as yet existed for 
 the development of such monopolies. It seems 
 probable that accumulations of literary property 
 would, as in the case of other property, be so far 
 regulated by the laws of supply and demand as not 
 to become detrimental to the interests of the com- 
 munity. If a popular demand existed or could be
 
 4-00 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 created for an article, it would doubtless be pro- 
 duced and supplied at the lowest price that would 
 secure the widest popular sale. If the article was 
 suited but for a limited demand, the price, to re- 
 munerate the producer and owner, would be pro- 
 portionately higher. A further consideration ob- 
 tains in connection with literary property which has 
 also influenced the framing of copyright enactments. 
 The possibility exists that the descendants of an 
 author, who have become by inheritance the owners 
 of his copyrights, might, for one cause or another, 
 desire to withdraw the works from circulation. A 
 case could even occur in which parties desiring to 
 suppress works might possess themselves of the 
 copyrights for this purpose. The heirs of Calvin, 
 if converted to Romanism, would very naturally 
 have desired to suppress the circulation of the In- 
 stitutes ; and the history of literature affords, of 
 course, hundreds of instances in which there would 
 have been sufficient motive for the suppressing, by 
 any means which the nature of copyrights might 
 render possible, works that had been once given to 
 the world. It will, doubtless, be admitted that, in 
 this class of cases, the development of literature and 
 freedom of thought would alike demand the exercise 
 of the authority of the government on behalf of the 
 community, to insure the continued existence of 
 works in which the community possessed any con- 
 tinued interest. 
 
 The efforts in this country in behalf of inter- 
 national copyright have been always more or less 
 hampered by the question being confused with that
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 401 
 
 of a protective tariff. The strongest opposition to 
 a copyright measure has uniformly come from pro- 
 tectionists. 
 
 Richard Grant White said, in 1868 : "The refusal 
 of copyright in the United States to British authors 
 is, in fact, though not always so avowed, a part of 
 the American protective system. With free trade 
 we shall have a just international copyright." 
 
 It would be difficult, however, for protectionists 
 to show logical grounds for their position. Ameri- 
 can authors are manufacturers who are simply ask- 
 ing, first, that they shall not be undersold in their 
 home market by goods imported from abroad on 
 which no (ownership) duty has been paid, which 
 have been simply " appropriated ; " secondly, that 
 the government may facilitate their efforts to secure 
 compensation for such of their own goods as are 
 enjoyed by foreigners. These are claims with 
 which a protectionist who is interested in develop- 
 ing American industry ought certainly to be in sym- 
 pathy. The contingency that troubles him, how- 
 ever, is the possibility that, if the English author is 
 given the right to sell his books in this country, 
 the copies sold may be, to a greater or less extent, 
 manufactured in England, and the business of mak- 
 ing these copies may be lost to American print- 
 ers, binders, and paper men. He is much more 
 concerned for the protection of the makers of the 
 material casing of the book than for that of the 
 author who created its essential substance. 
 
 It is evidently to the advantage of the consumer, 
 
 upon whose interest the previously referred to Phila- 
 26
 
 402 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 delphia resolutions lay so much stress, that the labor 
 of preparing the editions of his books be econo- 
 mized as much as possible. The principal portion of 
 the cost of a first edition of a book is the setting 
 of the type, together with, if the work is illustrated, 
 the designing and engraving of the illustrations. If 
 this first cost of stereotyping and engraving can be 
 divided among several editions, say, one for Great 
 Britain, one for the United States, and one for 
 Canada and the other colonies, it is evident that the 
 proportion to be charged to each copy printed is 
 less, and that the selling price per copy can be 
 smaller, than would be the case if this first cost had 
 got to be repeated in full for each market. It is, 
 then, to the advantage of the consumer that, what- 
 ever copyright arrangement be made, nothing shall 
 stand in the way of foreign stereotypes and illus- 
 trations being duplicated for use here whenever 
 the foreign edition is in such shape as to render 
 this duplicating an advantage and a saving in 
 cost. 
 
 The few protectionists who have expressed them- 
 selves in favor of an international copyright measure, 
 and some others who have fears as to our publish- 
 ing interest being able to hold its own against any 
 open competition, insist upon the condition that 
 foreign works, to obtain copyright, must be wholly 
 remanufactured and republished in this country. 
 We have shown how such a condition would, in the 
 majority of cases, be contrary to the interests of 
 the American consumer, while the British author is 
 naturally opposed to it, because, in increasing ma-
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 4O3 
 
 terially the outlay to be incurred by the American 
 publisher in the production of his edition, it pro- 
 portionately diminishes the profits, or prospects of 
 profits, from which is calculated the remuneration 
 that can be paid to the author. 
 
 The suggestion, previously referred to, of permit- 
 ting the foreign book to be reprinted by all dealers 
 who would contract to pay the author a specified 
 royalty, has, at first sight, something specious and 
 plausible about it. It seems to be in harmony with 
 the principles of freedom of trade, in which we are 
 believers. It is, however, directly opposed to those 
 principles. First, it impairs the freedom of con- 
 tract, preventing the producer from making such 
 arrangements for supplying the public as seem best 
 to him ; and, secondly, it undertakes, by paternal 
 legislation, to fix the remuneration that shall be 
 given to the producer for his work, and to limit the 
 prices at which this work shall be furnished to the 
 consumer. There is no more equity in the govern- 
 ment's undertaking this limitation of the producer 
 and protection of the consumer in the case of books, 
 than there would be in that of bread and beef. 
 Further, such an arrangement would be of benefit 
 to neither the author, the public, nor the publishers, 
 and would, we believe, make of international copy- 
 right, and of any copyright, a confusing and futile 
 absurdity. 
 
 A British author could hardly obtain much satis- 
 faction from an arrangement which, while prevent- 
 ing him from placing his American business in the 
 hands of a publishing house selected by himself,
 
 404 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 and of whose responsibility he could assure himself, 
 would throw open the use of his property to any 
 dealers who might scramble for it. He could exer- 
 cise no control over the style, the shape, or the 
 accuracy of his American editions ; could have no 
 trustworthy information as to the number of copies 
 the various editions contained ; and, if he were 
 tenacious as to the collection of the royalties to 
 which he was entitled, he would be able in many 
 cases to enforce his claims only through innumer- 
 able law suits, and would find the expenses of the 
 collection exceed the receipts. 
 
 The benefit to the public would be no more ap- 
 parent. Any gain in the cheapness of the editions 
 produced would be more than offset by their un- 
 satisfactoriness ; they would, in the majority of 
 cases, be untrustworthy as to accuracy or com- 
 pleteness, and be hastily and flimsily manufactured. 
 A great many enterprises, also, desirable in them- 
 selves, and that would be of service to the public, 
 no publisher could, under such an arrangement, 
 afford to undertake at all, as, if they proved success- 
 ful, unscrupulous neighbors would, through rival 
 editions, reap the benefit *of his judgment and his 
 advertising. In fact, the business of reprinting 
 would fall largely into the hands of irresponsible 
 parties, from whom no copyright could be collected. 
 The arguments against a measure of this kind are, 
 in short, the arguments in favor of international 
 copyright. A very conclusive statement of the case 
 against the equity or desirability from any point of 
 view of such an arrangement in regard to home
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 405 
 
 copyright was made before the British commission, 
 in 1877, by Herbert Spencer. 
 
 The recommendation had been made, for the sake 
 of securing cheap books for the people, that the 
 law should give to all dealers the privilege of print- 
 ing an author's books, and should fix a copyright to 
 be paid to the author that should secure him a " fair 
 profit for his work." Mr. Spencer objected: 1. 
 That this would be a direct interference with the 
 laws of trade, under which the author had the right 
 to make his own bargains. 2. No legislature was 
 competent to determine what was a " fair rate of 
 profit " for an author. 3. No average royalty 
 could be determined which could give a fair recom- 
 pense for the different amounts and kinds of labor 
 given to the production of different classes of books. 
 4. If the legislature has the right to fix the profits 
 of the author, it has an equal right to determine 
 that of his associate in the publication, the publisher; 
 and if of the publisher, then also of the printer, 
 binder, and paper maker, who all have an interest 
 in the undertaking. Such a right of control would 
 apply with equal force to manufacturers of other 
 articles of importance to the community, and would 
 not be in accordance with the present theories of the 
 proper functions of the government. 5. If books 
 are to be cheapened by such a measure, it must be 
 at the expense of some portion of the profits now 
 going to the authors and publishers ; the assumption 
 is, that book producers and distributers do not un- 
 derstand their business, but require to be instructed 
 by the state how to carry it on, and that the pub-
 
 406 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 lishing business alone needs to have its returns 
 regulated by law. 6. The prices of the best books 
 would, in many cases, instead of being lessened, be 
 higher than at present, because the publishers would 
 require some insurance against the risk of rival 
 editions, and because they would make their first 
 editions smaller, and the first cost would have to 
 be divided among a less number of copies. Such 
 reductions of prices as would be made would be on 
 the flimsier and more popular literature, and even 
 on this could not be lasting. 7. For the enterprises 
 of the most lasting importance to the public, requir- 
 ing considerable investment of time and capital, the 
 publishers require to be assured of returns from the 
 largest market possible, and without such security 
 enterprises of this character could not be undertaken 
 at all. 8. Open competition of this kind would, 
 in the end, result in crushing out the smaller pub- 
 lishers, and in concentrating the business in the 
 hands of a few houses whose purses had been long 
 enough to carry them through the long and un- 
 profitable contests that would certainly be the first 
 effect of such legislation. 
 
 All the considerations adduced by Mr. Spencer 
 have, of course, equal force with reference to open 
 international publishing, while they may also be 
 included among the arguments in behalf of inter- 
 national copyright. 
 
 It is due to American publishers to explain that, 
 in the absence of an international copyright, there 
 has grown up among them a custom of making pay- 
 ments to foreign authors, which has become, espe-
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 407 
 
 dally during the last twenty-five years, a matter of 
 very considerable importance. Some of the English 
 authors who testified before the British commission 
 stated that the payments from the United States 
 for their books exceeded their receipts in Great 
 Britain. These payments secure, of course, to the 
 American publisher no title of any kind to the 
 books. In some cases, they obtain for him the use 
 of advance sheets, by means of which he is able to 
 get his edition printed a week or two in advance of 
 any unauthorized edition that might be prepared. 
 In many cases, however, payments have been made 
 some time after the publication of the works, and 
 when there was no longer even the slight advantage 
 of " advance sheets " to be gained from them. 
 
 While the authorization of the English author 
 can convey no title or means of defence against the 
 interference of rival editions, the leading publishing 
 houses have, with very inconsiderable exceptions, 
 respected each other's arrangements with foreign 
 authors, and the editions announced as published 
 " by arrangement with the author," and on which 
 payments in lieu of copyright have been duly made, 
 have not been, as a rule, interfered with. This un- 
 derstanding among the publishers goes by the name 
 of "the courtesy of the trade." I think it is safe to 
 say that it is to-day the exception for an English 
 work of any value to be published by any reputable 
 house without a fair, and often a very liberal, recog- 
 nition being made of the rights (in equity) of the 
 author. In view of the considerable amount of 
 harsh language that has been expended in England
 
 408 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 upon our American publishing houses, and the 
 opinion prevailing in England that the wrong in 
 reprinting is entirely one sided, it is in order here to 
 make the claim— which can, I believe, be fully sub- 
 stantiated — that, in respect to the recognition of the 
 rights of authors unprotected by law, their record 
 has, in fact, during the past twenty-five years been 
 better than that of their English brethren. Eng- 
 lish publishers have become fully aroused to the 
 fact that American literary material has value and 
 availability, and each year a larger amount of this 
 material has had the honor of being introduced to 
 the English public. According to the statistics of 
 1878, ten per cent, of the works issued in England 
 in that year were American reprints. The acknowl- 
 edgments, however, of any rights on the part of 
 American authors have been few and far between, 
 and the payments but inconsiderable in amount. 
 The leading English houses would doubtless very 
 much prefer to follow the American practice of pay- 
 ing for their reprinted material, but they have not 
 succeeded in establishing any general understanding 
 similar to our American " courtesy of the trade," 
 and books that have been paid for by one house are, 
 in a large number of cases, promptly reissued in 
 cheaper rival editions by other houses. It is very 
 evident that, in the face of open and unscrupulous 
 competition, continued or considerable payments to 
 authors are difficult to provide for; and the more 
 credit is due to those firms who have, in the face of 
 this difficulty, kept a good record with their Ameri- 
 can authors.
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 409 
 
 One of the not least important results to be looked 
 for from international copyright is a more effective 
 co-operation in their work on the part of the pub- 
 lishers of the two great English-speaking nations. 
 They will find their interest and profit in working 
 together; and the very great extension that maybe 
 expected in the custom of a joint investment in the 
 production of books for both markets will bring a 
 very material saving in the first cost— a saving in the 
 advantage of which authors, publishers, and public 
 will alike share. 
 
 It seems probable that the "courtesy of the 
 trade," which has made possible the present rela- 
 tions between American publishers and foreign 
 authors, is not going to retain its effectiveness. 
 Within the last few years certain " libraries " and 
 " series " have sprung into existence, which present 
 in cheaply printed pamphlet form some of the best 
 recent English fiction. The publishers of these 
 series reap the advantage of the literary judgment 
 and foreign connections of the older publishing 
 houses, and, taking possession of material that has 
 been carefully selected and liberally paid for, are 
 able to offer it to the public at prices which are cer- 
 tainly low as compared with those of bound books 
 that have paid copyright, but are doubtless high 
 enough for literature that is so cheaply obtained 
 and so cheaply printed. These enterprises have 
 been carried on by concerns which have not hereto- 
 fore dealt in standard fiction, and which are not 
 prepared, to respect the international arrangements 
 or trade courtesies of the older houses.
 
 4-IO THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 To one of the " cheap series " the above remarks 
 do not apply. The " Franklin Square Library" is 
 published by a house which makes a practice of 
 paying for its English literary material, and which 
 lays great stress upon " the courtesy of the trade." 
 It is generally understood that this series was 
 planned, not so much as a publishing investment, 
 as for purposes of self-defence-, and that it would in 
 all probability not be continued after the necessity 
 for self-defence had passed by. A good many of its 
 numbers include works for which the usual English 
 payments have been made, and it is probable that, 
 in this shape, books so paid for cannot secure 
 a remunerative sale. It seems safe to conclude, 
 therefore, that their publication is not, in the literal 
 sense of the term, a business investment, and that 
 the undertaking was not planned to be permanent. 
 
 A very considerable business in cheap reprints 
 has also sprung up in Canada, from which point are 
 circulated throughout the western states cheap edi- 
 tions of English works, for the "advance sheets" 
 and " American market " of which United States 
 publishers have paid liberal prices. Some enterpris- 
 ing Canadian dealers have also taken advantage of 
 the present confusion between the United States 
 postal and customs regulations to build up a trade 
 by supplying through the mails reprints of American 
 copyright tvorks, in editions which, being flimsily 
 printed and free of charge for copyright, can be 
 sold at very moderate prices indeed. 
 
 It is very evident that, in the face of competition 
 of this kind, the payments by American publishers
 
 LITERARY PROPERTY. 411 
 
 to foreign writers of fiction must be materially 
 diminished. These pamphlet series have, however, 
 done a most important service in pointing out the 
 absurdity of the present condition of literary prop- 
 erty, and in emphasizing the need of an inter- 
 national copyright law. In connection with the 
 change in the conditions of book manufacturing 
 before alluded to, they may be credited as having 
 influenced a material modification of opinion on the 
 part of certain publishers who have in years past 
 opposed an international copyright as either inex- 
 pedient or unnecessary, but who are now quoted as 
 ready to give their support to any practicable and 
 equitable measure that may be proposed. 
 
 We may, I trust, be able, at no very distant 
 period, to look back upon, as exploded fallacies of 
 an antiquated barbarism, the two beliefs, that the 
 material prosperity of a community can be assured 
 by surrounding it with Chinese walls of restriction 
 to prevent it from purchasing in exchange for its 
 own product its neighbor's goods, and that its 
 moral and mental development can be furthered by 
 the free exercise of the privilege of appropriating 
 its neighbor's books. 1 
 
 June, 1884. 
 
 1 For the account of the realization of these prophecies, at least in 
 part, seven years later, the reader is referred to a subsequent chapter 
 in this volume, in which will be found the text of the International 
 Copyright Bill of 1891.
 
 XXII. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF STATUTORY COPY- 
 RIGHT IN ENGLAND. 
 
 By R. R. Bowker. 
 
 The statute of Anne, the foundation of the pres- 
 ent copyright system, which took effect April 10, 
 1710, gave the author of works then existing, or his 
 assigns, the sole right of printing for twenty-one 
 years from that date and no longer ; of works not 
 printed, for fourteen years and no longer, except in 
 case he were alive at the expiration of that term, 
 when he could have the privilege prolonged for 
 another fourteen years. Penalties were provided, 
 which could not be exacted unless the books were 
 registered with the Stationers' Company, and which 
 must be sued for within three months after the of- 
 fence. If too high prices were charged, the queen's 
 officers might order them lowered. A book could 
 not be imported without written consent of the 
 owner of the copyright. The number of deposit 
 copies was increased to nine. The act was not to 
 prejudice any previous rights of the universities and 
 others. 
 
 This act did not touch the question of rights at 
 common law, and soon after its statutory term of 
 protection on previously printed books expired, in
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF COPYRIGHT IN ENGLAND. 413 
 
 1 73 1, lawsuits began. The first was that of Eyre 
 vs. Walker, in which Sir Joseph Jekyll granted, in 
 1735, an injunction as to The Whole Duty of Man, 
 which had been first published in 1657, or seventy- 
 eight years before. In this and several other cases 
 the Court of Chancery issued injunctions on the 
 theory that the legal right was unquestioned. But 
 in 1769 the famous case of Millar vs. Taylor, as to 
 the copyright of Thomson's Seasons, brought direct- 
 ly before the Court of King's Bench the question 
 whether rights at common law still existed, aside 
 from the statute and its period of protection. In 
 this case Lord Mansfield and two other judges held 
 that an author had, at common law, a perpetual 
 copyright, independent of statute, one dissenting 
 justice holding that there was no such property at 
 common law. In 1774, in the case of Donaldsons 
 vs. Beckett, this decision was appealed from, and 
 the issue was carried to the highest tribunal, the 
 House of Lords. 
 
