New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-01-13

reader wishes 10 possess copy outright 70 DC reai
when he il in the mood and transmitted 70 his chill
Sreu; and has copy made for him. which costs nine
bushels of grain while the author e1scs more for
copyright a But he says to the buyer, lyon are
aware that must live by my works if live At all
" so that can sell you only the right to use and enjoy
athis copy; do not sell you the right TO make other
copies therefrom on the contrary, expressly inter
a. dict and prohibit it," Had not the author perfect
moral night to impose that condition And is no. the
buyer, being an honest man, bound by it We defy
any one whose conscience has any abiding except
in bis pocket, 70 say Nay.
We hold then, that Dickens or Thackeray in selling
copy of one of his books DOES sell herewith
the right Of reproducing il and multiplying copies
tbererom but is perfectly we'll understood to reserve
that right to himself and bis authorized and recon-
pensing publisher or publshers-that man acquires,
or can acquire, by the fact Of buying copy Of
such work right to reprint it such reprintng being
VIGOROUSLY in violation OF the tacit if not express
pact upon the strength Of which said copy was OBJ
tanned and that every act Of reprinting without the
authors consent and against his wellundersood re-
monstrance, is fraud and moral wrong, which honest
men need no laws to deter them from committing, but
functions or whatever other acts nhibitions aud pen
alties, may be needed to impe them to leave their
eigtbOr in the undstUrbed enjoyment of the fruits of
bis Own e1ertions. Aid we cannot avoid the couyic
ton that If Mr Dickens, even in the absence of any
recognition Of his rights by laws, to say,
have authorized the Messrs. Harpers aud them only
(" TO print 10y Bleak House in America, and there
" fore declare all other editions than theirs to be p
ratical and in violation Of my rights author even
Mr. Carey would nstnetivey feel that he ought to buy
either the Harpers edition or none. He might reason
himself out of this confederation know the acute
ness and power of his logical facuty-but we cannot
help feeling that his first impulse would be such
have indicated and that be could only overbear it by
aborOus and supersubtle intellectual process, wherein
tie heart and conscience would have no portion.
The main question involved being, according to
most earnest conviction, after twenty years considera
ton of the subject one essentially of National honesty
or dishonesty Mr. Carey cannot fail to why are
willing that our cOuntry's integrity should be yind
Gated the inherent rights of Foreign Authors recog
nized, a fair Geld and just recompense to our own
Authors secured, and People preserved from that
extreme and perous preponderance among them of
European ideas, Influences modes of thought, which
the habitua sderseling here of American by Foreign
Popular Literature lie plainly calculated to even
BY Treaty though we should prefer to effected
by enactment and best of all by repeal of all special
Copyright Laws and enactment instead that every
author shall henceforth be entitled to control the null
tpcatOn OF copies of his works and to yndicate his
natural copyright by action for trespass The unda
mental principle being affirmed, we should be per
fectly willing TO basis OF limitation pro-
pounded by Mr.. Carey, and say that Government,
BY reason of its concessions of lauds for Educational
purposes might very fairly say to both native aud for
eign authors We have greatly enhanced the value of
your copyright by expanding our means literally to
educate our people and thus qualify them to appre
" ciate and purchase your works; wherefore We hold
it but fair that your copyright should terminate at the
expiration Of fifteen, Twenty, thirty or fyl years
from the date of issue " but that Government which
bas done nothing to educate its People should
to limit the duration of an authors copyright, that
any Government should deny to either native foreign
authors any copyright at all in their works to
mind the deepest and grossest moral wrong.
Mir. Carey observes that we are generally on the
side of the People therefore strong but in this
We are for Monopoly against the People, therefore
weak. We decline the compliment as we'll as the i'm
puiatlOn. we aim always 10 be on the SIDE OF truth
and Justice but that has not generally secured US the
advantage of being the more popular side Of con-
troverted questions. When Pennsylvania for years
proved delinquent to her creditors, were not on the
side of her People. When Indiana aud Illinois swim
died their creditors b. dishonest bankruptcy and
forced compromise we were not on tho side of their
People. When Mississippi openly repudated her debts
and under the guidance of counterfeit Democracy,
elevated Fraud into principle and made systematic
Knavery the "Open Sesame " of her posts of honor,
characterized her baseness by the ermsi deserved
And now that Texas refining on rascaty, shakes her
pethoric money-bags in the faces of her furnishing
creditors aud bids them take onehird of their legal
honest due whistle for their pay, tell her frankly
that her yaiDy is osentatiOus and shameless beyond
all historical parallel In all these cases, we stand
On what is primarily the side of few plundered and
impotent bOndholders against that of millions of re-
luctsnt tax payers; and yet know that the cause
we uphold is truly that of all men, including even the
regulators themselves And with that of Interna
tiOnal Copyright
A DANIEL COME TO JUDGMENT.