New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-08-21

ard publish composition to which enormous pun
lcity had been given by prompt copies ana repre-
eentaton in fifty theaters AT least. therefore inns
American court, court of very high authofity mas
gone with good Lord Mansfield and other great law
yers and swept the very malnstay OF Juuee ia'cse
sophistry away forever.
yoRrRITURg OR NoN-roRFFITURR NJ PUBLICATION
This narrows the question forfeiture or MONITOR
fixture by publication of copyright at common law.
mept treat in the preamble or historical prelude az
. malpractice. violation OF property they say IL
Is unjust, cruel and Rdr which u pre-statu'ory ev
idence in the statute itself. Yates gives Queen
Annes Parliament the lie, and undertakes to prove
out of the depths of bis inner consciousness that TINS
malpractice was at that very moment when Pariia,
ment denounced it-and prepared. IN imifation OF
pre,e,;ao acts to punish il a electromagnetic
seasona5<. and old. Having set this very Parlia-
ment above tho Creator he now sets IT below fa'es.
However his argument runs thus: He says
chat we authors put forward ideas and sentiments
q the direct object of property at common law IN
UTetenSing that we could publish ideas, vet
serve the right of printing those Ideas Tor paeca-
ton. This Is plausible. and payes the way for his
romantic phrases, that have intoxicated ordinary
minds such as "the act ef publication, when vol.
unfairly done by the author himself Is virtually ana
necessarily eft 10 The pabiic' Then handling II no
longer as donation, but under the head of implied
contracts. which is much sounder view OF the al-
thors sale to the public purchaser. he says, neatly
enough tho seller delivers 1t without restriction,
and the buyer receives il without stipulation. lhen
he Jumps to this drol inference: Nothing less IMAM
legislative power can restrain the use or anything.
This however. is purely chimerical distinction
the common law was founded partly on Royal Stat.
ees, largely conceived, and resembling naSims anu
limited uses arc not altogether unknown to 1t; every
river is highway over which the puphe can pass,
and even battle in it. but not always ash; and a
cbnrcbwariens. under which the public can lead its
COW across lreehodcr's field, gives no Tlgot 10
Craze her upon the pate and II let the puphc mo
nv tea garden, at I'd. head, 10 eat all the Hult
1hey can no exess stipulation required 10 reserve
Che fruit-trees Moreover, Iates's position IS 100
wide: II let's in other nations; now the French and
tcb law
itself So If must reason p,0'7, thc chahces ae
fifty to one the English common law gave II the he
But this is our direct reply-for the multiplying
power of the press is unique 1t excludes all close
compaIsons-so far from claiming 4r%perS Ia
ct common-law did not claim. That Is the claiin oi
the Patentees alone. as shall show In the proper
So far from ideas becoming incorpOreal after pub
location, &C., which statement OF Yates is
"galimatias." and an d9ilc confusion IDEAS are
incorporeal only at period long antecedent TO pub
LEGATION, viz, while they lie in the authors mind.
AN AUTHORS LABOR.
Attention AN author connects his ideas with mat
teronce and forever when be embodies them IN Ia
bored sequence of words his hand on paper
These written words are matter, by collocatlon,
labored sequence and the physical strokes OF pen
with black unguent; matter, as distinct from the
paper az gas is from the pipe, and, though they
conpey mental ideas the written words themselves
are not SO fine a material as gas, when yet Is
measured and sold by the foot. The phrase
intellectual labor" is equivoque and
mare that has deuded ten thousand minds
II applies somewhat loosely to study; but
AN authors productive labor is only one
,peces of skilled labor. it is physical plus ntelec-
tnal labor and those compositions, which led to
conmon-law rights, were the result OF long, Keen
labor intellectual and physical, proved to be phys
cal by the vast time occupied-whereas thought IS
1ustantaneous-an by shortening tho life OF the
authors body through its effects oIsthc boodvessels
of the BRAIN which are part not of the Nina but
Of the body. Tho said vessels get worn by an
authors productive labor. and give way. This, even
an orr short experience has killed Dickens, Thack
sray and perhaps Lytton. The short life OF authors
in general is established by statistics See Nelson's
Vital Statistics
The words are tie material rchcle of the ideas the
paper is the material vehicle Of the words
The author has, by admission of Yates the sole
right to do as follows, and does if He takes the
words. which are the vehicle of his ideas, to the
n,ipting compostor and the compositor takes
nr;nted letters identical with the authors though
differing little in shape but that Is nero Incl
don't of the day in the infancy OF printing they
were Identical in shape, only worse formed; he sets
Che letters in forms and passes them to the press
men. For this tho compostor charges, say eos.
who is a copyst for The Press, begins the Press
Now comes the mechanical miracle, that
made DOWNRIGHT necessary and inevitable; the Press
c.p apply different sheets TO the metal letters
conveying the composition TINS a thousand differ
ant paper volumes are created in which the letters
and the authors composition are one but the vol
VINES of paper thousand The volumes are now
ready but not issued: and beg particular attention
"a the authors admitted position at common law one
moment before publication. He has still, by law
yates assenting) the sole right 10 PRINT
and publish he has created, for safe thou
sand volumes under exclusive legal right u
create volumes for sale he has added to his original
legal right three equities. LIST, priority OF PRINT.
ingo which is nothing against legal title, but
something against Ihapsodical title; %, the pc
caiiar expense OF setting up type from wTtcen
words: 3D. occupancy; and the equitable right 70
sell again the thousand volumes. large maternal
property created under an exclusive legal title
founded on morality and universal law, ana con-
cslcd by Judge Yates. For the force OF occupancy
sdded to title. see Law. passm and for the force
Of the above special Equity, see sweet agt. GATOR
EFFECT or PUBLICATION.
Well the man IN possession Of the legal right, and
slso of the additional equities, and also of the mate
ria, volumes. now does a proper and rational act, by
which the public profits coDfessedy, an act such as
oo man was ever lawfully punished for: he pub
,;shes or sets In circulation his composition con-
Gained in many paper vehicles. He sells each vol
NINE say for six shnes to the trade, eight stllings
20 the public reader What he intends to sell to the
,ublic reader for eight shlngs is, paper and bind
Soo two shlings printers work siXpence, useful or
entertaining knowledge, alias his own labor. four
shillipgs tho right of using the ideas in
many ways, of even plaeiarizing and print
sns them reworded. and also tho right OF sell
Eng again the very thing the purchaser bought
the one material volume with its mental contents