 The House of Lords propounded five questions 
 to the judges. These, with the replies, 1 were as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 I. Whether, at common law, an author of any book or literary com- 
 position had the sole right of first printing and publishing the same 
 for sale; and might bring an action against any person who printed, 
 published, and sold the same without his consent ? Yes, 10 to 1 
 that he had the sole right, etc., and 8 to 3 that he might bring the 
 action. 
 
 1 The votes on these decisions are given differently in the several 
 copyright authorities. These figures are corrected from 4 Burrow's 
 Reports, 2408, the leading English parliamentary reports, and are 
 probably right.
 
 4H THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 II. If the author had such right originally, did the law take it 
 away, upon his printing and publishing such book or literary com- 
 position ; and might any person afterward reprint and sell, for his 
 own benefit, such book or literary composition against the will of the 
 author ? No, 7 to 4. 
 
 III. If such action would have lain at common law, is it taken 
 away by the statute of 8 Anne ? And is an author, by the said 
 statute, precluded from every remedy, except on the foundation of 
 the said statute and on the terms and conditions prescribed thereby ? 
 Yes, 6 to 5. 
 
 IV. Whether the author of any literary composition and his as- 
 signs had the sole right of printing and publishing the same in per- 
 petuity, by the common law? Yes, 7 to 4. 
 
 V. Whether this right is any way impeached, restrained, or taken 
 away by the statute 8 Anne ? Yes, 6 to 5. 
 
 These decisions, that there was perpetual copy- 
 right at common law, which was not lost by pub- 
 lication, but that the statute of Anne took away 
 that right and confined remedies to the statutory 
 provisions, were directly contrary to the previous 
 decrees of the courts, and on a motion seconded by 
 the Lord Chancellor, the House of Lords, 22 to 11, 
 reversed the decree in the case at issue. This con- 
 struction by the Lords, in the case of Donaldsons 
 vs. Beckett, of the statute of Anne, has practically 
 " laid down the law " for England and America ever 
 since. 
 
 Two protests against this action deserve note. 
 The first, that of the universities, was met by an 
 act of 1775, which granted to the English and 
 Scotch universities and to the colleges of Eton, 
 Westminster, and Winchester (Dublin was added 
 in 1 801) perpetual copyright in works bequeathed 
 to and printed by them. The other, that of the
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF COPYRIGHT IN ENGLAND. 415 
 
 booksellers, presented to the Commons February 
 28, 1774, set forth that the petitioners had invested 
 large sums in the belief of perpetuity of copyright, 
 but a bill for their relief was rejected. In 1801 an act 
 was passed authorizing suits for damages at com- 
 mon law, as well as penalties under statute during 
 the period of protection of the statute, the need for 
 such a law having been shown in the case of Beck- 
 ford vs. Hood, wherein the court had to "stretch a 
 point " to protect the plaintiff's rights in an anony- 
 mous book which he had not entered in the Sta- 
 tioners' Register. An Act of 18 14 extended copy- 
 right to twenty-eight years and for the remainder 
 of the life of a surviving author, and relieved the 
 author of the necessity of delivering the eleven 
 library copies, except on demand. These deposit 
 copies were reduced to five by the Act of 1836. 
 
 In 1841, under the leadership of Sergeant Tal- 
 fourd, a great debate on copyright, in which Ma- 
 caulay took a leading part in favor of restricted 
 copyright, was started in the Commons, which re- 
 sulted in the act of 1842 (5 and 6 Vict.), repealing 
 the previous acts, and presenting a new code of 
 copyright. It practically preserved, however, the 
 restrictions of the statute of Anne. The copyright 
 term was made the author's lifetime and seven years 
 beyond, but in any event at least forty-two years. 
 The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council may 
 authorize publication of a posthumous work in case 
 the proprietor of the copyright refuse to publish. 
 Articles in periodicals, etc., have the same copy- 
 right term, but they revert to the author after
 
 4?6 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 twenty-eight years. Subsequent acts extend copy- 
 right to prints and like art works, designs for manu- 
 factures, sculptures, dramas, musical compositions, 
 lectures, for various terms and under differing con- 
 ditions. 
 
 The present law of England as to copyright, says 
 the Report of the Royal Copyright Commission, in 
 a Blue Book of 1878, "consists partly of the pro- 
 visions of fourteen Acts of Parliament, which relate 
 in whole or in part to different branches of the sub- 
 ject, and partly of common law principles, nowhere 
 stated in any definite or authoritative way, but im- 
 plied in a considerable number of reported cases 
 scattered over the law reports." The Digest, by 
 Sir James Stephen, appended to this report, is 
 presented by the commission as " a correct state- 
 ment of the law as it stands." This Digest is, per- 
 haps, the most valuable single contribution yet 
 made to the literature of copyright, but the fre- 
 quency with which such phrases occur as " it is prob- 
 able, but not certain," " it is uncertain," " probably," 
 " it seems," show the state of the law, " wholly des- 
 titute of any sort of arrangement, incomplete, often 
 obscure," as says the report itself. The Digest is 
 accompanied, in parallel columns, with alterations 
 suggested by the commission, and it is much to be 
 regretted that their work failed to reach the ex- 
 pected result of an Act of Parliament. The evi- 
 dence taken by the commissioners forms a second 
 Blue Book, also of great value. A new copyright 
 law is now under consideration in England. 
 
 It seems possible that, under the precedent of
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF COPYRIGHT IN ENGLAND. 417 
 
 the acts of 1775 and 1801, the common law rights, 
 practically taken away by the statute of Anne, could 
 be restored by legislation. Its restrictions have not 
 only ruled the practice of England ever since, but 
 they were embodied in the Constitution of the 
 United States, and have influenced alike our legis- 
 lators and our courts. 
 
 December, 1885. 
 27
 
 XXIII. 
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 
 
 By Bkander Matthews. 
 
 Mr. LOWELL has told us that " there is one thing 
 better than a cheap book, and that is a book honestly- 
 come by." And Mr. Curtis has put the same thought 
 quite as aptly : " Cheap books are good things, but 
 cheapening the public conscience is a very bad 
 thing." In these sayings, as in a nutshell, we have 
 the ethics of international copyright. But on this 
 side of the question Dr. Van Dyke, with a felicity 
 and a force I cannot hope to rival, has said all that 
 need be said ; and I hasten at once to a considera- 
 tion of the assertion that the effect of the granting 
 of International Copyright will be to raise the price 
 of books. 
 
 There are still a few who declare that the People 
 must have cheap books, and that therefore the Peo- 
 ple will not permit the passage of any bill for Inter- 
 national Copyright. Within a few days we have 
 seen declarations like this ascribed to Members of 
 Congress and to Senators of the United States. It 
 is our duty always to acknowledge the good faith 
 of our disputant ; and we must assume, then, that 
 these Representatives and these Senators are sincere 
 in holding that the absence of International Copy-
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 419 
 
 right gives us cheap books in the United States. I 
 am inclined to think that not only the opponents of 
 copyright reform, but even many of its advocates, 
 believe that the existing lawlessness gives us cheaper 
 books than we should have if the rights of foreign 
 authors were legally guarded. It is true, no doubt, 
 that, in consequence of the competing reprints of 
 rival pirates, some few books, mostly in a single 
 department of literature, and generally of inferior 
 literary quality, are to be bought here for very little 
 money. But, with these infrequent exceptions, 
 books are not now cheaper in America because there 
 is free stealing from the foreigner. It may be said, 
 further, that the absence of International Copyright 
 really retards the cheapening of good books in this 
 country. 
 
 This may sound like a paradox, but I shall try to 
 prove its exact truth. The books which are made 
 cheaper by piracy are nearly all English novels. 
 The so-called libraries — the Seaside Library, for in- 
 stance, the Franklin Square Library, and their fel- 
 lows — contain nearly all the books which are cheap 
 because they are not paid for. I do not mean here 
 to suggest that all the books reprinted in all these 
 libraries are pirated ; but piracy is the primary cause 
 of their low prices. These libraries are devoted 
 almost wholly to fiction; by actual count of their 
 catalogues, nine volumes out of ten are novels. To 
 profit by the provisions of the postal laws, these 
 libraries are registered as periodicals; and they ap- 
 pear at regular intervals, once, twice, and even three 
 times a week. A library which issues but one book
 
 420 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 a week must publish fifty-two books a year ; after 
 allowing for the occasional American book of which 
 the copyright has run out, and for the occasional 
 foreign biography or history which seems popular 
 enough to fit it for the uneducated audience to 
 which these series appeal — after making these allow- 
 ances, fully forty of the fifty-two annual numbers of 
 any one of these libraries must be English novels. 
 Now, there are not forty novels published in Great 
 Britain in any one year which are worth reprinting 
 in the United States. I do not think there are 
 twenty — I doubt if there are ten. Yet in one of the 
 cheap libraries, issued three times a week, more than 
 a hundred English novels are now published every 
 year. 
 
 And this is at a time when there is no great nov- 
 elist alive in England, and when the English novel 
 is distinctly inferior to the novel of America, of 
 Russia, and of France. But these English novels 
 are almost the only books which are cheapened by 
 piracy. These are the books which the women of 
 America, allured by the premium of cheapness, are 
 now reading almost exclusively, to the neglect of 
 native writers. There is a resulting deterioration 
 of the public taste for good literature; and there is 
 a resulting tendency to the adoption of English 
 social standards. It is not wholesome, nor a good 
 augury for the future of the American people, that 
 the books easiest to get, and therefore most widely 
 read, should be written wholly by foreigners, and 
 chiefly by Englishmen, who cannot help accepting 
 and describing the surviving results of feudalism
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 42 1 
 
 and the social inequalities we tried to do away with 
 one hundred and twelve years ago. " Society is a 
 strong solution of books," Dr. Holmes has told us; 
 " it draws the virtue out of what is best worth read- 
 ing, as hot water draws the strength of tea-leaves." 
 While the privilege of piracy endures, American so- 
 ciety is drawing the vice out of what is least worth 
 reading, the machine-made tales of the inferior 
 British novelists of the present day. 
 
 Lest this opinion as to the demerits of the mass 
 of the English novels now so freely reprinted here 
 may seem over-severe, attention is drawn to a pass- 
 age from Mr. Frederic Harrison's incisive essay on 
 the Choice of Books — one of the invigorating vol- 
 umes of essays which England has sent us of late 
 years : " But assuredly black night will quickly cover 
 the vast bulk of modern fiction — work as perishable 
 as the generations whose idleness it has amused. 
 It belongs not to the great creations of the world. 
 Beside them it is flat and poor. Such facts in human 
 nature as it reveals are trivial and special in them- 
 selves, and for the most part abnormal and unwhole- 
 some. I stand beside the ceaseless flow of this 
 miscellaneous torrent as one stands watching the 
 turbid rush of the Thames at London Bridge, won- 
 dering whence it all comes, whither it all goes, what 
 can be done with it, and what may be its ultimate 
 function in the order of providence. To a reader 
 who would nourish his taste on the boundless har- 
 vests of the poetry of mankind, this sewage outfall 
 of to-day offers as little in creative as in moral value. 
 Lurid and irregular streaks of imagination, extrava-
 
 422 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 gance of plot and incident, petty and mean subjects 
 of study, forced and unnatural situations, morbid 
 pathology of crime, dull copying of the dullest com- 
 monplace, melodramatic hurly-burly, form the cer- 
 tain evidence of an art that is exhausted, produced 
 by men and women to whom it is become a mere 
 trade, in an age wherein change and excitement 
 have corrupted the power of pure enjoyment." 
 
 It may surprise some readers to be told that 
 almost the only books which are cheaper in America 
 owing to the absence of International Copyright 
 are English novels. But that this is the fact I have 
 convinced myself by a careful examination of the 
 statistics of the American book-trade. Pirated books 
 are nearly always issued in a series or library; and, 
 as I have said, nine numbers in ten on the list 
 of these libraries are fiction. The tenth number 
 may be Mr. Froude's Life of Carlyle, for instance, 
 or Mr. Justin McCarthy's History of Our Own 
 Times, both of them books worth reading and 
 worth keeping, but in this flimsy form almost im- 
 possible either to read or to keep, because of the 
 shabbiness of the type, the press-work, and the 
 paper. It is not sound economy to spare the pocket 
 and spoil the eyes. It is not sound economy to 
 pay eighty cents for four evil and awkward pamph- 
 lets comprising a book which can be bought for a 
 dollar and a half, decently bound and decently 
 printed on decent paper — a pleasure to read now and 
 a treasure to transmit to those who come after us. 
 
 A consideration of the present condition and an- 
 nual statistics of the American book-trade will show
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 
 
 42; 
 
 that the legal right to pirate is not now utilized by 
 most American publishers, and that those who are 
 still privateers seek their booty chiefly, if not solely, 
 among books of one exceptional class. From the 
 figures published annually in The Publishers Weekly, 
 the following table has been prepared to show the 
 different kinds of books published in the United 
 States during the past five years. 1 (The classifica- 
 tion is not quite that of the Weekly, but has been 
 modified slightly by condensation.) 
 
 Education and language 
 
 Law 
 
 Science (medical, physical, mathematical, politi- 
 cal, and social ) 
 
 Theology, religion, mental and moral philosophy. 
 
 History 
 
 Literary history and miscellany, biography and 
 memoirs, description and travel, humor and 
 satire 
 
 Poetry and the drama 
 
 Juveniles 
 
 Fiction 
 
 Etcetera 
 
 Total 
 
 1882 
 
 221 
 
 1883 
 
 197 
 
 1884 
 
 1885 
 
 227 
 
 225 
 
 261 
 
 397 
 
 455 
 
 43 1 
 
 406 
 
 407 
 
 5" 
 
 443 
 
 347 
 
 39o 
 
 399 
 
 460 
 
 118 
 
 119 
 
 "5 
 
 !37 
 
 559 
 
 521 
 
 529 
 
 5°i 
 
 182 
 
 184 
 
 222 
 
 171 
 
 278 
 
 33i 
 
 358 
 
 ^88 
 
 767 
 
 670 
 
 943 
 
 934 
 
 333 
 
 265 
 
 329 
 
 33° 
 
 3472 
 
 348i 
 
 4088 
 
 4020 
 
 275 
 469 
 
 499 
 
 395 
 
 719 
 220 
 
 458 
 1080 
 379 
 
 4676 
 
 Taking up these classes in turn, we shall see what 
 will be the effect on each of the passage of the 
 bill of the American Copyright League. On the 
 first class, education and language, there would be 
 no effect at all, as the text-books now used in Amer- 
 ican schools were written by Americans and are 
 covered by copyright : it is hardly an exaggeration 
 to say that the American school-boy never sees 
 a book of foreign authorship in school-hours ; I 
 
 1 This essay was first issued in 1887.
 
 424 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 know that I never did until after I had entered 
 college, and then very infrequently. Fortunately 
 for the future of our country, young Americans 
 are brought up on American books. The founda- 
 tion of American education is the native Webster's 
 Spelling-book. In some respects the making of 
 school-books is the most important branch of the 
 publishing business, and the passage of the Copy- 
 right Bill would not influence it in any way ; Amer- 
 ican school-books would be neither dearer nor 
 cheaper. 
 
 In the second class, law, are included a tenth of 
 the books published in the United States last year, 
 and from the inexorable circumstances of the case 
 most of these books are of American authorship 
 and are already protected by copyright. All reports 
 and all treatises on practice and on constitutional 
 law, etc., are of necessity national. Now and again 
 an English treatise of marked merit may be edited 
 for the use of American lawyers with references to 
 American cases, but this is infrequent ; and not 
 often would the price of any work needed by the 
 American lawyer be increased by the passage of 
 the Copyright Bill. 
 
 Of books in the third and fourth classes — science 
 and theology — very few indeed are ever pirated. 
 Once in every three or four years there appears, 
 in England, or France, or Germany, a book like 
 Canon Farrar's Life of Christ, the American 
 price of which is lowered by rival reprints. A 
 large majority of books of science and theology 
 published in America are written by American
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 425 
 
 authors ; and in general the minority by foreign 
 authors are published here by an arrangement with 
 the foreign author tantamount to copyright. Al- 
 though purely ethical considerations ought to have 
 more weight with readers of books of this class 
 than with those of any other, yet it would be in- 
 frequently that the price of any book of this class 
 would be raised by giving to the literary laborer 
 who made it the right to collect the hire of which 
 he is worthy. 
 
 Taken together, the next three classes on the list 
 — history ; — literary history and miscellany, biog- 
 raphy and memoirs, description and travel, humor 
 and satire ; — and poetry and the drama — include 
 nearly all of what used to be called Belles Lettres 
 (except fiction), and they comprise nearly a quarter 
 of the books published in America. In these and 
 in the preceding classes most of the books are of 
 American authorship, and most of those of foreign 
 authorship are published at just the same price 
 as though they were by native writers. It would 
 probably surprise most readers who imagine that 
 the absence of International Copyright gives us 
 many inexpensive histories and biographies, and 
 books of travel and poems, if they were to con- 
 sider carefully the catalogues of the paper-covered 
 collections which furnish forth our cheap literature. 
 Among the chief of these collections are the Frank- 
 lin Square Library and Harper's Handy Series. In 
 1886 there were issued fifty- four numbers of the 
 Franklin Square Library, one of which was by an 
 American. Of the remaining fifty-three, forty-six
 
 426 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 were fiction, and only seven numbers could be clas- 
 sified as history, biography, travels, or the drama — 
 only seven of these books in one year, and they 
 were less than one-seventh of the books contained 
 in this collection. In the same year there were 
 sixty-two numbers in Harper's Handy Series. De- 
 ducting four by American authors, we have fifty- 
 eight books issued in cheap form owing to the 
 absence of International Copyright. Of these fifty- 
 eight books fifty-two were fiction, and only six 
 belonged in other branches of Belles Lettres ; only 
 six of these books in one year, and they less than 
 one-ninth of the series. In these two cheap collec- 
 tions, then, there were published in 1886 one hun- 
 dred and eleven books of foreign authorship, and of 
 these all but thirteen were novels or stories. Not 
 one of these thirteen books was a work of the first 
 rank which a man might regret missing. It may as 
 well be admitted frankly that these thirteen books 
 would probably not have been published quite so 
 cheaply had there been International Copyright ; 
 but it may be doubted whether, if that were the 
 case, the cause of literature and education in the 
 United States would have been any the worse. 
 
