Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-02-22
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.

The country seems nearer an international
Arrangement than ever before.
Mr.. DOrsheimer has Introduced bill on the
subject which seems TO meet with general
approval, and the prospect looks fair for
its passage. There Is an appropriateness
In the Introduction of such measure by Mr.
Dorshemer, for he is not only gentleman
and a scholar, but literary man of fine
culture-or If not exactly literary man in
esse, he is certainly one In posse. Does any
one remember the review Of Parton's life of
Burr which ne wrote for the Atlsntis in the
palmy days OF that magazine when Plancus
WAS consult A more brilliant, thorough and
incisive criticism has seh'om appeared in an
American p,ro iical; aud hal Mr.. DOrshemcr
cou6ncd himself 10 llteIu uic we urt sure he
would have ma IL nigh reputation. While
he long ago deserted the field Ut letters for
Jaw and ponies, h. is now dong excellent
service for the distressed brethren who still
toll in that field. Tue bill which bears his
name provides, IN brief, that an American
copyright shall be granted to the authors of
any country which shall gianta similar copy
right to American authors. The copyright
IS 10 run for period of tweny-eight years,
with fourteen years renewal, the certificate
to he applied for within one year from the
time of publication abroad. The bill is thus
brief and simple, and, as we said before, lis
passage seems quite within thc possibilities.
In the discussion of the question of inter
national Copyright there are two things to
be considered. One is the rights Of the for
sign author. At present lie has no tights
which American publishers are bound to re-
spsct. In tae old days, the Courtesy of
the trade gave to that publisher who first
announced his intention Of repuslishing an
English book the sole right TO do SO. This
unwritten law was. however, houored in the
b. reach quite ss often os In the observance
and such firm as the Harpers, for Instance,
spent many thousands OF dollars in trying to
enforce it. Publishers wars were com
mon, and very sanguinary were some of
them, too The courtesy Of the trade, how
ever, was sufficiently potent force to make
It an object Tor the leading publishers to buy
advance sheets Of forthcoming English books,
and English authors derived from this
source sums ranging according to circum-
stances from saj to $4,000. The puI las,
mentioned was paid to Charles Rcade
for advance sheets OF "Pu yourself in his
place." ard is, we believe The largest sum
ever paid in q lump by on American publish
er TO an English author. But IN the course
Of time the paper-covered "librsries" sprang
into existence, and their publishers had no
regard for the courtesy Of the trade" or
anything else except tie Almighty
Dollar. A chilling frost fell upon the hot
h 'ee flower of courtesy and It was
thrown on the ssh-heap. OF course the pub
fishers could no longer afford TO pay large sums
for advance Sheets when the work they
were paying for would be reI rinted under
their noses, aud Of course at lower price
(sinCc the goods were stolen), aud under
such circumstances weeks priority of
publication, which was the only advantage
given by the purchase of the advance sheets,
was practically worthless. SO from little
pay, the haplcss English authors made an
unpleasant descent to none. Thus. to
take one instance from many while
the Courtesy OF the trade" prevailed,
the L;ppincotts paid the lady who writes
over the name of Ouida $500 for the ad-
vance sheets of each Of her novels; but
when the ''librares" issued Unauthorized
and unpai-for reprints Of hel books, of
course the Philadelphia publishers could no
longer afford to pay her $500, or even a
small fraction of that sum.
But while the English author has no rights
in this country, and as general thing de.
rives but slender emOlument from the repub-
LEGATION Of his works here, the American au-
thor fares equally III in England. A genera
ton or two ago this was but of slight conse-
qnencc, for we had no literature to speak of,
aud the famous sheer, "Who reads an Amer
lean book 7" had considerable justification in
fact. But now we have changed all that.
Most of our leading authors have large au-
dence in Great Britain, and their works
are very extensively reprinted there.
And their experience, generally speak
ing, corresponds with that of English
authors in this country. They get some re-
turn from their books, but nothing like
what they ought to get, or would get under
a system of International copyright. The
English publisher is in precisely the same
c ,ndition as the American-we speak, of
course, Of the reputable publishers alone. 1t
is impossible for him TO pay any very large
SUN for book when be can not have sole
control of it and when Unauthorized and
unpaid-for reprints are sure to be esued.
To sum up the whole matter, the gree
Yankee nation docs not, We are sure, wish to
continue particeps crimini. 10 literary theft
for ever, nor, on the other hand, does it de,
size to see its own authors robbed. Yet We
are now robbing English authors and suffer.
ing our own TO be robbed. We sincerely
trust that Mr.. DorsheimeI's bill, or some bill
equally good, will become a law forthwith.