Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-05-06

Then the discoverer Of logarthms after announcing his
discovery to the world and receiving from the adequate
reward to which he entitled, might have quenched
light he had created though in the hand Of other
it had already conducted to still other dis
coyeries II this be not rednctio dd dbsrdum We are
At loss to know what is To parry the force OF such
inevitable absurdes the advocates Of the perpetuity the
ory haveinvened fiction like ths they tell us that the
limitation Of authors right is the result of compro
mise between authors and the public, by the terms Of
which the former waive portion OF their rights, at the
instance Of the latter in order to guard against the dan
ger of perpetual embargo knowledge or OF its wanton
destruction Such is the argument OF an able urist, g.
t. CURTIS Esq, in his treatise on Copyright Law.
1t is not until discard this fgmen Of literary pro-
party ard learn to contemplate the author in his real
character that we discern his rights in their true
light tits only in viewing him the nobest and most
useful of aborers that see how to be just to So
ciety whie generous to him. So far from recognising
sole and perpetual proprie in literary works, society
merely engages pay their producer what is deemed
adequate recompense for the service rendered. and in
order thd this recompense may be apportoned to the
worth Of he service the author is allowed to gather
retaininga monopoly of his copyright for allotted pc
riod it bdng expressly stipulated the part of the pub
lie that ater the expiration OF this period his work. with
all its additions to the total of knowledge, shall re-
vert to th public which has been temporarily taxed in
order to ecompense him. Copyright law instead of be-
ing legal fiction to annul the proprietary rights of
thOrs is il the nature of contract between capitalist
and abrer by the terms of which the latter 1.-THE au-
thor agrees to render for consideration certain SER
such may fairly complain if his employer would
seek nd the face of the poor by denying him ade
quate and liberal compensation but it is no lawful re-
medy for such oppression to deny the right OF the en-
poyer possess the fruits for which he has paid how
inadequately II he pays low wages he must be
satisfied with poor workmen and scanty crops Supply
and demand control the literary market as truly as they
regulate the price of cotton at Mobile or of pork at Gin
cinnat. The author, long he "retains in his pr
vate possession the book which he has wrtten and
printed enjoys the exclusive right its possession but
he gire TO The public and derives from ITS crcu
taon the secured 10 him 6y Copyright iaw he 10 be
considered Gcquiescing the contract made W him Jy
the public according to which it is agreed that the author
shall be secured in the enjoyment of certain rights for
allotted period condition Of Gtterwards srenderng his
Dork to the unresced Of tie public hch he has tempo
rarity, though most justly, taxed.
And it is in this view of the matter that most
clearly the justice and proprety of an international copy
right No public have any right to avail themselves Of
authors labors until bargain has been made between
the contracting parties the public being the party
of the first part and the author of the second Our
respondent greatly misrepresents, unintentionally
doubt not the tenor of our recent augmentation this
head We have said that after the expiration cf
the term allotted by the public to author for the
elusive copyright of his work the of it belongs
the world This was exactly what we denied and it was
our object to show that such sentiment was both dis
honest and dishonorable What said before and what
say now is this No community nation honest
y withhold from any author whether native aen the
recompense due to the services which he renders if they
far recognise the value and utility Of those services
avail themselves of them The American public have
right to claim the resduary enjoyment of the works Of
British French German authors except by virtue of
q mutual agreement between the several parties; but
the American public has the right signify foreign
authors the terms which it will treat with them The
English author must not claim to be highly favored
by copyright law than is the native citizen. II he
refuses to accede to these terms it should be optional
with him to withhold his work from US, and we in
that have right to appropriate it; for as we
have shown, the right to appropriate book to the public
only nhere in the public the resduary egatee
of author whom it has already recompensed to this
end or to speak more accurately public has any
right to the unrestricted of authors works. whe
ther the author be native foreigner except the
suit Of bargain to this effect between the two parties.
national copyright act spulates the terms of this
tract between the public and native authors inter
national copyright act stpulaes the terms Of the
tract between two ppbcs respectively and the authors
alien to each II there be any justice in the enactment
of the one there the for the enactment of
the other The aborer is worthy Of his hire wherever
there are those who enter into the fruit of his abors So
cety must purchase the right to the free enjoyment Of
abors before it proceeds to appropriate their fruits
to the public use.
ing in Journal the Letter to the Editor contained
in the March number of Punam's Magazine. That ex.
celent periodical is too accessible to readers need
any thing further than reference to the letter in ques
ton in order to bring it before all who would desire
read it. But correspondent has done the honor
to direct our attention to letter which, though had
read BEFORE we have carefully reperused hope he will
allow US to recprocate his favor by inviting him read
attentivey observations of KANT he is not area
dy familiar with them, the right Of book printing"
found in his treatise Morals in which our CORE
spondents theory Of literary property is sustained by
show of logic which no other writer, far we
aware, has ever proxmaey equalled. If then he would
learn wherein think this theory untenabe would
invite him to the careful perusa of crtique this very
argument of KANT read many years ago before the
French Academy by Renouard the distinguished stats-
tcan and author of valuable works Patents and Copy
right In that paper he will find what consider the
true theory of literary rights established by array
arguments which to unanswerabe however poor
ly may have been able to reproduce any of them.