Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-03-26
Wednesday, March 26, 1884.
Eight Hour Copyright for Daily News
papers.

and rights of bill that, if it should
become q law, would grant an eight
hour copyright to all newspapers. 1t
has attracted considerable attention
and caused much dispute.
The bill provides that newspa-
paper shall have the exclusive right
to such news as its enterprise collects,
for eight hours from the time the pa
per is printed. That is, one paper can
not steal news from another paper
and publish the same, until the news
is eight hours old. The law asked
for is n just one.
The reason that certain enterpris-
ing daily morning papers have asked
for the passage of an eight hour copy
right law, is as follows: A number
of the best and most enterprising
daily newspapers in different parts of
this country, are organized into sort
Of business copartnership known as
the Associated Press. It's business is
to collect news. This association, at
great expense, has agents at all the
principal places in this country who
collect the news. A large amount of
costly foreign dispatches are also re-
ceived daily by the ocean telegraphs.
The news so collected is sent to GER
tain news centers, there edited, and
then telegraphed to all the papers Of
the association. The expense of col
lecting and tclcgraphing this news is
paid by making assessments on the
papers that receive the news. To get
this news requires great labor and the
expense must certainly amount to
thousands Of dollars per day.
Unless some such association, or
business copartnership, of newspapers
is in operation, the amount and va
riety of news in n daily paper would
be considerably less, as no one paper
could afford to keep agents in all the
news centors Of the world, but by di-
viding the expense among many it
lightcns to a great degree the cost to
any one paper. The public are thus
greatly benefited by such an asso-
citation Of newspapers.
The enterprising association papers
expect to get repaid by selling their
news to the public at a few cents
per copy, and no man can reasonably
complain that the price is exhorbi-
tant. This news is justly the pro-
perty of the papers that bears the ex-
pense of collecting it. They obtain
ed it at great expense and labor, and
their remuneration comes from sell
ing the news TO the people. They
publish the news promptly and let the
people have it so cheap that they can
only pay their help, taxes, insurance,
telegraph bills, and many other OK
penses, by selling thousands Of copies
of their papers 1t is therefore not
monopoly, but legitimate and use
full business enterprise, and it deserves
protection from thieves.
The news pirates embraces another
class of daily morning newspapers,
who do not belong to any news as
ISOLATION and have but few agents to
gather news for them. If the public
depended on the pirates for news, and
the associated press should be de-
stroyed, they would get but little
news. The pirate newspapers invest
but little money and labor in getting
news, in comparison to the associated
press papers. What they get costs
them but very little labor and ex-
pense. They lay in ambush, so to
speak, until the associated morning
papers are printed, (Which is about
two or three o'clock in the morning.
and then they invest few cents and
buy copy of the cnterprising paper.
To cut out the news requires but
pair Of sheers. The news thus stolen
is soon set up in type and in an hour
or two they can peddlc the news on
the streets at a much less rate than
can the paper that bore the expense
of collecting the news. 1t thus hap
pens that the enterprising newspaper,
and the one the public ID indebted
for the news, is deprived of its just
rights.
The laborer is entitled to his wages,
and the daily paper that goes to the
great expense and labor of collecting
the news is entitled to its fairly, just
ly and honestly earned wages. LII
required money and labor to collect
that news for the public, and it is en-
titled to a fair recompense.
To shut out these news pirates, the
eight hour copyright law is asked for,
and we believe that the request is
right and just.
The associated press is not a mon.
opoly that prevent rivals from getting
news. Other papers that are not mem
bers of the business copartnership
can, if they so desire, form a bushes;
copartnership of their own and col
lect their own news. There is no law
to forbid such a partnership being or