 In the class of books for the young there are 
 possibly more works of foreign authorship sold 
 than in any other class that we have hitherto con- 
 sidered, but in most cases they are not sold at 
 lower prices than American books of the same 
 character. Indeed, I question whether many Eng- 
 lish or French books for the young are sold at all in 
 America. At bottom the American boy is harder
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 42/ 
 
 to please and more particular than the American 
 woman ; he likes his fiction home-made, and he 
 has small stomach for imported stories about the 
 younger son of a duke. He has a wholesomer taste 
 for native work. No English juvenile magazine is 
 sold in the United States, although several Ameri- 
 can juvenile magazines are sold in Great Britain. 
 We export books for the young, while we import 
 them only to a comparatively slight extent. 
 
 I come now to the one class of books the price of 
 which would be increased by the granting of Inter- 
 national Copyright. This is the large and impor- 
 tant class of fiction. Of course, American novels 
 would be no dearer; and probably translations 
 from the French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Rus- 
 sian would not vary greatly in price. But English 
 novels would not be sold for ten or fifteen cents 
 each. We should not see five or ten rival reprints 
 of a single story by the most popular English 
 novelists. There would be but a single edition of 
 the latest novels of the leading British story-tellers, 
 and this would be offered at whatsoever price the 
 authorized publisher might choose to ask — some- 
 times much, generally little. English fiction would 
 no longer cost less than American fiction, The 
 premium of cheapness, which now serves to make 
 the American public take imported novels instead 
 of native wares, would be removed; and with it 
 would be removed the demoralizing influence on 
 Americans of a constant diet of English fiction. 
 That American men and women should read the 
 best that the better English novelists have to offer
 
 428 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 us is most desirable ; that our laws should encour- 
 age the reading of English stories, good and bad 
 together, and the bad, of course, in enormous ma- 
 jority, is obviously improper and unwise. 
 
 The evil effect of this unfortunate state of things 
 Mark Twain has most graphically depicted. He 
 asks if it is an advantage to us, the people of the 
 United States, to get all kinds of cheap alien books 
 devoured " in these proportions : an ounce of whole- 
 some literature to a hundred tons of noxious ? " 
 
 "Is this an advantage to us?" he inquires fur- 
 ther; and he answers his own question thus: "It 
 certainly is, if poison is an advantage to a person; 
 or if to teach one thing at the hearth-stone, the po- 
 litical hustings, and in a nation's press, and teach 
 the opposite in the books the nation reads is prof- 
 itable ; or, in other words, if to hold up a national 
 standard for admiration and emulation half of 
 each day, and a foreign standard the other half, 
 is profitable. The most effective way to train an 
 impressible young mind and establish for all time 
 its standards of fine and vulgar, right and wrong, 
 and good and bad, is through the imagination ; and 
 the most insidious manipulator of the imagination 
 is the felicitously written romance. The statistics 
 of any public library will show that of every hundred 
 books read by our people about seventy are novels 
 — and nine-tenths of them foreign ones. They fill 
 the imagination with an unhealthy fascination for 
 foreign life, with its dukes and earls and kings, its 
 fuss and feathers, its graceful immoralities, its 
 sugar-coated injustice and oppressions; and this
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 429 
 
 fascination breeds a more or less pronounced dis- 
 satisfaction with our country and form of govern- 
 ment, and contempt for our republican common- 
 places and simplicities; it also breathes longings for 
 something ' better,' which presently crop out in 
 diseased shams and imitations of that ideal foreign 
 life. Hence the dude. Thus we have this curious 
 spectacle : American statesmen glorifying Ameri- 
 can nationality, teaching it, preaching it, urging it, 
 building it up — with their mouths ; and undermin- 
 ing it and pulling it down with their acts. This is 
 to employ an Indian nurse to suckle your child, 
 and expect it not to drink in the Indian nature 
 with the milk. It is to go Christian-missionarying 
 with infidel tracts in your hands. Our average 
 young person reads scarcely anything but novels ; 
 the citizenship and morals and predilections of the 
 rising generation of America are largely under train- 
 ing by foreign teachers. This condition of things 
 is what the American statesmen think it wise to 
 protect and preserve — by refusing International 
 Copyright, which would bring the national teacher 
 to the front and push the foreign teacher to the 
 rear. We do get cheap books through the absence 
 of International Copyright ; and any who will con- 
 sider the matter thoughtfully will arrive at the con- 
 clusion that these cheap books are the costliest 
 purchase that ever a nation made." 
 
 International Copyright will perhaps increase the 
 cost of such English novels as may be written 
 in the future ; but it is not retroactive ; it cannot 
 affect the past ; it will not alter the price of Shake-
 
 430 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 speare or of Scott, of Macaulay or of Thackeray. It 
 will not make any American author ask more for 
 his book, if, indeed, by expanding his market, it 
 does not tempt him to lower his terms, seeking a 
 wider sale and a smaller profit. Emerson and Ir- 
 ving, Longfellow and Hawthorne, will be as easily 
 accessible hereafter as they are to-day. The books 
 which are cheap now will always be cheap ; and 
 with the removal of the sickly flood of stolen Eng- 
 lish fiction there will come an opportunity for the 
 American publisher to issue good books at low 
 prices. 
 
 Here we come to the special point of this paper: 
 the cheapest books to be bought to-day in the 
 United States are mostly inferior stories by contem- 
 porary English novelists, while the cheapest books 
 to be bought to-day in England, in France, and in 
 Germany are the best books by the best authors of 
 all times. Those who declaim against International 
 Copyright because they do not wish to deprive the 
 poor boy of the cheap book he may study by the 
 firelight after his hard day's work, would perhaps be 
 surprised to be told that of the " Hundred Best 
 Books" (of which we lately had so many lists), of 
 the books best fitted to form character and to make 
 a man, very few indeed, not more than half a dozen, 
 are to be found in any of the cheap libraries which 
 flourish because of the absence of copyright. Most 
 of these great works are old and consecrated by 
 time ; they are nearly all free to be printed by whoso 
 will. In Sir John Lubbock's original list of a hun- 
 dred best authors only two were American, and only
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 43 1 
 
 twelve were recent Englishmen whose works are 
 still protected by English copyright. Eighty-six 
 out of the hundred were classics of ancient and 
 modern literature — Greek and Latin, Italian and 
 French, German and English. 
 
 Now, in Germany, in France, and in England, 
 there have been many efforts of late years to supply 
 very cheap editions of these classics at a price with- 
 in the means of the poorest student. In the United 
 States no such effort has been made ; nor is it likely 
 to be made as long as the market for cheap books 
 is supplied by inferior foreign fiction, which not 
 only usurps the place of better literature, but spoils 
 the appetite for it. The cheap books to be bought 
 in England, in France, and in Germany are stimu- 
 lant and invigorating, mentally and morally ; a man 
 is better for reading them ; he is richer and stronger, 
 and more fit for the struggle of life. The cheap 
 books to be bought in the United States are only 
 too often the trivial trash of the ladies who call 
 themselves "Ouida"and " The Duchess." How 
 much these may nerve a man or a woman for the 
 realities of existence, how much the wisdom to be 
 got from them may arm us for the stern battle of 
 life, I cannot say. 
 
 A consideration of the conditions of book-pub- 
 lishing in Great Britain, in France, and in the Ger- 
 man Empire is not without interest in itself ; and it 
 may serve further to show that Americans do not 
 enjoy a monopoly of cheap books. 
 
 The British are book-borrowers, and not book- 
 buyers ; they are accustomed to hire their freshest
 
 432 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 reading matter from the circulating library. I re- 
 member hearing Professor Sylvester, the eminent 
 English mathematician, who was until recently a 
 member of the faculty of Johns Hopkins Univer- 
 sity — I remember hearing him express the surprise 
 he felt on his first arrival in this country, when he 
 was staying with Professor Pearce in Cambridge, and 
 happened to hear two of the ladies of the family 
 remark that they had just been in to Boston to buy 
 a book. " To buy a book?" repeated Professor 
 Sylvester ; " why, in England nobody buys a book ! " 
 Perhaps this is an over-statement of the case ; but 
 it is true that the British book-trade is in an un- 
 healthy condition, and that the publishers and the 
 public are at opposite sides of a vicious circle — the 
 people refuse to purchase because new books are 
 dear, and the publishers ask a high price because 
 there are but few buyers. 
 
 In England a novel, for instance, is generally 
 published in three volumes at half a guinea a vol- 
 ume — say seven dollars and a half for a single story. 
 At this prohibitive price the publisher can hope for 
 no private purchaser, and he relies wholly on the 
 demand from the circulating libraries, which have to 
 meet the wishes of their subscribers, and to which 
 the volumes are sold at a heavy discount. Not 
 only novels, but travels, histories, and biographies 
 are usually brought out in England at absurdly 
 exaggerated prices. If the book succeed, if it be 
 really deserving of a wider sale, popular editions at 
 lower figures soon follow. It is only the first edi- 
 tions, intended solely for the circulating libraries,
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 433 
 
 which are disproportionately dear. Six months or 
 a year after a novel first appears in three volumes, 
 it will probably be republished in a single volume 
 at a price varying from three shillings and sixpence 
 to six shillings— say, ninety cents to a dollar and a 
 half. Often it also appears a little later in a rail- 
 way edition at two shillings — fifty cents. The re- 
 duction in the price of histories and biographies is 
 not so large; but second-hand copies in excellent 
 condition can be had at a tithe of the original cost 
 from the circulating libraries, which sell off their 
 surplus stock as soon as the pressure of the first 
 demand is relieved. 
 
 This system of publishing seems cumbrous and 
 top-heavy. It is peculiar to Great Britain. It has 
 never been adopted by any other nation. It could 
 exist only in an island, or in a country with a com- 
 pact population having both leisure and means. 
 But apparently it is not altogether unsatisfactory to 
 the English, and it does not make books as dear as 
 at first glance we might suppose. The brand-new 
 book, smoking-hot from the press, is intended to be 
 borrowed and not bought ; but commonly, after a 
 year or two, it can be had at a moderate price. 
 Professor Lounsbury, of the Sheffield Scientific 
 School at Yale, after an experience of many years, 
 has recorded it as his deliberate opinion that, in the 
 long run, English books are cheaper than American 
 books. 
 
 Of late there have been many efforts made in 
 
 England to create and to satisfy a popular desire 
 
 for eood books at low prices. There are even signs 
 & 28
 
 434 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 that the circulating library system is not as secure 
 as it has seemed, and that the British may become 
 book-buyers instead of book-borrowers. A Bristol 
 publisher having sold several hundred thousand 
 copies of the late Hugh Conway's Called Back at a 
 shilling (twenty-five cents), has continued the series 
 with original stories by Mr. Wilkie Collins, Mr. 
 Walter Besant, Mr. Andrew Lang, and others. All 
 of Disraeli's novels are now for sale at a shilling 
 each ; and all of Thackeray's writings are being 
 reissued at a shilling a volume by his own publish- 
 ers, who still own the copyrights. A complete edi- 
 tion of Carlyle's works has just been begun, to be 
 sold at the same low price — twenty-five cents. And 
 it is to be noted that these sets of Thackeray and 
 Carlyle are not ill-made and flimsy pamphlets, badly 
 printed with worn type on poor paper ; they are 
 honest books, firmly printed on good paper and 
 substantially bound in cloth. 
 
 Mr. John Morley's admirable series of English 
 Men of Letters is now in course of republication at 
 a shilling for each biography. And a shilling is the 
 price asked for each of the well-made, neatly 
 bound, and carefully prefaced volumes of Professor 
 Henry Morley's Universal Library, which is in- 
 tended to contain the masterpieces of the master 
 minds of all countries and all ages. In this most 
 excellently edited series there have already ap- 
 peared, month by month, the chief works of Ho- 
 mer, Virgil, Dante, Machiavelli, Rabelais, Bacon, 
 Ben Jonson, Cervantes, Moliere, De Foe, Locke, 
 Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Goethe, and Coleridge.
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 435 
 
 Professor Henry Morley is also the editor of an- 
 other series, perhaps even more important, because 
 the price is lower and the issue more frequent. 
 This is Cassell's National Library, in weekly vol- 
 umes at threepence each. For six cents a week a 
 man may buy a solid little tome of about two hun- 
 dred pages, containing Franklin's Autobiography, 
 Walton's Complete Angler, Byron's Childe Harold, 
 and the like. Nothing at once as cheap in price 
 and as good in quality as this National Library has 
 ever been brought out in America. 
 
 Crossing the Channel to France, we find the con- 
 ditions of publishing very different and far more 
 healthy. There was a time once when books in 
 France were expensive, and when authors and pub- 
 lishers alike were content with a small sale and an 
 apparently large profit. The late Michel-Levy be- 
 lieved that " cheap books are a necessity, and a 
 necessity which need bring, moreover, no loss to 
 either authors or publishers." 1 He converted cer- 
 tain of the leading French writers to his views, and 
 he revolutionized the methods of French publish- 
 ing. The theory of Michel-Levy, that the low price 
 of one book will tempt the reader and create a de- 
 sire for another book, was solidly sustained by the 
 result of his experiment. Thanks to him and to 
 those who followed his example, France is now the 
 country where books are the cheapest and where 
 authors are the best paid. Dignified historical 
 
 ' An account of Michel-Levy's reform may be found in Mr. 
 Matthew Arnold's acute paper on "Copyright" in his volume of 
 Irish Essays.
 
 436 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 works generally appear in portly tomes at seven 
 francs and a half each — say, a dollar and a half (the 
 price in America for a volume of the same impor- 
 tance would probably vary from two dollars and a 
 half to five dollars). These volumes at seven francs 
 and a half each are relatively few, as the enormous 
 majority of French books, poems, novels, biogra- 
 phies, essays, and so forth are of the size called the 
 " format Charpentier," and are sold for three francs 
 and a half each — say, seventy cents. 
 
 Cheap as these French books are when new, they 
 are often made even cheaper still as their popularity 
 broadens. In imitation of the Michel-Levy collec- 
 tion, many publishers have series which they sell for 
 one franc a volume — twenty cents — for a seemly 
 and shapely tome containing a complete copyright 
 book, by an author of wide repute. Even lower 
 priced, however, is a later series, the Bibliothcque 
 Nationale, founded twenty-five years ago, now ex- 
 tending to several hundred numbers, and containing 
 not only the French classics but also translations of 
 nearly all the classics of other literatures. The tidy 
 little tomes of this series are sold in stitched paper 
 covers at twenty-five centimes each — five cents — and 
 in cloth bindings for nine cents each. Inexpensive as 
 is this Bibliothcque Nationale, it has now a new rival 
 — the Nouvelle Bibliotheque Populaire — in which the 
 single numbers are sold for two cents each. I be- 
 lieve that nothing cheaper than this has ever been 
 attempted anywhere. Besides the consecrated mas- 
 terpieces of literature, the books of an impreg- 
 nable reputation, which ought to furnish forth the
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 437 
 
 bulk of any collection making an appeal to the very- 
 widest circle of readers, the conductor of the Non- 
 velle BibliotJicque Popnlaire is wisely selecting trans- 
 lations into French of the best books of contempo- 
 rary authors of other nations. Thus can a pleased 
 American discover on the catalogue the names of 
 Poe, Irving, Longfellow, and Mr. Bret Harte ; 
 whether these authors are as pleased to see their 
 works taken without money and without price is 
 another question ! 
 
 Turning from France to Germany, we find no 
 great difference in the conditions of publishing, 
 although the Germans cannot make their new books 
 quite as cheap as can the French, since their market 
 is not so large. German books, in the department 
 which at college we used to call Belles Lettres, must 
 be consumed in the home market ; there is no fierce 
 demand for export. But French fiction and French 
 criticism are interesting and entertaining throughout 
 the world. A German novel must rely for its read- 
 ers on the Fatherland and on those who speak the 
 mother-tongue ; while French is still the language 
 of courts and of culture, and a French novel may 
 be read with as much avidity in Berlin and Vienna, 
 in London and New York, as in Paris itself. 
 
 Whatever may be the price of the new novel in 
 Germany, and however insufficient may be its sale, 
 the Germans are not behind the French in their 
 cheap editions of the great books of the world. 
 The successors of the house which issued Goethe's 
 writings now publish the Cottd sche Bibliothek der 
 Weltliteratur, in which the works of Goethe, Schil-
 
 438 TPIE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 ler, Lessing, Shakespeare, Moliere, Calderon, Dante, 
 and their fellows appear in solid volumes, substan- 
 tially bound, and sold at one mark each — twenty- 
 five cents. One mark is also the price asked for 
 any volume of Das Wissen der Gegenwart, a collec- 
 tion of new books, expressly prepared, well printed, 
 well bound, and most elaborately illustrated. The 
 volumes of this series are written by experts, and 
 they are intended to form a sort of cyclopaedia of 
 the results of the latest researches in science and 
 history. 
 
 Nor are the Germans lacking in a library of the 
 ancient and modern classics at a still lower price. I 
 believe that it was Herr Reclam's Universal Biblio- 
 tJiek which suggested the French Bibliotkeque Na- 
 tional e and the English " National Library." The 
 single numbers of this series cost each twenty 
 pfennige — say, five cents ; and at this price may be 
 had all the German classics, as well as translations of 
 the best writings in other languages. Alongside the 
 works of Schiller and Sophocles, of Shakespeare and 
 Sheridan, the American finds translations of Cooper, 
 Longfellow, Mark Twain, Mrs. Stowe, Mr. Aldrich, 
 and Mr. Bret Harte — of course we cannot expect 
 Germany to protect the rights of American authors 
 until America protects the rights of German authors. 
 The success of this cheap series has brought out 
 a rival still cheaper — Meyer's Volksbiicher at ten 
 pfennige a volume — say, two cents and a half for a 
 complete copy of a masterpiece. 
 
