New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-04-28
c0pYRIGHI-Hs Limitations.

if any progress has been made, any common con-
cusion indicated. by our discussion on Copyright
with The Times
/. We affirm moral right inberng in every au-
thor to fair compensation for his labor and talent
invested in his producton.-This The Times ad-
mits, but pleads that such right has limitations
Certainly, we rejoin; just as all individual Rights
Of Property have limitations. The undoubted
owner Of house may not lawfully set fire to 1t !;
the rghtfll possessor of money may not lend it at
usurious interest and in our judgment, it is not
only Just but urgently expedient to limit the area
of land which any individual may henceforth ac-
ouire and continue to hold and enjoy. Individual
possessions must be held and enjoyed in subOrd-
nation to general well-being. So far, then, we are
not at variance with The Times and we have ad-
mitted that the Rights of Authors over their works
are not exempt from the general rule. They, too,
must submit to such limitations and exceptions as
the Public Good shall imperatively require.
9. But limitation is one thing--destrction quite
another. To tax Foreign Author on his income
derived from the sale of his works in this country
under the protection of Copyright, would be a
limitation to decree that his right should cease
after term of years, would be Imitation to
decree that in order to enjoy Copyright protection
his works must be reprinted here, would be llmi-
taton but to say that he shall have no right at
all recognized and protected by our laws, but that
any one who chooses may reprint in this country,
in defiance of the Authors protest, work on
which he had spent the best years of his life, cool
" pocketing the proceeds and telling him to whistle
for his pay-ths seems to no limitation of Copy
right, but clear, outright robbery.
The Times mistakenly says
1.-THE Tribune abandons the analogy it originally
serted between authors right to payment for every
copy of the book he may write, and the taors claim to
payment for every coat he may make"
We haze not abandoned this analogy we firmly
adhere to it F; but no necessity of reiterat-
ing our arguments in its favor. We supposed we
were reaffirming it in substance in asserting the
moral obligation Of erery indiridual to pay the
thor whose book he reads" though The Times
seems to perceive q variance.
3. Here is our ground The nearest attainable
criterion of the relative worth Of two books of the
class is the ertem Of their circulation respec
tvely--other things being equal. II, of two Hsto-
ries of Greece or Russia, one sells at the rate of
five thousand copies per annum for ten years,
while the other sells but four thousand the first
wear, two thousand the second and thousand or
so in the five years thereafter it is fair presump-
ton that the former is the more deserving, more
useful work, and therefore 1--WE think its author de-
serving of the more ample compensation, just as
the conductors of a journal whereof the public
sees fit to take twenty or thirty thousand copies
seem fairly entitled to a more liberal compensation
for their labor than those of rival journal of SIM
liar price, &C., whereof but two or three thousand
copies are required. We knew well that books
and journals may gain popularity and circulation
by pandering to popular prejudices or vices; but
we see no other general rule so fair this-Let an
authors or editors rccompense be commensurate
with the extent to which his labors accepted
and their fruits enjoyed. And this ground we arc
not conscious of having varied in the least. And
that The Times, in asserting that different rule
has always prevailed in determining the compen-
sation of the lawyer, doctor, clergyman, &C., is ut
tehy mistaken, we cannot doubt. 1t seems to us
that the Editor must perceive this if he reads his
own article.
4. But let us consider its own measure of COM
pensation in the premises
ave differ only to the extent of the limitation to be
applied The Tribune thinks that justice to the English
or American author would give him monopoly Of the
sale OF his book in both countries and for term of fifty
years; The Times thinks one country and a shorter
term, quite sufficient for purposes OF individual justice
and as much as is consistent with the public good"
One country what limitation could be more
arbitrary and unequal than this Under It's opera
ton, Walter Scott might have furnished and shiv-
cred, had he been born and lived in Switzerland or
San Marine, instead of Scotland while enriching
the booksellers ofboth hemispheres and delightfully."-
instructing millions. Under this rule, an author
may be starved, not because his works are not
valued and read, but in spite of their unbounded
popularity, because he was born in country too
stolid to appreciate or too narrow or poor to pay
for them. We may read them with delight, with
instruction, with profit but when he ventures
tmidly to suggest his wants, his abors, his neces-
sites, we repel him with" Sir, you have no claim
on u.s. What if we do buy and read your books
by tens of thousands !-You live across line.
and we recognize no obligation to pay you for
Your labor Be off with your importantly" If
this be not rank injustice, we know not what
would be.
The Times proceeds to make what capital it
can out of the fact that in the absence of nterna
tional Copyright, those who affirm the Rights Of
Authors unable practically and consistently to
respect them. We welcome it to all it can make
in this field. The severest condemnation of any
law or public policy can imagine is an exhibit
ton Of the fact that it virtually constrains ndivid
uals to be less rigid and scrupulous in rendering
Justice to others than their own consciences die
tate In the absence Of International Copyright,
we know well that the great mass of our people
have 10 fair opportunity 10 yindicae their sense Of
justice by buying editions from which the author
derives benefit rather than their rivals. And
Tie Tines logic On this head TALES exactly with
that of a Free Trader who answers an argument
for Protection with" If You want to encourage
: and build M Home Manufao lures why don't you