New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-02-19
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.

INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.
A Treaty recognizing and sustaining Inter-
national Copyright is understood TO have been
signed between our State Department and the
British Legation II will Of course be forth
with submitted TO the Senate and, as that
body will necessarily hold Special or Called
Session, we trust that il may at least be de-
fnitively acted on
1t is given out that the Senate will reject
the Treaty; and we cannot say that this may
not be true; but if it were said that its Men,
bers would decamp from Washington leaving
their board and liquor bills unpaid, the asser-
ton would not be whit more dscredtable to
them. For this International Copyright ques-
ton has Just two sides-that Of Honesty, and
that of Robbery. To reject Treaty which
guarantees the right, is to say that one set of
men shall labor intensely and uscfnlly, and an
other set shall steal the products Of their toll
with IMMUNITY and grow rich on the proceeds
Of their theft How the fact that the plnn-
derers live on one side Of q line and the plum
dered on the other, can affect the morality of
the case, VIC never could understand.
Charles Dickens or Bulwer Lytton writes
books for fame and proft-for distinction and
livelihood. They give fair nsticc that they
hold those books as their property, and forbid
any ones printing copies thereof for sale with
out their permission. On what principle, by
what moral right, shall any one print those
works for profit, not only without the authors
consent, but in defiance Of their protest
Who does not realize that to do 20 is abstractly
and essentially wrong And if it be wrong,
why should the Senate hesitate to reenact the
law of God with reference theretoi
Let us illustrate the right and wrong of the
case by parallel: We Americans are more
ingenious and inventive than the British, and
we sell them good many Patents for large
sums. Dicks Anti Friction Press (the Brit
ish patent alone) was sold in England for
$4,000; Mccormick is now deriving hand
some revenue from the English patent for his
Reaper Hobbs q Co. are doing likewise with
their Parautoptic Lock and so with hundreds
of others. But the British write more books
Of popular character than our authors do
consequently, they would probably receive
more from our publishers and readers than
our authors would receive from England under
a mutual recognition of International Copy
right Is il not plain that the inventors de-
vice or machine and the authors history,
poem or novel stand on exactly the same foot
ing as Intellectual Products or Property
And is there an American above pocket-pick-
ing who can grayely argue that il is right in US
to receive pay of the British for our inven-
tons and refuse TO pay them for their books
The Boston Atlas has leader on this sub
ject, intended TO bolster up the mistaken Rob
Roy notion that il is cheaper TO steal than to
buy the works Of British Authors It's leading
idea is that international Copyright will trans
fer the printing of the current issues Of Brit.
isb Authors for American use to London Tbs
answer to this is very simple-we can alter or
amend our own Tariff at pleasure, and By rails
ing the duties on books, make il the iHters, Of
the publisher to print here. We may prohibit
altogether the importation Of British books if
We see fit. We are under no moral obligation
to buy and read British books, but we ar,
morally bound TO compensate the Authors
whose books We DO read And the British
editions OF new works are issued so expensive
ly (the wealthy and the circulating libraries
being almost the only purchasers) that they
could never circulate considerably in this
country. Thus The Atlas talks of Macaalay's
History as costing = in England, and only 30
cents here. How many copies would have
been sold here at s. And suppose we had
read Hldreth's and Bancroft's g, or even Hume.
Arnold's, Niebuhr's s, Guizot's aud Michelet's in
stead Of Maeaulay's how much would we have
lost thereby
Tie Ailas closes as follows;
No our authors and our Publishers may depepa
upon this they have much tolose and Ite 10 pain nv
charge. Let Us rs,her keep secure the sivas.s-s. -
new derive frUln national INDEPENDENCE ana -,
throw svsy this substance for the empty shallow Eo
land offers Lei u not surrender up he iae
privileges Of free and cheap reading we pow 49,.
through the interested, and often veasl c.u,or ~ go
who would be the first 70 laugh AZ our credulifx a.. -
HAY, NhAe they would be almost the only ones 10 "a
rve any proti or advantage rom he GSsrSoor az "a
nuiesH eoossrade cad Ls< s-siaessoz Of oar nsso.s
i;crsfsrG"
Destruction Of the American book-trad.p
Did you ever' True, We could go on printing
the Bible, with the writings Of Shakspere, Nil.
ton, Pope, Addison, Gibbon, Robertson, Burns.
Waiter Scott, Byron, &c, &c, beside those
OF all our own authors, those of all antiquity.
and OF eyarr modern M fion axcanf C-n.. ID :.