 In this survey of the conditions of publishing in 
 England, France, and Germany, I have sought to
 
 CHEAP BOOKS AND GOOD BOOKS. 439 
 
 show that what might seem, at first sight, to be a 
 paradox, is only the exact truth. In America the 
 cheapest books are not good books, for the most 
 part ; certainly they are not the best books. In 
 Europe the best books are the cheapest. That this un- 
 fortunate state of affairs in this country is the result 
 of the absence of International Copyright, and the 
 inevitable instability of the book trade, I maintain ; 
 and I assert also that the consequences of the 
 present unhealthy condition are injurious to the 
 character of the American people. We now enjoy 
 the privilege of piracy, as the dwellers on a rocky 
 islet used to enjoy the privilege of wrecking— and 
 we avail ourselves of this privilege only to the per- 
 dition of our own souls. We encourage bad books 
 and we discourage good books. And to discourage 
 or injure or retard a good book, as it goes on its 
 mission of making the world better, is to do an evil 
 deed. No one has more nobly spoken of the crime 
 of book murder than John Milton, and with a quota- 
 tion from him I may fitly conclude : 
 
 " For books are not absolutely dead things, but 
 do contain a potency of life in them to be as active 
 as that soul was whose progeny they are ; nay, they 
 do preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy and ex- 
 traction of that living intellect that bred them. I 
 know they are as lively and as vigorously product- 
 ive as those fabulous dragon's teeth : and being 
 sown up and down may chance to spring up armed 
 men. And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness 
 be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good 
 book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature,
 
 440 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 God's image; but he who destroys a good book 
 kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, 
 in the eye. Many a man lives, a burden to the 
 earth ; but a good book is the precious life-blood 
 of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on 
 purpose to a life beyond life." 
 New York, March 15, 1888.
 
 XXIV. 
 
 AN INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT WILL 
 NOT INCREASE THE PRICES OF 
 BOOKS. 
 
 One of the most frequent objections to the grant- 
 ing of copyright to foreign authors is the impression 
 that any such measure must materially increase the 
 selling price of books. It is pointed out that, in the 
 absence of a copyright, foreign works have been 
 issued in this country at very low prices, and it is 
 assumed that when it becomes necessary to add to 
 the cost of production the amounts to be paid to 
 the authors, and when the sales, now divided be- 
 tween several competing editions, are left under the 
 control of one publisher, the prices paid by the con- 
 sumer will probably be materially increased. 
 
 The supporters of International Copyright take 
 the ground, on the other hand, that when the 
 American people, who are lovers of fair play, are 
 once convinced of the justice of the claim of authors 
 (American and foreign) to control their productions, 
 and to receive compensation from all who are bene- 
 fited by these productions, this claim will be 
 promptly granted, whether it costs the public some- 
 thing to do so or not.
 
 442 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 Those who are familiar with the business of mak- 
 ing and selling books assert further, moreover, that 
 a copyright measure will have the effect of lessening 
 the price of all the better classes of books, which 
 are of the most importance for the higher education 
 and cultivation of the people, and of increasing the 
 supplies of these; and that the only publications 
 which will be increased in price are the cheapest 
 issues of foreign fiction ; and in support of this con- 
 clusion they ask attention to the following consider- 
 ations: 
 
 First. It is in order to bear in mind that the 
 conditions of the literature now in existence can, of 
 course, not be affected by any copyright measure, 
 as no such measure could be made retroactive, and 
 there is, therefore, no foundation for the vague 
 assertion which has occasionally been made, that 
 " the people are to be asked to pay more for their 
 Macaulay and Tennyson." 
 
 Second. It is to be remembered that the so-called 
 " Libraries," which have been supplying foreign 
 novels at fifteen and twenty cents, after exhausting 
 the books really worth reprinting, and after includ- 
 ing in their lists (under the necessity of a periodical 
 issue) a large mass of indifferent and undesirable 
 material, by no means deserving the attention of 
 American readers, are now in great part being dis- 
 continued, partly because of the exhaustion of re- 
 printable material, and partly, also, because they are 
 not profitable undertakings. One reason why these 
 "Libraries" are proving unremunerative is unques- 
 tionably because of a change in the taste and in the
 
 COPYRIGHT AND PRICES. 443 
 
 judgment of buyers of books, who are beginning to 
 understand that they secure better value in paying 
 fifty cents or seventy-five for a decently printed vol- 
 ume, that can be preserved for the use of a number 
 of readers, than in expending fifteen or twenty cents 
 for a flimsy quarto, fit only to be thrown away after 
 one reading. 
 
 Third. A large number of important English and 
 Continental works, American editions of which 
 would prove of material service to American stu- 
 dents and readers, it is not practicable, under the 
 present state of things, for American publishers to 
 undertake at all, as, in case their reprints are favora- 
 bly received, any prospect of profit from these is 
 promptly destroyed by the competition of rival and 
 unauthorized editions, which secure the advantage 
 of their literary judgment and their advertising. 
 Such American readers as are obliged to purchase 
 this class of works must, as a result, pay the cost of 
 the expensive and often unsuitable foreign editions, 
 while (as such editions cannot be adequately adver- 
 tised) a large number of readers to whom such books 
 would be of service are never even made aware of 
 their existence. An immediate result of an Inter- 
 national Copyright would be the reprinting of inex- 
 pensive editions, suited for the wants of a large cir- 
 cle of impecunious buyers, of a number of European 
 works now brought into this country only in expen- 
 sive "limited" editions. 
 
 Fourth. An International Copyright will render 
 practicable a large number of international under- 
 takings which cannot be ventured upon without the
 
 444 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 assured control of several markets. The volumes 
 for these international series will be secured from 
 the leading writers of the world, American, English, 
 and Continental, and the compensation paid to 
 these writers, together with the cost of the produc- 
 tion of illustrations, maps, tables, etc., will be di- 
 vided between the several editions. The lower the 
 proportion of this first outlay to be charged to the 
 American edition, the lower the price at which this 
 can be furnished ; and as the publisher secures the 
 most satisfactory returns from large sales to a wide 
 circle, the lower the price at which it will be fur- 
 nished. 
 
 It would not be quite correct to say that these 
 international series would be cheaper than at pres- 
 ent, for there are as yet hardly any examples of 
 them ; but it is the case that by means of such series 
 (only adequately possible under International Copy- 
 right) American readers will secure the best litera- 
 ture of leading contemporary writers at far lower 
 prices than can ever otherwise be practicable. 
 
 Fifth. The higher prices of current English books 
 are cited as examples of what American readers 
 would under a copyright be compelled to pay for 
 American editions of similar works. It is, however, 
 easy to show that the selling price of books de- 
 pends, not upon the conditions of copyright, but 
 upon the requirements of the market. Books are 
 first issued in England in the high-priced editions, 
 because under the English system the first demand 
 for new publications is largely through the circu- 
 lating libraries, which have encouraged the main-
 
 COPYRIGHT AND PRICES. 445 
 
 tenance of prices sufficiently high to hinder the 
 buying of books. There is also the further reason 
 that in England the readers and buyers of books 
 belong in much larger proportions to the wealthy 
 classes than is the case in the United States. 
 
 In France and Germany, on the other hand, coun- 
 tries fully under the control of copyright, both 
 domestic and international, the first issues of stand- 
 ard and current publications, both copyright and 
 non-copyright, are cheaper than anywhere else in 
 the world. 
 
 In Paris, for instance, a beautifully printed and 
 beautifully illustrated edition of such a book as 
 Daudet's Tartarin dans les Alpes is published at 
 seventy cents, and this is one example of many. In 
 Berlin, we find such series as Das Wissen der 
 Gegenwart, " The Knowledge of the Present," is- 
 sued in handsomely printed, well-illustrated, and 
 neatly bound volumes, of which sixty-two are now 
 ready, selling at one mark, twenty-five cents, each. 
 The works in this series are written especially for 
 it by the leading scholars and scientists of the Con- 
 tinent, and this series is one of many. The Leipsic 
 publisher, Tauchnitz, possesses, under the present 
 International Copyright system of Europe, a practi- 
 cal " monopoly " for the sale on the Continent of 
 his cheap reprints, in English, of the works pur- 
 chased by him from English authors. He does not, 
 however, take advantage of such "monopoly" to 
 attempt to extort high prices from his readers, sim- 
 ply because there would be no profit in making any 
 such attempt. He sells these copyright books, in
 
 446 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 complete and well-printed volumes, at one and a 
 half marks, or thirty-six cents, each. 
 
 American publishers controlling, under a similar 
 copyright, the sale of similar books for a market of 
 sixty millions of people, would in like manner find 
 it to their advantage to supply this market with 
 low-priced editions planned for popular sale, simply 
 because high-priced editions could not be sold. 
 
 It is also the case that, since the establishment of 
 International Copyright between the different states 
 of Germany and the several countries of Europe, 
 there has been a steady decrease in the prices, in 
 these countries, of standard and current literature, 
 copyright as well as non-copyright, and a marked 
 impetus has been given to publishing undertakings 
 of service to the community. 
 
 As Mr. Brander Matthews has well pointed out, 
 the cheapest books to be bought to-day in the 
 United States are mostly inferior stories by con- 
 temporary English novelists, while the cheapest 
 books to be bought to-day in Europe are the best 
 works by the best authors of all times. In Amer- 
 ica, where the system, or lack of system, of " open 
 publishing" prevails, the cheapest books are the 
 least important and often the least desirable. In 
 Europe, where International Copyright is in force, 
 the best books are the cheapest. The absence of In- 
 ternational Copyright encourages bad books or poor 
 books, and discourages good books. 
 
 Such examples show that the selling price of a 
 book depends not on the copyright but on the ex- 
 tent of the market that can be assured for it. With-
 
 COPYRIGHT AND PRICES. 447 
 
 out an International Copyright no assured market 
 is possible, and no low-priced international series 
 can be planned or prepared for American readers. 
 
 Sixth. A reduction can also be looked for in the 
 selling price of certain lines of American fiction and 
 other current literature. Under the present " cut- 
 throat " competition, the publishers of the works 
 of such authors as Howells, James, Aldrich, Bret 
 Harte, and other leading American writers have 
 practically given up the attempt to compete with 
 the unpaid-for reprints of foreign writers. Know- 
 ing that they can depend upon certain (compara- 
 tively limited) circles of readers, they find it to be 
 more profitable to obtain from these readers the 
 highest prices they are willing to pay. When, on 
 the other hand, the foreign works are put on the 
 same footing as those of American writers, the pub- 
 lishers of the latter will find it to their interest to 
 plan for the widest popular sale, and for this pur- 
 pose will at once issue their books at popular prices. 
 
 The possibility of exporting stereotype plates or 
 editions of standard American works will also lessen 
 the proportion of first outlay to be charged to the 
 American edition, and will enable this to be sold 
 profitably at lower prices than would otherwise be 
 practicable. An example of the advantage given to 
 the American buyer by such an export arrangement 
 is afforded by the great Latin Dictionary lately pub- 
 lished by the Harpers. Duplicate plates of this 
 were sold by the publishers for the edition issued 
 by the Clarendon Press, in Oxford, and the saving 
 secured from the proportion of the type-setting and
 
 443 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 editorial outlay charged to the English edition has 
 enabled the American publishers to sell the book in 
 this market much more cheaply than would other- 
 wise have been practicable. 
 
 To summarize — the selling price of books de- 
 pends not on the copyright, but on the require- 
 ments of the market and the extent of the market 
 that is controlled by the author and his represent- 
 ative. 
 
 American buyers are accustomed to cheap books, 
 and will not buy dear books, and the publishers are 
 not likely to throw away their money by making 
 dear books for which they could not find a sale. 
 
 The wider the markets and the greater the num- 
 ber of the editions between which the first outlays 
 can be divided, the smaller the cost of each edition 
 and of each copy, and the lower the price at which 
 each copy can be and will be supplied. 
 
 With assured markets, and an assured control to 
 authors and publishers of the results of their literary 
 undertakings, there will be a great increase in the 
 publication of international series, which will pro- 
 vide for American readers, at the lowest prices, 
 satisfactory editions of the works of the leading 
 writers of the world, American, English, and Con- 
 tinental. 
 
 New York, March 15, 1890. G. H. P.
 
 XXV. 
 
 "COPYRIGHT," ''MONOPOLIES," AND 
 "PROTECTION." 
 
 Reprinted from The Literary World. 
 
 To the Editor of the Literary World : 
 
 The writer of an editorial in The Literary World 
 of January 7th (a number which, owing to a mis- 
 chance, has only to-day reached my desk), in refer- 
 ring to the organization of the Boston Copyright 
 Association, speaks of copyright as a " species of 
 protection." The words used are : 
 
 "For what is copyright but a species of protection? and what is 
 international copyright but a bulwark erected by protection against 
 free trade? From this point of view the spectacle of President 
 Eliot presiding at an international copyright meeting one day and 
 appearing the next as a sympathetic guest at an anti-tariff dinner is 
 one to be pondered." 
 
 This " point of view " shows, as it seems to me, 
 a confusion of thought based upon a misconception 
 of the actual meaning of the terms " protection " 
 and " free trade ; " and as such misconception has 
 before now stood in the way of a proper understand- 
 ing of the grounds on which are based the claims of 
 an author to the control of his productions, I think 
 it worth while to ask you to give me space to cor- 
 rect it. 
 
 The difficulty is really due to the poverty of our 
 29
 
 450 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 language, which uses the term " protection " to ex- 
 press two entirely different things, and the same is 
 true of the terms " free trade " and " monopoly," 
 which also have been largely misapplied in the dis- 
 cussion of questions of copyright. The " protec- 
 tion " for which the author asks is simply his por- 
 tion of the benefit of the machinery organized by 
 society for the defence of individual property against 
 unauthorized appropriation. He is in the position 
 of a gardener whose labor has produced a crop of 
 strawberries, and who, in order to retain for his own 
 use the results of his labor, asks for his share of the 
 policeman. 
 
 In the sense, however, in which it is used in the 
 article in question the term stands for something 
 entirely different. The " protection " to which your 
 writer was referring is the system under which one 
 producer secures through legislation the impo- 
 sition of a tax upon the labor of another producer, 
 and by this means also secures the privilege of tax- 
 ing indirectly (to the extent of any increase caused 
 by such taxation in the average selling price) all the 
 consumers of the things produced. 
 
 The author, however, asks for no legislation of 
 this kind. In securing copyright for his History 
 of the United States, Professor McMaster secures 
 simply the control of the sales of his own work. 
 He does not ask the government to further the sale 
 of his history by putting a tax upon the production 
 or the sale of any other history of the United States, 
 for instance, that written by the foreigner Von 
 Hoist. The production of future histories of the
 
 "copyright" and "protection." 451 
 
 United States, by American or foreign writers, is 
 not going to be impeded by any privilege conceded 
 to or demanded by McMaster. In like manner the 
 conceding to Justin McCarthy, under an interna- 
 tional copyright, of the control of his History of 
 Our Own Times, would, of course, in no manner 
 have stood in the way of the production of any 
 number of competing histories covering the same 
 period. 
 
 Mr. Henry Carey Baird takes the ground that 
 there is no propriety in giving to Von Hoist the 
 privilege of making money out of historical facts 
 and records which are the common property of all 
 Americans. Mr. Baird forgets, however, that these 
 facts and records are as much common property 
 after the publication of Von Hoist's history as they 
 were before. Von Hoist's privilege of copyright 
 (if conceded) has not enabled him to diminish in any 
 way the common stock of facts (as the nation's 
 stock of acres is diminished, for instance, by the 
 grants to the Pacific railroads). The stock of his- 
 torical facts available for the use of future writers 
 has, indeed, actually been increased by Von Hoist's 
 researches and labors. It is evident, therefore, that 
 copyright gives to the writer no property in facts or 
 ideas, but simply permits him to control the special 
 form in which he presents these facts and ideas, and 
 it is for this form only, and not for the ideas them- 
 selves, that he asks " protection." 
 
 The " free trader," in the accepted signification 
 of the term, and the person who is opposing copy- 
 right and talking about " free trade in books," are
 
 452 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 two very different individuals. The former claims 
 for each producer the liberty to do what he will with 
 that which he has produced, such liberty including 
 the right to procure in exchange for the same (sub- 
 ject only to the taxes necessary for the support of 
 the government and for his share of the policeman) 
 the products of any other producers, whether fel- 
 low-citizens or not. He wishes, for instance, to pur- 
 chase with money made out of wheat a ship built 
 on the Clyde, and he would be free to apply in this 
 way the results of his labor and thus to secure fur- 
 ther proceeds from these results if it were not for 
 the existence of an objecting individual or group of 
 individuals in Maine or Pennsylvania. The man who 
 talks about " free trade in books," however, meaning 
 thereby the right to appropriate what another has 
 produced, aims to obtain certain proceeds which he 
 could not have secured but for the existence and the 
 labor of another man, namely, the author of the 
 material to be appropriated 
 
 In like manner the opponent of any international 
 copyright, or the supporter of the misleading Pear- 
 sall-Smith scheme of " open publishing " (which 
 may be appropriately classified as " copywrong "), 
 describes as a " monopoly" the right of an author to 
 control the sale of his productions. The dictionary 
 justifies him in such use of the word, which means, 
 of course, " single sale," or sale controlled by a single 
 person. The term is, however, at present, in its 
 general use associated with something very different, 
 and its application to copyright is misleading and 
 unjustifiable.
 
 "COPYRIGHT AND " PROTECTION. 453 
 
 The popular understanding of the term " monop- 
 oly " covers the appropriation, under legislation, by 
 an individual or a group of individuals, of some por- 
 tion of the property of the community or of the 
 facilities belonging to the community, which, if it 
 were not for such legislation, would remain free to 
 all. In this sense a Pacific railway, to which has 
 been conceded the sole use of a route across the 
 continent and the fee of some thousands of acres of 
 public lands, is a monopoly ; a horse railway, with a 
 charter for the exclusive use of certain public high- 
 ways, is a monopoly; and a telephone company, 
 with a patent under which it prevents the construc- 
 tion of other telephones, and with privileges, thus 
 made exclusive, for the use of its wires, of traversing 
 both public and private property, is a monopoly. 
 The control of a book by the man whose labor has 
 produced the book is not a monopoly, for the exist- 
 ence of such a book does not in any degree stand 
 in the way of the production and sale of any num- 
 ber of books of the same character, and addressed 
 to the same class of readers, and its production has 
 in no degree lessened the extent of the facilities or 
 of the property belonging to the public. 
 
 The importance of securing at this time, when 
 international copyright is a matter of pending legis- 
 lation, the widest possible understanding of the 
 grounds upon which rests the claim of the author 
 to the control of his productions, is my excuse for 
 troubling you with this letter. 
 
 New York, January 30, 1888.
 
 XXVI. 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE EXISTING COPYRIGHT 
 LAWS OF THE MORE IMPORTANT 
 COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD (January, 
 1896.) 
 
 1. Argentine Republic. — No statute for the protection of intellec- 
 tual property has as yet been enacted. Article 17 of the Constitution 
 of i860 declares that property is to be held inviolable, and that no 
 citizen shall be deprived of the same except by process of law. The 
 article proceeds to state that each author and inventor is the exclusive 
 proprietor of his production or invention during the term specified 
 by the law, but the law itself is yet to be enacted. In its absence, 
 authors and artists secure a quasi-protection under certain provisions 
 of the civil code. The penal code of 1880 contained a provision for 
 the prohibition of literary piracy, with a penalty for infringement of 
 from $25 to $1000. In the code of 1887 this provision was, however, 
 omitted. 
 
 2. Austria (Empire). — Law of 1895. Literary and artistic works, 
 published during the life of the author, term, during author's life 
 and thirty years after his death : Works posthumous, or anony- 
 mous, or published under a pseudonym, thirty years from the 
 date of the first publication. Publications of learned societies 
 recognized by the Government, fifty years from the date of the 
 first publication ; right of the Government reserved to extend this 
 term by special privileges in favor of important works of science and 
 art. Exclusive rights of translation reserved to the author, on con- 
 dition of the publication being simultaneous with that of the original ; 
 in the contrary case, free right of translation permitted after the delay 
 of one year. Free right of arrangement of musical airs, at the ex- 
 piration of one year. Exclusive right of artistic reproduction reserved
 
 SUMMARY. 455 
 
 to the artist, but on condition of reproducing the work within two 
 years ; in contrary case, free right of reproduction. Dramatic and 
 musical representations, performed during the life of the author : 
 copyright term, during his life and thirty years after his death. 
 Works posthumous, anonymous, collaborated, or published under a 
 pseudonym, thirty years from the date of first representation (term 
 increased, in 1894, from ten years). Interstate conventions, Ger- 
 many, 1867 and 1870; Italy, 1890; France, 1866; Great Britain, 
 1893. 
 
 3. Belgium (Kingdom). — Law of 1886. Works of literature and 
 of art, published during the life of the author, protected for his life 
 and for fifty years thereafter. (The previous term was for life and 
 for twenty years.) Posthumous works, fifty years from date of issue 
 or for works of art, from date of first exhibition. A work of collabo- 
 ration is protected for fifty years from the death of the surviving col- 
 laborator. The author and his representatives have full control of 
 the rights of translation and dramatization. The provisions of the 
 law are applicable to residents as well as to citizens. The condition 
 of printing in Belgium which obtained in the previous law is annulled. 
 Belgium was a party to the Berne Convention, and is in copyright re- 
 lations with the United States under the Act of 1891. Deposit of 
 three copies — one for the national library and two for the com- 
 munal administration. 
 
 4. Bolivia (Republic). — Law of 1S79. Term, life of the author 
 and fifty years. Deposit of three copies — one with the Minister of 
 Public Instruction, one with the governor of the district, one with the 
 national library. Concedes copyright to foreigners under reciprocal 
 conditions. Registration without charge. A party, since 1889, to 
 the Convention of Montevideo. 
 
 5. Brazil (Republic). — Law of 1890 (enacted under the Empire). 
 Terms for literary and artistic works, published during the life of the 
 author, life of author and ten years thereafter. Works published by 
 societies and corporations, ten years from the date of the first publi- 
 cation. A party since 1889, to the Convention of Montevideo. 
 
 6. Canada. — Term, forty-two years from date of publication. De- 
 posit of two copies. Requirements (with certain noteworthy excep- 
 tions) of manufacture within the Dominion. Authority vested in 
 the Minister of Agriculture to license the publication of Canadian 
 editions, under certain conditions. (See further summary on page 
 467 et sea.)
 
 456 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 7. Chili (Republic). — Act of 1834. Term, for literary and artistic 
 works published during the life of the author, for his life and for five 
 years after his death. Posthumous, ten years from first publication. 
 For works published in Chili by a foreigner, ten years from first pub- 
 lication. Deposit of three copies in the library of Santiago, obligatory. 
 Right of the Government to extend these terms. Term, for dramatic 
 and musical representations performed during the life of the author, 
 for his life, and for five years after his death. Posthumous works, 
 ten years from the date of the first representation. Right of the Gov- 
 ernment to extend these terms. Has accepted the Interstate Con- 
 vention of Montevideo. 
 
 8. C/iitia. — In theory, copyright is perpetual. There is, however, 
 no statute on the subject, and in practice the protection of a literary 
 production is hardly practicable. The author of modern times is 
 usually his own publisher. In case of piracy the usual penalty is 
 eighty blows with a stick and confiscation of the piratical production. 
 The protection of the magistrates can however be claimed only for 
 works of " pure literature " or of poetry. Authors of political works 
 or of romances can claim no privileges, and are in fact liable to pun- 
 ishment. The sole dependence for the author is the intelligence and 
 equity of the local magistrates. (Tcheng-Ki-Tong. Cited by Lyon- 
 Caen.) 
 
 9. Colombia. — Law of 1886, based on that of Spain of 1879. 
 Term, life of the author and eighty years thereafter. Deposit of 
 three copies, one with the Minister of Public Instruction and two in 
 the national library. 
 
 10. Costa Rica. — This State was represented at the Berne Con- 
 vention but did not become a party to the same. No copyright 
 statute has yet been enacted. In 1887, a provisional agreement was 
 entered into with the four other States of Central America for the 
 recognition of property in literary and art productions. 
 
 11. Denmark. — Law of 1868. Term, for literary works pub- 
 lished during the life of the author, during his life and for fifty years 
 thereafter. (Formerly life and thirty years.) Anonymous, col- 
 laborated works, and works published under a pseudonym, fifty 
 years from date of publication. Art works published during the life 
 of the author, for his life and for thirty years thereafter. Dramatic 
 and musical works first represented during the life of the author, 
 for his life and for thirty years thereafter. The control of the author 
 terminates however, if no representation of the work has been made
 
 SUMMARY. 457 
 
 during the five years. Interstate conventions. Admission of the 
 principle of reciprocity. Convention with France in 1866, with the 
 United States in 1S91. 
 
 12. Ecuador. — Law of 1887. Term, life of the author and fifty 
 years thereafter. Deposit of three copies, one for the library of the 
 province, one for the national library, and one for the Minister of 
 Public Instruction. 
 
 13. Egypt. — No general law has yet been enacted. Cases of 
 copyright are decided by the judges " according to the principles 
 of natural art and the rules of equity." On this basis, the Court 
 of Appeals in Alexandria has, since 1887, given several decisions 
 in favor of the protection of productions in art, music, and litera- 
 ture. In these decisions no term of copyright has been specified 
 or referred to. They may, therefore, be compared to the deci- 
 sions in the English courts, prior to the statute of 1 7 10, under 
 which decisions copyright was assumed to exist under the common 
 law and in perpetuity. 
 
 14. Finland (Grand Duchy). — Act of 1880. The term is for the 
 life of the author and fifty years thereafter. Privileges of copyright 
 extended not only to citizens but to residents who make publication 
 in the country. Deposit of two copies. The law is in substance 
 identical with that of Russia, but differs in certain details. 
 
 15. France (Republic). — Act of the Corps-Legislatif (of the Em- 
 pire), of July 14, 1866, approved by Napoleon, Emperor. The 
 duration of term of copyright, accorded under previous legislation, 
 for the works of authors, artists, and composers, is extended from 
 the lifetime of the author and thirty years, to the lifetime and fifty 
 years, whether for widow, children, direct heirs, indirect heirs, lega- 
 tees, or assigns. In the cases in which the estate of the deceased 
 author becomes the property of the State, the copyright is terminated 
 with the death of the author, and the work falls into the public do- 
 main. Works published posthumously are subject to the same term 
 of copyright as obtains for those published during the lifetime of the 
 author. Authors who are citizens or residents of other States enjoy, 
 for works first published in France, the same rights and term of copy- 
 right as those given to French authors. (This provision is met by 
 simultaneous publication.) Two copies of all works copyrighted 
 must be deposited at the Ministry of the Interior, or (for transmis- 
 sion) at the prefectures of the departments. The same regulations 
 and the same term of copyright apply in the cases of works of art.
 
 458 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 The term of copyright is also the same for dramatic and musical 
 compositions, and no representation of such compositions can be 
 given without the written permission of the authors or composers. 
 The conditions of international copyright have been, since 1887, 
 regulated by the provisions of the Convention of Berne. In addition 
 to the States with which it is in relation through the Berne Conven- 
 tion, France has entered into literary conventions with the following 
 states which are not parties to the Berne Convention : Austria, 
 Hungary, 1886 ; Bolivia, 1888 ; Holland, 1856 ; Mexico, 1SS6 ; 
 Portugal, 1866 ; Russia, 1861 (this convention was cancelled by 
 Russia in 18S7 and has not since been renewed) ; Salvador, 1880 ; 
 Sweden and Norway, 18S4 ; United States, 1891. 
 
 16. Germany, — Law of the Empire, June 11, 1870. This law 
 applied to all the states of the Empire except Bavaria. It was ap- 
 plied to Bavaria January I, 1872, and to Alsace-Lorraine, January 
 1, 1S73. Registration of copyright is made at Leipsic. Deposit of 
 a single copy. Term, for literary and artistic works published during 
 the life of the author, is for his life and thirty years thereafter. 
 Posthumous and anonymous works and works published under a 
 pseudonym, thirty years from the date of the first publication. Pub- 
 lications of learned societies, thirty years from the date of first publi- 
 cation. Dramatic and musical productions, ten years from the first 
 representation, provided the work represented has not before been 
 printed. No protection is given under this heading for anonymous 
 productions. The Empire is a party to the Berne Convention. On 
 January 15, 1892, a copyright convention was completed with the 
 United States under which Germany accepted the provisions of 
 the American Act of 1891. Under this convention, the citizens of 
 the United States possess in Germany the same privileges that belong 
 under the German act to the citizens and residents of the Empire. 
 In like manner, the privileges possessed in the United States under 
 the American act by American citizens and residents are extended to 
 the citizens of Germany. The criticism was at once made in Ger- 
 many, and has since been repeated with increasing acerbity, that this 
 arrangement did not constitute an equitable reciprocity, and was 
 much to the disadvantage of the German producers of copyright 
 property. The provisions in the American law making copyright 
 conditional on simultaneous publication and on the manufacturing of 
 the work in the United States, place serious obstacles in the way of 
 German writers desiring to secure for their works American copy-
 
 SUMMARY. 459 
 
 right. Similar complaints are being made with equal justice on 
 behalf of the authors of France and Italy. The condition of simul- 
 taneous publication, while creating occasional differences in the case 
 of English authors, becomes of necessity much more serious when 
 arrangement must be made not only for publication and for printing 
 but also for translating. 
 
 17. Great Britain. — The law at present in force in Great Britain 
 is in substance that enacted in 1842. While this law has been 
 amended in certain of its details, the main provisions, including the 
 term of protection for literary property, remain as in the original act. 
 A summary of the existing laws together with the digest prepared by 
 Sir James Stephen, will be found in a previous division of this 
 volume. The term of copyright covers the life of the author and 
 seven years thereafter, or a period of forty-two years from the date of 
 publication of the work, whichever term be the longer. A deposit 
 of five copies is required, one for the British Museum, and one for 
 each of the four libraries designated in the Act. Registration is not 
 compulsory. Great Britain is a party to the Berne Convention. In 
 addition to the states with which it is in relation through the Berne 
 Convention, Great Britain has entered into literary conventions with 
 the following, which are not parties to the Berne Convention : Aus- 
 tria-Hungary, 1893 ; Brazil, 1884 ; Dominican Republic, 1894 ; 
 Mexico, 1S93 ; Netherlands, 1884 ; Netherlands, East India Colo- 
 nies, 18S8 ; Netherlands, Curacoa, Surinam, etc., 1890; Paraguay, 
 18S6; Portugal, 1884; Servia, 1884; Sweden and Norway, 1895; 
 Uraguay, 1886; United States, 1891. 
 
 18. Greece (Kingdom). — Law of 1833 ; amended in 1867. Literary 
 and artistic works, term, fifteen years from the date of first publica- 
 tion. Right of the Government to extend this term. Admission of 
 the principle of reciprocity. Deposit of two copies. 
 
 19. Guatemala (Republic). — Law of 1879 ; copyright is recognized 
 under this law as existing in perpetuity for the author, the heirs of 
 the author, or their assignees. 
 
 20. Hawaii (Republic). — Law of 1888 (enacted under the king- 
 dom). Term, twenty years from the date of publication. Deposit of 
 one copy. Registration fee of $5 to be paid to the Minister of the 
 Interior. 
 
 21. Hayti (Republic). — Law of 1885 Term, for the life of the 
 author, and if the copyright be inherited by the children of the 
 author, for twenty years thereafter. If the inheritance goes to heirs
 
 460 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 other than children or to assignees of the author, the term is for ten 
 years from the author's death. Deposit of two copies. A party to 
 the Convention of Berne. 
 
 22. Holland (Kingdom).— Law of 1881. Term, for printed works 
 printed within the lifetime of the author, fifty years from date of pub- 
 lication of first edition (former term, life of the author and twenty 
 years). Obligation to print the work within the kingdom and to de- 
 posit two copies with the Minister of Justice. Term, for works not 
 printed during the life of the author, thirty years from the date of his 
 death. Conventions with Belgium, 1858, and with France, 1855, 
 i860, and 1884. 
 
 23. Hungary (Kingdom).— Law of 1887. Term, life of the author 
 and fifty years thereafter. Posthumous works, fifty years from the 
 death of the author. Residents other than citizens who make first 
 publication in the country are entitled to the privileges of the law. 
 Deposit of two copies with the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
 24. Honduras (Republic).— The Civil code of 1 880 contains the dec- 
 laration that the productions or inventions of the mind are the prop- 
 erty of the producers. No copyright statute has as yet been enacted. 
 
 25. Italy (Kingdom).— Law of 1882. Works of literature and art 
 published during the lifetime of the author : term, during his life and 
 forty years from date of first publication. At the close of that term 
 the works are open to publication ; but during the second term of 
 forty years, the publishers must pay to the owner of the copyright a 
 royalty of five per cent. Term for musical and dramatic composi- 
 tions, eighty years from the first presentation. Exclusive right of 
 translation reserved to author, and of reproduction to the artist, for a 
 term of ten years. Deposit of two copies with the Prefect of the 
 Province. Publication of the State and of learned societies : term, 
 twenty years from the date of issue. The term for musical and 
 dramatic compositions, the same as for works of literature ; such 
 compositions, are, however, open to any one to produce or present on 
 the payment of a royalty or proportion of profits. International con- 
 ditions subject to the Convention of Berne. Copyright relations with 
 the United States since October 31, 1892, under the Act of 1891. 
 
 26. Japan (Empire). — Act of 1887. Term, life of the author and 
 five years thereafter, or thirty-five years from the date of publication 
 (whichever term be the longer), for works of literature, art, and music. 
 Fee for registration, the equivalent of the price of six copies of the 
 work. Term, for photographs, ten years from date of registration.
 
 SUMMARY. 461 
 
 The Government has under consideration (December, 1895) accept- 
 ance of the Convention of Berne. 
 
 27. Luxembourg (Grand Duchy). — Act of 181 7. Term, life of the 
 author and twenty years. Has accepted the Convention of Berne. 
 
 28. Mexico (Republic).— Act 1871. The copyright of new literary 
 productions is made perpetual (the former term having been life of 
 the author and ten years thereafter), and the author possesses the 
 same rights in regard to its assignment and alienation as obtain in 
 the case of material property. The heirs and assigns succeed to the 
 full rights of the original producers, retaining control in perpetuity. 
 In case the author, having assigned the copy of a work, has later re- 
 shaped such work, making changes that are " substantial and mate- 
 rial," he will be at liberty, as if it were a new work, to control the 
 copyright of the same, without prejudice, however, to the ownership 
 of the copyright of the work as first issued. The term of a dramatic 
 production, covering stage rights, is for the life of the author and 
 thirty years. Of works of literature and of art a deposit of two 
 copies is required, one in the national library, and one in the archives 
 of the Minister of Instruction. Works of art may be deposited in the 
 form of a photograph or reproduction of the original design. Copy- 
 right is granted to residents as well as to citizens. The principle of 
 reciprocity is accepted. 
 
 29. Monaco (Principality). — Ordinance of 1889. Term, life of the 
 author and fifty years. A party to the Convention of Berne. 
 
 30. Montenegro (Principality). — Act of 1889. Term, life of the 
 author and thirty years thereafter. Accepts the Convention of Berne. 
 
 31. Norway (Kingdom). — Act of 1876. Term, for works of litera- 
 ture and art, life and fifty years (former terms, life and twenty years). 
 
 32. Paraguay (Republic). — The law of 1862, passed under the rule 
 of the Dictator Lopez, has fallen into desuetude, and the record and 
 text of the Act have been lost. No statute is at this time in force. 
 
 33. Peru (Republic). — Law of 1849. Term, for literature and for 
 art, life and twenty years thereafter. Posthumous works, thirty 
 years from date of publication. Deposit of one copy in the national 
 library. 
 
 34. Porhigal (Kingdom). — Act of 1867. Term, for literature and 
 for art, life of the author and fifty years thereafter. (Formerly, 
 twenty years.) The term for a translation of a work, the original of 
 which is out of copyright, covers (for the translator's version only) 
 thirty years from date of publication. Publications of societies, fifty
 
 462 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 years from date of publication. Works published in series, fifty 
 years for each division or volume from date of publication of such 
 division. Of works of literature, a deposit of two copies is required 
 in the royal library in Lisbon ; for a work of art one copy of a repro- 
 duction must be deposited in the Academy of Fine Arts. The term 
 for posthumous works is twenty-five or fifty years from date of first 
 publication, according to the class. The Government reserves the 
 right to authorize for the service of the public, and in consideration 
 of the payment of an indemnity to the owner, the publication of the 
 abridgment of, or of extracts from, works which are still protected 
 by copyright. Dramatic and musical representations performed dur- 
 ing the life of the author, term, during his life and thirty years there- 
 after. Posthumous works, thirty years from date of first publication. 
 Unless, however, there be stipulation to the contrary, each theatre, 
 after the death of the author, is free to make presentation of his works 
 on payment of a fixed honorarium. A remuneration is due to the 
 Royal Conservatory for representing translated dramatic works which 
 have fallen into the public domain. Admission of the principle of 
 reciprocity. Conventions with Belgium, 1866; France, 1851 and 
 i860 ; Spain, i860 ; and the United States, 1S94. 
 
 35. Russia (Empire). — Exclusive of Finland. Act of 1857. 
 Works of literature published during the life of the author ; term, 
 for his life and fifty years after his death (formerly life and thirty 
 years). Posthumous works, fifty years from the date of the first pub- 
 lication. Learned societies, fifty years from the date of the first 
 publication. Deposit of two copies, one with the Bureau of Censor- 
 ship and one in the imperial library. The supervision of the copy- 
 right regulations rests with the minister or Intendant of the Palace 
 (Le minislre de la Maisou). The control of the censorship (upon 
 which copyright is conditioned) is placed with the Bureau of Censor- 
 ship. For scientific books, there is a special provision in the law 
 under which the exclusive right of translation is reserved to the author 
 with the condition that the announcement of the reservation be 
 printed in the original volume, and that the translation be published 
 within three years. Russian authors retain for their works first pub- 
 lished in foreign countries the control of the Russian copyright. It 
 is obligatory to make registration of works of art. The reproduction 
 in sculpture of a design originally produced in painting or the con- 
 verse is not considered to be an infringement of the artist's copyright. 
 The author of a work of literature who prints notice of the reserva-
 
 SUMMARY. 463 
 
 tion of such rights controls the dramatization of his production. 
 Dramatic and musical representations can be made only with the 
 consent of the authors or composers of the works. Convention with 
 Belgium, 1862. A convention made with France in 1S61 was can- 
 celled in 1887. French, English, and German works are " appropri- 
 ated" at the convenience of Russian publishers. There is, however, 
 a considerable importation of the authorized editions of the current 
 publishers of all three countries. 
 
 36. Salvador (Republic). — No copyright statute. The civil code 
 of 1880 declares that the productions of the mind are the property of 
 the producers. 
 
 37. Servia (Kingdom). — Copyright law similar in general terms to 
 that of Austria-Hungary is at this time (January, 1896) under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 38. South African Republic (The Transvaal). — Law of 1887. 
 Term, fifty years from date of publication. 
 
 39. Spain (Kingdom). — Act of 1879. Term, life and eighty years 
 (formerly life and fifty years), provided that the author is, at the time 
 of his death, in possession of his copyrights, and provided, further, 
 that he leaves direct heirs. In case the copyright has been assigned 
 by the author, the assignee retains control for the life of the author 
 and for twenty-five years thereafter, after which term it reverts to 
 the heirs, who have control for a further term of twenty-five years. 
 This term covers the cases of original works in literature and art, 
 collections of discourses and translations (in verse) of original works 
 in modern languages, published during the life of the author. For 
 discourses, sermons, and newspaper articles that are not united in 
 collections published during the life of the author, the term is for his 
 life and twenty-five years thereafter, but with no exclusive privilege 
 of translation. Anonymous works and those published under a 
 pseudonym, term, during the life of the editor, and for fifty or 
 twenty-five years after his death, according to the class of the work, 
 as above. Works of learned societies, fifty years from date of the 
 first publication. Unedited MSS., twenty-five years after the date 
 of the first publication. Posthumous works, fifty or twenty-five 
 years after date of first publication, according to the class. The 
 Government reserves the right to authorize, " for the service of the 
 public," the publication of abridgments of, or extracts from, works 
 constituting private property, in consideration of an indemnity. De- 
 posit of three copies is required, one for the library of the Province, 
 
 29
 
 464 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 one for the Minister of Instruction, and one for the national library. 
 Spanish authors retain the right of property in works originally pub- 
 lished by them in foreign countries. The term for representations, 
 dramatic and musical, performed during the life of the author, is for 
 his life and twenty-five years thereafter. The term of copyright in- 
 stituted by Spain is the longest adopted in any State excepting Mexico 
 and Venezuela. Spain is a party to the Berne Convention, and has 
 also entered into international copyright relations with the United 
 States, under the Act of 1891. It has conventions in force with Hol- 
 land and with Portugal. 
 
 40. Sweden (Kingdom). — Act of 1S77. Term, for works of liter- 
 ature, life and fifty years (formerly life and twenty years) ; for works 
 of art, life of the producer and ten years. 
 
 41. Switzerland (Republic). — Act of 1883. Term, life of the 
 author and thirty years (formerly life or thirty years, whichever term 
 were the longer). Swiss authors retain their property rights for 
 Switzerland in works originally issued in foreign lands, on condition 
 of their making registration of the same and of depositing a copy in 
 the national library. Switzerland is a party to the Convention of 
 Berne, and has copyright relations with the United States dating from 
 July, 1891. 
 
 42. Tunis (Principality). — Law of 18S9. Term, the life of the 
 author and fifty years. A party to the Convention of Berne. 
 
 43. Turkey (Empire). — Firmans of 1872, 1875, 188S. The 
 legislation of Turkey still retains for the protection of literary prop- 
 erty the medioeval system of privileges. The author secures on 
 application, a protection for his work for life or for a term of forty 
 years from the date of publication. Copyright for the unexpired 
 term can be assigned or bequeathed. The right to control a transla- 
 tion must be specified. The term for the translation is twenty years 
 from the date of publication. An authorization for publication (con- 
 stituting a censorship's permit) must be secured from the Minister of 
 Instruction. Deposit of two copies, one for the Minister of Instruc- 
 tion and one for the Government of the Province. 
 
 44. Uruguay (Republic). — No copyright statute as yet enacted. 
 The civil code of 1868 declares that the productions of the mind are 
 the property of the producer. 
 
 45. United States (Republic). — Law of July, 1870, and March, 
 1891, amended, March, 1895. (For details of these statutes see 
 separate chapter.) The term for works of literature and for works of
 
 SUMMARY. 465 
 
 art is for twenty-eight years from the date of registration and publi- 
 cation. If at the end of that term the author or the author's widow 
 or children be living and an application is made for the purpose, the 
 copyright is extended for a further term of fourteen years, making 
 forty-two years in all. Under the Act of 1S91, the United States has 
 entered into copyright relations in July 1891, with Belgium, France, 
 Great Britain, and Switzerland ; in 1S92, with Italy ; in 1893, with 
 Portugal and Denmark ; and in 1895, with Spain. In 1892, a copy- 
 right convention or treaty was put into effect with Germany. 
 
 46. Venezuela (Republic). — Act of 1S80. The term is in per- 
 petuity for the author and his heirs. (Previous term, life and fourteen 
 years.) If the copyright has been assigned, the control of the pro- 
 ducer ceases twenty-five years after the death of the author, and the 
 property reverts to the heirs for perpetuity. A deposit of four copies 
 is required, one for the local institute of the province, one for the 
 Minister of Instruction, one for the library of the University of Car- 
 acas, and one for the Academy of Venezuela. A party to the Con- 
 vention of Montevideo. 
 
 It will be noted from the above summary that practically all the 
 literature-producing States of the world have now in force measures 
 for the protection of literary property. The Argentine Republic is in 
 fact the only country with any considerable educated population in 
 which no copyright statute has yet been enacted. The state with the 
 shortest term of copyright is Greece, and next to Greece comes the 
 United States. The states giving protection in perpetuity are Mexico 
 and Venezuela. The states giving the longest statutory term of pro- 
 tection are Spain and Italy. There has been during the past twenty- 
 five years a steady tendency for the increase of the term of the copy- 
 right. The term that is now accepted by the majority of the states 
 of Europe is the life of the author and fifty years thereafter. The 
 theory of this term is that it gives to the author an incentive for pro- 
 ducing property for the enjoyment of his children and his grandchil- 
 dren, with the possibility also of future enjoyment by the great- 
 grandchildren. Beyond that term, the interest of the public at large 
 in securing the widest distribution, at the least cost, of literature of 
 permanent value, is assumed to offset such attenuated interest as an 
 author may be supposed to retain in the remote progeny beyond the 
 30
 
 466 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 generation of his grandchildren. The steps that are now being taken 
 to extend the term of copyright in Great Britain, the country in 
 which, as in the United States, the present term is very much shorter 
 than has been accepted as equitable for the rest of Europe, are speci- 
 fied in a preceding chapter. I trust that it may be practicable in 
 later editions of this volume to make reference to some similar efforts 
 for the extension of literary property in the United States.
 
 XXVII. 
 THE STATUS OF CANADA, JANUARY, 1896. 
 
 The position of Canada in regard to its copyright 
 relations with Great Britain and with the States with 
 which the British Government has entered into copy- 
 right conventions, has for some years been an anoma- 
 lous one. The authorities of the Home government 
 have heretofore maintained that copyright was a 
 matter belonging to imperial control, and that the 
 British copyright legislation and the British conven- 
 tions with foreign states were to be held as binding 
 upon all the territories and colonies of the Empire. 
 With this understanding, the representatives of Great 
 Britain at the Convention of Berne accepted the pro- 
 visions of that Convention for Great Britain and for 
 all the British colonies. The Dominion of Canada 
 has, however, declined to be bound by the action of 
 the Home government. It is the Canadian view 
 that both copyright and patent-right are matters 
 which belong properly within the control of the 
 Dominion. Acting on this contention, the Do- 
 minion government gave but a provisional assent 
 to the Convention of Berne, reserving the right to
 
 468 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 withdraw after a year's notice, and such notice has 
 since been given. 
 
 The House of Lords held in 1868, in the case of 
 Routledge vs. Low, that a copyright existing in the 
 United Kingdom, is valid throughout all parts of 
 the British dominions, even though there may be 
 colonial statutes dealing with the same subject. 
 Under the colonial copyright act of 1847, known 
 as the Foreign Reprints Act, it was provided that 
 upon a British possession passing an Act or ordi- 
 nance sufficient for the purpose of securing to British 
 authors reasonable protection within such posses- 
 sions, it should be lawful for her Majesty, by an 
 Order in Council, to declare the prohibition against 
 the importation of foreign books suspended for 
 such territory. This provision became applicable 
 to Canada in 1858. After that date, reprints from 
 the United States of English copyright books could 
 be imported into the Dominion on the payment of 
 an import duty of 12^ per cent., the receipts from 
 which duty were to be transmitted to the several 
 authors concerned. According to the testimony of 
 the English authors, however, their receipts from 
 this source have been very inconsiderable. This 
 duty has since been changed to one of 12^ cents 
 per pound. 
 
 In 1S89, a copyright act was passed by the Legis- 
 lature of the Dominion of which the main provisions 
 were as follows : 
 
 1. The control of the copyright of works of litera- 
 ture or of art was given for a term of twenty-eight 
 years to residents of the Dominion or of any portion
 
 THE STATUS OF CANADA. 469 
 
 of the British Empire, subject to the conditions 
 specified. 
 
 2. The work so copyrighted must be printed or 
 produced within the territory of the Dominion, within 
 one month after the date of production in the coun- 
 try of origin, and must be duly registered in the 
 office of the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
 3. In case within this term of one month no Cana- 
 dian edition should be produced by the author or his 
 representative, the work shall be opened to produc- 
 tion by any Canadian resident who shall obtain 
 a license for the purpose from the Minister of 
 Agriculture. 
 
 4. A license was to be granted to any applicant 
 who should agree to pay to the author or to his 
 representatives a royalty of ten per cent, on the 
 retail price of each copy printed or issued, and who 
 should give to the Minister of Agriculture satisfac- 
 tory security for such payments. Such license was 
 to convey no exclusive rights to the work, and 
 was not to prevent the importation of any other 
 authorized editions. 
 
 The British authors made strong and continued 
 protests against an Act which would take out of their 
 hands the privilege of selecting their own publishers 
 for the Dominion, and which was likely to work 
 mischief with their relations with the publishers of 
 their authorized editions in the United States. After 
 the American Act of 1891 had secured for British 
 authors copyright in the United States, their opposi- 
 tion became still more determined against a measure 
 which was certain to bring their American copyright
 
 470 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 into peril. The Imperial government refused to give 
 its approval to the Canadian Act, and after an acri- 
 monious correspondence between the Canadian au- 
 thorities and the Colonial office, which extended 
 over a number of years, the Act was, in 1895, finally 
 withdrawn. 
 
 In 1895, at the instance of Mr. Hall Caine and of 
 Mr. F. R. Daldy, who came to Canada as the repre- 
 sentatives of the Colonial office and of the British 
 Society of Authors, a new act was framed in Ottawa 
 which is expected to secure the approval of the 
 British Government, and which will in that case 
 go into effect in 1896. Its chief provisions are as 
 follows : 
 
 1. The work securing Canadian copyright must be 
 printed in the Dominion, but the importation of 
 plates is permitted. (In the American Act such im- 
 portation is prohibited.) 
 
 2. The term is made forty-two years from date of 
 publication. 
 
 3. The registration in Ottawa must, for a book not 
 originating in Canada, be made simultaneous with 
 the registration in the country of origin. 
 
 4. Three copies of the copyrighted book must be 
 delivered at Ottawa. 
 
 5. The Canadian edition must be produced within 
 sixty days of the date of registration, but the Minister 
 of Agriculture may, for sufficient cause, allow an ex- 
 tension to ninety days. 
 
 6. From the day of registration, the importation 
 of copies of any edition other than one produced 
 within the United Kingdom must cease. Copies of
 
 THE STATUS OF CANADA. 47 1 
 
 a British edition can continue to be imported during 
 the term of sixty or of ninety days within which 
 term the Canadian edition must be in readiness. 
 
 7. Copyright can be secured in Canada by the 
 citizens of any country which grants cop3'right to 
 citizens of the British Empire. 
 
 8. The English or foreign author, or his represen- 
 tative (usually, of course, the English, American, or 
 Continental publisher), has the option either of him- 
 self producing the Canadian edition, or of leaving 
 such edition to be produced by a Canadian publisher, 
 acting under a license. 
 
 9. In case, within the term specified, no edition 
 has been produced by the author's representative, 
 the Minister of Agriculture shall be at liberty to 
 issue a license to a Canadian applicant, but not more 
 than one license shall be in force at any one time. 
 The licensee shall pay to the author through the 
 Department of Inland Revenue, a royalty of ten 
 per cent., making payment in advance on the print- 
 ing of such edition, the editions thus paid for to 
 comprise not less than 500 copies. Each copy on 
 which royalty has been paid is to be stamped by the 
 Department of Inland Revenue. 
 
 10. Copyright books going out of print must be 
 reprinted within sixty days, otherwise a license may 
 be issued. 
 
 11. Books published under license are to be printed 
 within thirty daj^s after issue of license, but the Minis- 
 ter may for adequate cause allow an extension of 
 thirty days. 
 
 12. An author has the privilege of arranging for
 
 472 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 exclusive serial publication in Canada, and if he fail 
 so to do, application may be made to the Minister 
 for a license to publish serially. Serial license car- 
 ries with it no right to publish the material in any 
 other form. 
 
 The draft of the Act which is before me at the 
 time this summary is being prepared for the com- 
 positor, makes no specification concerning the status 
 of books for which no Canadian editions may have 
 been arranged, either under the author's instructions, 
 or (in the absence of such instructions) under a 
 license from the Minister of Agriculture. It is evi- 
 dent that, in the ordinary course of trade, but a small 
 percentage of the current publications of each year 
 can be available for Canadian editions, as it is only 
 the exceptional work that can be made to pay in an 
 edition printed for so small a reading public as that 
 of Canada. In the absence of any specific provision 
 for such books, I can only assume that their status 
 will be as at present ; and this understanding is con- 
 firmed by Mr. Caine's analysis which follows. 
 
 If, therefore, no Canadian edition may have been 
 printed under the provisions of this Act, a work 
 which has been copyrighted in Great Britain, or 
 which has secured British copyright under the Berne 
 Convention, under the American act, or under any 
 other interstate convention, will be entitled to copy- 
 right protection within the Dominion. For such 
 books, the right to secure a license for a Canadian 
 edition will, however, continue. After the publica- 
 tion of such licensed edition, however long such 
 publication may be deferred, the importation of the
 
 THE STATUS OF CANADA. 473 
 
 English or American edition must, under the pro- 
 visions of the present act, be prohibited. I judge, 
 however, that it will in practice prove very difficult 
 to enforce such prohibition in the case of books the 
 importation of which has continued during any suc- 
 cessive seasons. 
 
 It is probable that the full bearing of the Act will 
 not be understood until the courts have had oppor- 
 tunities of passing upon its provisions. 
 
 In January, 1896, a memorial was formulated by 
 representatives of various associations in France in- 
 terested in literary and artistic copyright, protesting 
 against the approval by the British Government of 
 any Canadian act which made Canadian manufacture 
 a condition of copyright. It was the conclusion of 
 these remonstrants that if such a law should go into 
 force, it would be necessary to exclude Canada from 
 the Berne Convention. This French contention 
 seems to me to be well founded. I judge, however, 
 that Canada will probably elect to be excluded from 
 the provisions of the Berne Convention rather than 
 to give up the right of making printing in Canada a 
 condition of Canadian copyright. 
 
 Mr. Caine gives the following analysis of the pro- 
 visions and of the probable working of the pro- 
 posed Act : 
 
 1. Such an Act would be limited in its operation 
 to the works of the popular authors. This would 
 meet one of the objections of Mr. Goldwin Smith to 
 the clause requiring that a book should be printed 
 in the Dominion. 
 
 2. If a book would not pay to print and publish
 
 474 THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT. 
 
 in Canada, it would not therefore fail of copyright 
 there. The original edition could go into the Do- 
 minion, as at present, during the whole term of its 
 copyright in the country of its origin. This would 
 meet the case described in the valuable letter of Mr. 
 Herbert Spencer. 
 
 3. Though a new writer might lose his copyright 
 in America by failing to comply with the American 
 Copyright Act, he would not on that ground lose his 
 copyright in Canada, where he would hold it abso- 
 lutely until the end of his term. 
 
 4. Such an Act would not exclude from Canada the 
 English book which had been copyrighted in the 
 United States but never registered or licensed in the 
 Dominion, but it would exclude the American re- 
 print of a book which had been registered or licensed, 
 and it would also exclude the English colonial re- 
 print, which was meant to meet a condition that is 
 gone — the condition of general piracy in the United 
 States — and would then be useless and mischievous ; 
 and it would also exclude the English edition after 
 the publication of the Canadian edition. 
 
 5. Our understanding with the United States 
 would not be endangered, because American authors 
 would enjoy the same privileges and be under the 
 same obligations as English authors. 
 
 6. Such an Act would not imperil the great ad- 
 vantages to English authors of American copyright, 
 because it would put it within the author's control 
 (both under the condition of registration and under 
 the condition of license) to see that his American 
 market could not be injured in Canada.
 
 THE STATUS OF CANADA. 475 
 
 7. Such an Act should not be inconsistent with 
 the spirit of the Berne Convention. As the excel- 
 lent report of the departmental representatives 
 (1892) very properly says : " The Convention merely 
 stipulates that foreign copyright owners are to be 
 entitled to the same rights and privileges as British 
 copyright owners, and if the rights of British copy- 
 right owners are cut down by such licenses, foreign 
 copyright owners are not entitled to complain of 
 their rights being cut down to a similar extent. 
 
 8. Such an Act ought to enable the Dominion 
 Government to withdraw its application to denounce 
 the Berne Convention, and so to remove the danger 
 under which Canadian authors now stand of being 
 put into a position of isolation. 
 
 9. The interposition of a Government department 
 (the Department of Agriculture) in the publishing 
 industry of Canada — now perplexed by the uncer- 
 tainties of the Foreign Reprints Act, and threatened 
 with the intricacies of the proposed legislation of 
 1889 — would be confined to a single and simple 
 transaction, which would probably be the less fre- 
 quent form of arrangement. 
 
 G. H. P.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abridgments and abstracts, Copy- 
 right in, 229, 373 
 
 Act of Congress of March 3 , 1 8g 1 , 
 12-13 
 
 Acts, Earliest, in relation to Copy- 
 right, 28 
 
 Adams, G. E., 55, 56 
 
 Adams, Judge, 186 
 
 Aliens, Right of, to Copyright in 
 the British Dominions, 192 
 
 Allen, Henry G., 178 
 
 Ames, Prof. J. B., on disseizin 
 of chattels, 330 
 
 American authors and European 
 readers, ib^ff. 
 
 American books pirated in Eng- 
 land, 383/: / 
 
 AmericanCopyright League, The, 
 organization of, 44; proceedings 
 
 of, 47 
 American literature in relation to 
 
 International Copyright, 97^. 
 Anne, Statute of, analysis of the, 
 
 322/:, 412/: 
 Appleton, D., & Co., 42 
 Appleton, W. H., 43, 47, 73 
 Architectural designs, Copyright 
 
 in, 242 
 Argentine Republic, Copyright 
 
 Laws of, 454 
 Arnell, S. M., 42 
 Arnold, Matthew, on Copyright, 
 
 324. 325 
 Arnoux, Ritch & Woodford, 51 
 Art Copyright, modified by the 
 
 Covert Amendment, 21 
 Art designs, Definition of, 11 
 Art productions, Copyright in, 
 
 145, 169, 171, 234, 236 
 
 Arthur, President, recommends 
 an International Copyright, 46 
 
 Artists of Europe, Relations of, 
 with the United States, 171 
 
 Ascent of Alan, The, case con- 
 cerning the Copyright of, 181 
 
 Austria, Present Copyright stat- 
 ute of, 364, 454 
 
 Authors, British Society of, 470 
 
 Authors' Copyright League, 21 
 
 Authors of Europe, Copyright in- 
 terests of, 172 ; criticism of, 
 concerning the Act of 1891, vi. 
 
 Authors, Injury to, under the 
 American Copyright Statute, 
 
 341/*. 
 Authors, Natural rights of, 83 
 Authors, Petition of, for Inter- 
 national Copyright, 107 
 Authors' readings in behalf of the 
 Copyright League, 50 
 
 B 
 
 Baird, Henry Carey, 388^". ,• 451 
 Baldwin, J. D., 43, 385 
 Bankhead Bill, the, x. 
 Banning, Henry B., 44 
 Beckett vs. Donaldson, 88 
 Beckford vs. Hood, 415 
 Belgium, Copyright Law of, 365, 
 
 455 
 Berne Convention, The report of, 
 288^,475 ; contracting States 
 under, 289, 316 ; authors' 
 rights under, 289 ; definition 
 of literary and art works under, 
 289 ; translations under, peri- 
 odical material under, dra- 
 matic compositions under, 290 ; 
 anonymous and pseudonymous 
 works under, 291 
 
 477
 
 478 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bernheim, A. C, History of the 
 Lata of Aliens, by, 347 
 
 Black, A. & C, 172, 177, 178 
 
 Black vs. Allen, 178 
 
 Black vs. Enrich, 1 80 
 
 Black vs. Funk, 179 
 
 Black etal. vs. Stoddart, 177 ff. 
 
 Bolivia, Copyright Law of, 455 
 
 Bologna, early booksellers of, 358 
 
 Book, Definition of, under United 
 States Statute, 12, 184, 190 
 
 Books, Prices of, ior, 167^". 
 
 Books, Registration of, 199 
 
 Boston Copyright Association, 
 The, 449 
 
 Bowker, R. R., 51 ; summary of 
 Copyright legislation, 28 ff. J 
 History of Copyright in the 
 United Slates, by, 335, 336 ; 
 on the nature and origin of 
 Copyright, 317 ff. ; on statu- 
 tory Copyright in England, 
 412/: 
 
 Brazil, Copyright Law of, 455 
 
 Breckinridge, W. C. P., 53 
 
 Bristed, C. A., 386 
 
 Britannica cases, The, 177 ff. 
 
 British authors protest against the 
 Canadian Act, 469 
 
 British Commission of 1878, 214 
 
 British Copyright Act of 1886, 
 302/". 
 
 British Copyright Law, The pro- 
 visions of the, vii. 
 
 British Order in Council, 31 1 ff. 
 
 British Society of Authors, Copy- 
 right Bill framed by the, 275^". 
 
 British Weekly, The, 181 
 
 Bryant, W. C, 41, 42, 43, 384 
 
 Bureau of Copyrights, The, pro- 
 vided for in the Treloar Bill, 24 
 
 Butler, Judge, 178 
 
 Butterworth, Representative, 55 
 
 Caine, Hall, 470 ff. j analysis by, 
 of the provisions of the Cana- 
 dian Act of 1895, 472 ff. 
 
 Caine, Hall, and Daldy, F. R., 
 Compromise Act for Canada, 
 proposed by, 470 ff. 
 
 Canada, the Copyright status of, 
 
 467 ff. 
 
 Canadian Act of 1889, 455, 468^". 
 
 Canadian Act of 1895, Qjoff. 
 
 Canadian Copyright, 262 ff. 
 
 Carey, Henry C, Definition of 
 literary property by, 354 ; Let- 
 ters on Copyright, 354, 383 
 
 Carte vs. Duff, 184/". 
 
 Carte vs. Evans, 185 
 
 Celtes, Conrad, 363 
 
 Chace, Jonathan, 46, 52, 53, 55 
 
 Chace Copyright Bill, the, 46 ff. 
 
 Charles IX. of France, 372 
 
 Cheap books and good books, 
 418/-. 
 
 Chicago Copyright League, 120 
 
 Chili, Copyright Law of, 456 
 
 China, Copyright in, 367, 456 
 
 Chopelin, report on literary prop- 
 erty by, 352 
 
 Clarendon Treaty, The, 43 
 
 Clay, Henry, Report of, in favour 
 of International Copyright, 
 33 ff-, 4° ; Copyright in its 
 relations to protection, 382 
 
 Cleveland, Grover, 106 ; recom- 
 mends an International Copy- 
 right, 46 
 
 Colleges, Petitions of, 112 ff. 
 
 Collins, Patrick A., 44 
 
 Colombia, Copyright Law of, 450 
 
 Colonial Copyright, 2<$§ff., 468 
 
 Colt, Judge, 176, 184 
 
 Common law right in the United 
 States, 93 
 
 Continental authors, Criticisms 
 of, concerning the Act of 1891, 
 vi. 
 
 Convention of Berne, States 
 which have become parties to 
 the, 316 
 
 Cooley, Justice, on the law of 
 blasphemy, 373 
 
 Copinger, on remedies for in- 
 fringement, 321 ; Definition of 
 Copyright by, 352
 
 INDEX. 
 
 479 
 
 Copyright, The evolution of, 324 
 Copyright, The Law of, in the 
 
 United States, iff. 
 Copyright, The nature and origin 
 
 of, 31 7 ff- 
 
 Copyright, Notice of, how far 
 requisite for Copyright protec- 
 tion, 182/'. 
 
 Copyright, Term of, vii., 2, 3, 79, 
 173, 338 ; proposed extension 
 of, under the Treloar Bill, 24 
 
 Copyright, Terms of, in Euro- 
 pean States, 173 
 
 Copyright Act, British, of 1838, 
 
 41 
 Copyright Act of 1891, Analysis 
 
 of the provisions of, 138 ff. 
 Copyright Act in Great Britain, 
 
 of 1880, 302 
 Copyright Act of the United 
 
 States, Modifications proposed 
 
 in the, vii., viii. 
 Copyright Acts, Earliest, in the 
 
 United States, 28 
 Copyright Acts of Great Britain, 
 
 309/"- , , , 
 
 Copyright Bill introduced by 
 Henry Clay, 38 ff. 
 
 Copyright Bill of the British 
 Society of Authors, ^H ff. 
 
 Copyright Commission, Appoint- 
 ment of, recommended, xi. ff. 
 
 Copyright at Common Law, 87 ; 
 in Great Britain, 30 
 
 Copyright in the Constitution, 90 
 
 Copyright entries in the United 
 States, Fees for, 6, 7 ; regula- 
 tions for the notice of, 8 
 
 Copyright entries in the United 
 States, for works of foreign 
 authors, 18 
 
 Copyright fees in the United 
 States, average annual amount 
 of, x. 
 
 Copyright in Great Britain, Term 
 of, 191 
 
 Copyright infringements, Penal- 
 ties for, 8 ff. 
 
 Copyright Law of 1S91, Results 
 of the, 148 jf., iteff. 
 
 Copyright Laws of the world, 
 
 Summary of, 454^". 
 Copyright Leagues oppose the 
 
 Treloar Bill, 24 
 Copyright and " Monopolies," 
 
 153 
 
 Copyright, "Monopolies" and 
 
 " Protection " 449 ff. 
 Copyright in the United States, 
 
 Persons entitled to, 2 
 Copyright in the United States, 
 
 Conditions of, 2>ff- 
 Copyright in works of art, xi. 
 Copyright registry in the United 
 
 States, vi. 
 Copyright Statutes of the United 
 
 States, 29^". 
 Copyright treaties between the 
 
 States of Europe, 377 ff. 
 Copyrights, Assignment of, 3. 
 Copyrights, directions for secur- 
 ing, under the U. S. Statutes, 
 
 J 3#- 
 Copyrighted articles, Regulation 
 
 for the deposit of, 7, 8 
 Costa Rica, Copyright in, 456 
 Covert Amendment, The, v., 21 
 Cox, S. S., 43 
 Crampton, John F., 3S3 
 Crown Copyright, 194 
 Cummings Amendment, The, 22 
 Cummings, Amos, 22 
 Curtis, G. T., on Copyright, 123 
 Curtis, George William, 42 ; on 
 
 cheap books, 418 
 
 D 
 
 Daldy, F. R., 470 
 
 Dallas, Judge, 181 
 
 Daniels, Senator, 61, 62 
 
 Darras, Alcide, 334 
 
 Denmark, Copyright Law of, 
 
 304, 456 
 De Yinne, T. L., 53 
 Disseizin of chattels, 330 
 Documents, Private Copyright 
 
 in, 190 
 Dodd, Mead and Co., 186 
 Donaldson vs. Beckett, 31, 413
 
 480 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Dorsheimer, William, 45 
 Dramas, Copyright in, 195, 196 
 Dramatic compositions, Copy- 
 right in, 230 
 Dramatic performances, Copy- 
 right in, 195 
 Dramatic productions under the 
 Cummings Amendment, 22_^T. 
 Dramatization of novels, 196 
 Drone, E. S., 94, 334 ; definition 
 of literary property by, 351, 
 353 ; on Wheaton vs. Peters, 
 372 ; on the law of blasphemy, 
 
 374 
 Drummond vs. Altemus and Co., 
 l8iff. 
 
 E 
 
 Ecuador, Copyright Law of, 457 
 Edmunds, Senator, 62 
 Educators, Petitions from, 11^ ff. 
 Eggleston, Edward, 44, 47, 48, 
 
 49. 52 
 
 Egypt, Copyright in, 457 
 
 Enrich Bros., 180 
 
 Elder, S. J., 49 
 
 Electric Club, of New York, 
 Resolution of, 120 
 
 Eliot, C. W., 48 
 
 England, Copyright Law of, see 
 Great Britain, 
 
 English, William H., 45 
 
 English authors, Relations of, 
 with the United States, 153 ff. 
 
 Engravings, Copyright in, 198 
 
 Estes, Dana, 48, 49, 6o, 97 
 
 European authors, Copyright in- 
 terests of, 172 
 
 Evarts, Wm. M., 44, 152 
 
 Everett, Edward, 42, 383 
 
 Farrer, Sir Thomas, 67, 266 
 
 Febiger, C, 52 
 
 Fiction, Status of, in the United 
 States, 151 ff. ; competition 
 of the cheaper magazines with, 
 
 165 
 Fine Arts, Copyright in the, 234, 
 
 235 
 
 Finland, Copyright law of, 457 
 
 Fishel, Adler, and Schwartz vs. 
 Lueckel and Co., 175 
 
 Fitch, Ashbel P., 56 
 
 Foreign literature and American 
 morals, 42S ff. 
 
 Foreign Reprints Act, 468 
 
 Foreign States in Copyright rela- 
 tions with the United States, 
 19, 20 
 
 Forfeiture of copies, 251 
 
 France, Copyright Law of, 457 ; 
 legislation in, 336 ; criticisms 
 of the authors of, in regard 
 to the Act of 1891, vi. ; pen- 
 alties in, for infringement of 
 Copyright, 361 
 
 Francis, C. S., 42 
 
 Francis II. of France, 364 
 
 French authors, Protests of, 
 against the Canadian Act of 
 
 1891, 473 
 French books, The prices of, 435 
 
 French Revolution, The, and in- 
 tellectual property, 337 
 Frye, Senator, 59, 61, 62 
 Frye Amendment, The, 59, 60 
 Funk, Isaac K., 179 
 
 Gaius, on intellectual property, 
 
 357 
 German books, The prices of, 
 
 43 ff- 
 
 German States, Privileges issued 
 in the, 363 ff 
 
 Germany, First Copyright enact- 
 ment in, 363 ; Copyright Law 
 of, 364, 458 ; movement in, to 
 set aside the convention with 
 the United States, vi. 
 
 Gibbons, Cardinal, on Copyright, 
 121 
 
 Gilbert and Sullivan, 184 
 
 Gilder, R. W., 44 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., on Inter- 
 national Copyright, 124 
 
 Granville, Lord, 44
 
 INDEX. 
 
 481 
 
 Gray, Senator, 62, 155 
 
 Great Britain, Abstract of the 
 
 Copyright Law of, 188 ff. 
 Great Britain, Copyright Law of, 
 
 367, 459 
 Greece, Copyright Law of, 364, 
 
 459 
 Green, G. W., 47 
 Guatemala, Copyright Law of, 
 
 459 , , . 
 
 Gutenberg, The work of, in rela- 
 tion to Copyright, 329 
 
 H 
 
 Haggard, Rider, 182 
 
 Haggard vs. The Waverly Pub- 
 lishing Co., 182 
 
 Harper Bros., 44, 386 ; support 
 International Copyright, 391 
 
 Harper vs. Ranous, 183 _$\ 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, 106 
 
 Harrison, Frederic, on the Choice 
 of Books, 421 
 
 Hawaii, Copyright Law of, 459 
 
 Hawley, Joseph R., 45 
 
 Hawley Bill, The, 65 
 
 Hayti, Copyright Law of, 559 
 
 Hemy II. of France, 362 
 
 Henry III. of France, 362 
 
 Hicks Bill, The, v., 20 
 
 Hiscox, Senator, 62, 155 
 
 Holland, Copyright Law of, 364, 
 460 
 
 Holt, Henry, 96, 99 
 
 Honduras, Copyright in, 460 
 
 Hood, Thomas, on cheap bread 
 and cheap books, 387 
 
 Houghton, H. O., 48, 5* 
 
 House of Lords, Opinion of, on 
 the Statute of Anne, 89 
 
 Hroswista, Helena, 363 
 
 Hubbard, Gardiner, 51 
 
 Hungary, Copyright Law of, 460 
 
 Huxley, Thomas, 70 
 
 Immoral publications under the 
 British Statute, 183 
 
 Importation of pirated works, 
 212 
 
 International Copyright agree- 
 ments, 81 
 
 International Copyright Acts of 
 Great Britain, 308, 309 
 
 International Copyright under 
 the British Statute, coS ff. 
 
 International Copyright, con- 
 sidered by the British Com- 
 mission of 1878, 2bqff. 
 
 International Copyright, Cases 
 and decisions under, in the 
 United States, 175 ff. 
 
 International Copyright, Efforts 
 in the United States in behalf 
 of, &iff. 
 
 International Copyright and the 
 prices of books, 441^". 
 
 International Copyright, Provi- 
 sions for, in the United States, 
 Act of 1891, 13 
 
 International Copyright in the 
 United States, Record of the 
 contest for, 40 ff. 
 
 International Copyright, Recom- 
 mendations in regard to, 227 
 
 International Copyright relations 
 of the United States, 19 
 
 International Copyright Union, 
 
 287 ff. 
 
 International Union for the pro- 
 tection of literary and art 
 works, 292 
 
 International literary under- 
 takings, 444 ff. 
 
 Italy, Copyright Law of, 365, 
 460 
 
 Irving's Works, Copyright in, 
 
 374 
 Ivison, Henry, 42, 384 
 
 Japan, Copyright Law of, 364, 
 
 460 
 Jay, John, 41 
 Jheri'ng, definition of legal rights, 
 
 327 ; the struggle for law by, 
 
 333
 
 482 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Johnson, R. U., 47, 48, 50, 63 
 Johnston, Alexander, 178 
 Justinian, on intellectual prop- 
 erty, 357 
 Juvenal, on the sale of dramas, 
 356 
 
 K 
 
 Kennedy, James, 52 
 Keratry, Comte de, 54 
 Klostermann, on literary prop- 
 erty, 355 
 Kohler, Ignatius, 51 
 
 Landor, Walter Savage, on Copy- 
 right, 333 
 
 Lathrop, G. P., 44 
 
 Lawrence vs. Dana, 373 
 
 Lea, Henry C, 53 
 
 Lectures, Copyright in, 181, 197, 
 232, 233 
 
 Leo X., Relations of, to literary 
 property, 360 
 
 Leopold II., 364 
 
 Letters, Copyright in, 190 
 
 Lewes, G. H., Life of Goethe, 
 by, 348 
 
 Librarian of Congress in charge 
 of Copyrights under the Stat- 
 utes, i., ix.ff., 31 ff. 
 
 Librarians, Petitions from, n$ff. 
 
 " Libraries" of fiction, 154^". 
 
 Libraries, Right of, to copies of 
 copyrighted articles, under the 
 British statute, 202, 252 
 
 Lieber, Francis, Definition of 
 property, by, 353, 382 
 
 Literature, Works of, under the 
 Act of 1891, 138 
 
 Literary property, Definitions of, 
 
 351/: 
 Literary Property, Historical 
 
 Sketch of, 351 ff 
 Literary property. Objections to 
 
 its perpetuity, 399 ff. 
 Little, Brown, & Co., 177 
 Littleton vs. Ditson, 184 
 
 Lodge, Henry C, 57, 63 
 
 Longmans, Green & Co. vs. 
 The Waverly Publishing Co., 
 182 
 
 Louis XII, Relations of, to liter- 
 ary property, 360 
 
 Lounsbury, Professor, on the 
 prices of books, 433 
 
 LoweH, J. R., 44, 45. 324, 393 
 
 Luther's translation of the Bible, 
 363 
 
 Luxembourg, Copyright Law of, 
 
 455 
 Lyon-Caen and Delalain, La 
 Propriety Litl/raire et Artis- 
 tique, 336 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay, T. B., 415 
 Mackay-Smith, A., 50 
 MacLaren, Ian, 186 
 MacLeod, on the principles of 
 
 Copyright, 88 
 Magazines of the United States 
 
 on International Copyright, 
 
 124 ff. 
 Magazines, Competition of, with 
 
 fiction in volume form, 165 
 Maine, Sir Henry, 97 
 Mansfield, Lord, on Copyright, 
 
 90, 413/"- 
 Manufacture, American, burden 
 
 of proof concerning, 186 
 Manufacturing conditions in the 
 
 American Act, 160 
 Manufacturing conditions and 
 
 Copyright, 402 
 Manufacturing designs to be en- 
 tered in the Patent Office, 12 
 Martial, on the prices of his 
 
 books, 355 
 Mason Bros., 42 
 Matthews, Brander, on cheap 
 
 books and good books, 418 ff.; 
 
 on the evolution of Copyright, 
 
 324 if- 
 Matthews, Cornelius, 41 
 Maximilian, Emperor, 363 
 McClurg, A. C, 47, 49
 
 INDEX. 
 
 433 
 
 Mexico, Copyright Law of, 461 
 
 Mikado, The, Copyright in the 
 opera of, 184 
 
 Millar vs. Taylor, 88, 413 ff. 
 
 Milton, John, on good books, 
 440 
 
 Mitchell, Donald G., 173 
 
 Mitchell, S. W., on Copyright, 
 122 
 
 Monaco, Copyright Law of, 461 
 
 Monkswell Bill, the, 173, 275 jf./ 
 analysis of, by Sir Frederick 
 Pollock, 282/: 
 
 Montenegro, Copyright Law of, 
 461 
 
 Montevideo, Copyright Conven- 
 tion of, 314-315 
 
 Morrill Bill, the, x. 
 
 Morrill, Lot M., 44, 3S7 
 
 Morris, Edward P., 42 
 
 Morton, J. P., 386, 387 
 
 Moulins, Ordinances de, 334, 
 362 
 
 Music composers, Opinions of, 
 in 
 
 Musical compositions, under the 
 Act of 1891, 146 ; Copyright 
 in, 184, 197, 230 ; and the 
 manufacturing requirement, 
 l84iT. 
 
 N 
 
 Nada the Lily, suit concerning, 
 182 
 
 National Assembly of France, 
 The, 362 
 
 Naujok, G., Die Heilige Cecilia, 
 painted by, l7Sff- 
 
 Nelson, Judge, 176 
 
 New England International 
 Copyright Association, Resolu- 
 tion of, 120 ff. 
 
 Newspaper Publishers' Associa- 
 tion, 21 
 
 Newspaper publishers, Resolu- 
 tion of, 118 
 
 Newspapers, Copyright in, 233, 
 
 234 
 Newspapers supporting the Copy- 
 right Bill, 57 
 
 Newspapers of the United States 
 on International Copyright, 
 
 125/". 
 Norway, Copyright Law of, 461 
 Novello vs. Ditson, 184 
 Novels, dramatization of, 231 
 
 
 
 Osgood vs. Aloe, 186 
 
 Paintings, Copyright in, 197, 
 
 236 ff. 
 Palmerston, Lord, 382 ; suggests 
 
 a Copyright convention, 41 
 Palsgrave, John, 332 
 Paraguay, Copyright in, 461 
 Paris, Early booksellers of , 358 
 Parkes, Baron, on Copyright, 
 
 320 
 Parton, James, 42 
 Pasco, Senator, 63 
 Patent Office of the United 
 
 States, 12 
 Patents, House Committee on, 
 
 25 • • 
 
 Patents, U. S. Commissioner of, 
 
 12 
 
 Payson, Lewis E., 56 
 
 Peale, R. S., & Co., 180 
 
 Pearsall-Smith, R., 66 
 
 Pearsall-Smith scheme of Copy- 
 right, The, 65 
 
 Penalties for infringement of 
 Copyright, 201, 202, 204 ff., 
 
 254 
 Peter of Ravenna, 359 ; secures 
 
 Copyright for Phoenix, 332 
 Peru, Copyright Law of, 461 
 Photographs, Copyright in, 197, 
 
 240 
 Photographische Gesellschaft of 
 
 Berlin, The, 175 ff. 
 Piatt, O. II., 55. 6i, 62, 148/". 
 Platt-Simonds Copyright Act, 
 
 text of, 131 ff. 
 Pollock, Sir Frederick, 282 
 Portugal, Copyright Law of, 461
 
 4 8 4 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pott, James, & Son, 181 
 
 President, The discretionary 
 power of the, under the Act of 
 1891, 13, 182 ff. 
 
 Prices of books as affected by 
 International Copyright, 154, 
 167 ff. 
 
 Prime, S. Irenaeus, 42 
 
 Prints or labels for manufacturing 
 purposes distinguished from 
 works of art, 11 ff. 
 
 Printing in relation to Copy- 
 right, 329 
 
 Privileges, the earliest form of 
 Copyright, 331 
 
 Proculus, on intellectual prop- 
 erty, 357 
 
 Property, Earlier ideas concern- 
 ing, 395 ff- 
 
 Protectionists and International 
 Copyright, 402. 
 
 Proudhon's definition of prop- 
 erty, 354 
 
 Prussia, Convention of, with 
 Wurtemberg, 41 
 
 Publication, What constitutes, 
 184 
 
 Publishers, American, first or- 
 ganization of, in behalf of 
 International Copyright, 42 
 
 Publishers and the Copyright 
 Bill, 154 
 
 Publishers' Copyright League, 
 21, nbff. 
 
 Putnam, G. H., 47, 48, 51, 52, 
 60 ; historical sketch of literary 
 property by, 351 ; on Copy- 
 right monopolies and protec- 
 tion, 449^"./ on International 
 Copyright and the prices of 
 books, 441^. 
 
 Putnam, George P., 41, 42, 43, 
 45, 382, 387 
 
 Putnam, Judge, 175 
 
 Putnam vs. Meyer, 373 
 
 Putnam vs. Pollard, 31, 372, 
 
 374 
 
 Piitter, Beitrdge, 359 
 
 Pynson, Richard, secures the ear- 
 liest English privilege, 332 
 
 R 
 
 Reciprocity, Conditions of, under 
 
 the Act of 1891, 146 
 Reed, Thomas B., 63 
 Registration of books and other 
 
 articles, 200 
 Registration of Copyrights, 242 
 
 Results of the Copyright Law, 
 
 162/: 
 Royalty system of Copyright, 217 
 
 ff; 403 if. 
 Robinson Copyright Bill, The, 
 
 44 
 Rome, Copyright in, 328 
 Rome, Literary property in, 356 
 Roman jurists on immaterial 
 
 property, 357 
 Routledge vs. Low, 468 
 Russia, Copyright Law of, 364, 
 
 462 
 
 S 
 
 St. Leonards, Lord, on Copy- 
 right, 317 
 
 Salvador, Copyright in, 463 
 
 Scribner, Charles, 42 
 
 Scribner, Charles (the second), 
 47, 63 
 
 Scribners' Sons, Charles, 178 ff. 
 
 Scrutton, T. E., 332 
 
 Sculpture, Copyright in, 197, 
 235-236 
 
 Serials and periodical articles, 
 Copyright in, 223 
 
 Servia, Copyright Law of, 463 
 
 Sherman, John, 58, 61, 62 
 
 Shipman, Judge, 179 
 
 Simonds, W. E., 55 ; report of, 
 on International Copyright, 77 
 
 f' 
 
 Simultaneous publication, con- 
 dition of, under the British 
 Statute, 193 
 
 Smith, Goldwin, 467 
 
 Solberg, Thorwald, 46 
 
 Sosii, the, Roman publishers, 355 
 
 South African Republic, Copy- 
 right Law of, 463
 
 INDEX. 
 
 485 
 
 South American States, Copy- 
 right Convention of, 314, 315 
 Spain, Copyright Law of, 364, 
 
 463 
 Spencer, Herbert, 67, 405, 469 
 Spira, John of, secures the first 
 
 European Copyright, 331 
 Spofford, A. R., 155, 169 
 Stage-right under the Cummings 
 
 Amendment, 22 
 Star Chamber, The, 335 
 Stationers' Company, The, 334 
 Statute, Copyright, of 1790, 28 
 Statute of Anne, 87 
 Statutes of the United States in 
 
 re Copyright, 1 ff. 
 Statutory Copyright in England 
 
 and development of, 412 ff. 
 Stedman, E. C, 42, 384 
 Stephen, Sir James, digest of 
 
 the Copyright Law of Great 
 
 Britain, by, 189 
 Stoddart, J. M., & Co., 177 
 Subjects of Copyright, 372 
 Sumner, Charles, 42 
 Supreme Court of the United 
 
 States on Copyright, 93 
 Sweden, Copyright Law of, 364, 
 
 464 
 Swiss Confederation, placed in 
 
 charge of the International 
 
 Union, 292 
 Switzerland, Copyright Law of, 
 
 464 
 Sylvester, Professor, on the buy- 
 ing of books, 432 
 
 T 
 
 Talfourd, Sergeant, 41 
 Terence, secures sale for his 
 
 dramas, 356 
 Term of Copyright considered, 
 
 338# 
 Term of Copyright in Great 
 
 Britain, 191 
 Term of Copyright recommended 
 
 by the British Commission, 
 
 219 
 Thomson's Seasons, 413 
 
 Thornton, Sir Edward, 43, 394 
 Title, Copyright in a, 183, 185^. 
 Townsend, Judge, ll^ff. 
 Tracy, George, 185 
 Trade Marks, Regulations for the 
 
 protection of, 12 
 Trade-mark as a protection for 
 
 uncopyrighted material, 186 
 Translations, Copyright in, 211 
 
 ff> 
 
 Treloar Bill, the, 24 ff. 
 
 Trilby, Copyright in the title of, 
 
 i8 3 jf. 
 Tryphon, publisher for Martial, 
 
 355 
 Tucker, Randolph, 46 
 Tunis, Copyright Law of, 464 
 Turkey, Copyright in, 464 
 Twain, Mark, on cheap books, 
 
 428 
 Typographical unions, influence 
 
 of, in shaping the Copyright 
 
 Bill, 51, 52, 53, n8 
 Typothetse, National Association 
 
 of, 52, 53. 119 
 
 U 
 
 United States, Earliest Copyright 
 Acts of the, 369 
 
 United States, Copyright Law 
 of, 1, 464 
 
 United States, History of Copy- 
 right in the, 335 
 
 United States, the Copyright 
 Law of, Modifications recom- 
 mended in, viii. 
 
 University Copyright, 194, 224, 
 225 
 
 University of Paris, Statutes of 
 the, 358 
 
 Uruguay, Copyright in, 464 
 
 Van Dyke, Henry, 50 
 Venezuela, Copyright Law of, 
 
 465 
 Venice, Relations of, to literary 
 property, 360
 
 486 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Venice, The Republic of, grants 
 
 the first Copyiight, 331 
 Vote on the Copyright Bill in the 
 
 House, December, 1S90, 156 ; 
 
 in the Senate, March 3, 1891, 
 
 160 
 
 W 
 
 Wachter, Das J'crlcgsrechts, of, 
 
 353 
 Walker, Francis A., 178 
 Watson, John, 186 
 
 Webb, Judge, 176 
 
 Webster, Noah, initiates the 
 State Copyright laws, 36c) 
 
 Werckmeister vs. Pierce & Eush- 
 nell, xi., 175 
 
 Wheaton vs. Peters, 30, 93, 371, 
 372 
 
 White, Richard Grant, Interna- 
 tional Copyright and Free 
 Trade, 401 
 
 Wilson, W. L,,56 
 
 Worde, Wynkyn de, 332
 
 Books and Their Makers 
 During the Middle Ages 
 
 A Study of the Conditions of the Production and Distribu- 
 tion of Literature from the Fall of the Roman Empire to 
 the Close of the Seventeenth Century. 
 
 By GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, A.M. 
 
 Author of " Authors and Their Public in Ancient Times," " The 
 Question of Copyright," etc., etc. 
 
 In two volumes, 8°, cloth extra (sold separately), each - $2.50 
 
 Volume I. 476-1500. (Ready April, 1896.) 
 PART I. — BOOKS IN MANUSCRIPT. 
 I.— The Making of Books in the Monasteries. 
 Introductory. — Cassiodorus and S. Benedict. — The Earlier Monkish Scribes. — 
 The Ecclesiastical Schools and the Clerics as Scribes. — Terms Used for Scribe 
 Work. — S. Columba, the Apostle to Caledonia. — Nuns as Scribes. — Monkish 
 Chroniclers. — The Work of the Scriptorium. — The Influence of the Scriptorium. — 
 The Literary Monks of England. — The Earlier Monastery Schools. — The Bene- 
 dictines of the Continent.— The Libraries of the Monasteries and their Arrange- 
 ments for the Exchange of Books. 
 
 II. — Some Libraries of the Manuscript Period. 
 III. — The Making of Books in the Early Universities. 
 IV. — The Book-Trade in the Manuscript Period. 
 Italy. — Books in Spain. — The Manuscript Trade in France. — Manuscript 
 Dealers in Germany. 
 
 PART II. — THE EARLIER PRINTED BOOKS. 
 I. — The Renaissance as the Forerunner of the Printing-Press. 
 II. — The Invention of Printing and the Work of the First Printers 
 of Holland and Germany. 
 III.— The Printer-Publishers of Italy. 
 
 Volume II. 1500-1709. (Ready September, 1896.) 
 IV.— The Printer-Publishers of France. 
 V.— The Later Estiennes and Casaubon. 
 
 VI. — Caxton arid the Introduction of Printing into England. 
 VII. — The Kobergers of Nuremberg. 
 VIII.— Froben of Basel. 
 
 IX. — Erasmus and his Books. 
 
 X. — Luther as an Author. 
 XI. — Plantin of Antwerp. 
 XII.— The Elzevirs of Leyden and Amsterdam. 
 XIII. — Italy: Privileges and Censorship. 
 XIV.— Germany : Privileges and Book-Trade Regulations. 
 XV. — France : Privileges, Censorship, and Legislation. 
 XVI. — England: Privileges, Censorship, and Legislation. 
 XVII. — Conclusion : The Development of the Conception of Literary 
 Property. 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 New York : 29 West 23d St. London : 24 Bedford St., Strand
 
 Authors and Their Public 
 In Ancient Times 
 
 A Sketch of Literary Conditions and of the Relations with 
 the Public of Literary Producers, from the Earliest Times 
 to the Fall of the Roman Empire. 
 
 By GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, A.M. 
 
 Author of " The Question of Copyright," " Books and their Makers 
 During the Middle Ages," etc. 
 
 Second Edition, Revised, 12°, gilt top .... $1.50 
 
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 A Literary History of the 
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 By J. J. JUSSERAND 
 
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 AMERICAN LITERATURE 
 
 1607-1885 
 
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 "With its opening volume it forms the most intelligently treated and 
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 that has appeared." — Boston Globe. 
 
 " We can heartily commend the work, as a whole, to the attention of our 
 readers as, perhaps, in all respects the most satisfactory review of American 
 literature that has yet appeared." — Observer. 
 
 " I find it admirably adapted to the uses of a class who will take with me, 
 next semester, a course of lectures on the same subject. Prof. Richardson 
 has the gratitude of all teachers of American literature. " — Louise Manning 
 Hodgkins, Profe;sor of English Literature in Wellesley College. 
 
 "It is proving to me an instructive and suggestive volume of reference. 
 The author's method of treatment has advantages which I have tested in 
 the work of my department." — S. A. Longwell, Teacher of English and 
 Saxon Literature in Smith College, Northampton, Mass. 
 
 "One of the few books on literature in which the historical and logical 
 methods are happily combined." — Prof. T. W. Hunt, Princeton, N. J. 
 
 " He has shown a discriminating insight and literary judgment in the 
 treatment of our American literary work." — New Princeton Review. 
 
 " The most thoughtful and suggestive work on American literature that 
 has been published." — Boston Globe. 
 
 " Nothing approaching it in completeness and broad grasp of the subject 
 has heretofore been produced by any writer." — New York World. 
 
 "It is not a mere compilation of facts, but enters into philosophical and 
 critical discussion, and becomes a trustworthy guide to those who would 
 learn what American literature is and what it has achieved. It is itself a 
 most desirable contribution to it." — The Churchman. 
 
 "No class should go out of the American academy or high school that 
 has not had access to this latest, most independent, most enjoyable consid- 
 eration of the development of American thought." — Netv England Journal 
 of Education. 
 
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 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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