New-York tribune., 1884-02-21

arise, from the doubt as to what it means ny
nublirafion. By the Revised Statutes in order
to take ont an American copyright it Is neces-
s,rv 70 register the title of tho book with the
Libr,rian of Congress before publication, ana
to send two copies of the book to that onlcer
within ten days after publication ooc'
5 of the Dor,heimer bill aiio"S
foreign author to apply Ior
copyright here mt any time within year OF the
publication abroad. VIII If be a sufficient colh-
pliance with the existing statute to transmit 10
the Library Of Congress two copies oil the lor-
eign edition, or does the law mean that announcer
edition must be printed here in order to consul
tute American publication The latter suppo-
sisiou is Mr.. Conans, and if he is right we nave
in tins bill, only little disguised the oDJec-
tionablc timc-clause which depriycs an author
of his property unless he can sell itwithhn
certain time. Mr. Lathrop says that on
the contrary. Sec. is extremely liberal TO
the foreigner; that he can comply with the ne
viscd Statutes by importing few copies Oh tio
foreign edition of his book, and that ne mas
whole year TO do it in. But Mr Lathrop haS
overlooked the limitation placcdupon TINS PRIV
Icge by See. Z. Under that clause the
foreigner can obtain a copyright Withh
q gear only on the condition that
his book has not been pirated IN the
meantime If an INSCRIPTIONS puDllSh-
cr can get out a reprint before an internalOhai
copyright is secured, the authors control over
his property is gone forever. The contingency
is bv no means remote one Early sheets can
be surreptitiously obtained, Or the arrival OF
the application for copyright may be delayed
by accident, such as The breaking down OF a
mail steamer, which happens almost every win
ter. 1t cannot have been the Intention
of the trainers of the bill to leave such
hole as this.
As Judge Tourgee's complaint that under
"thc proposed law an author might apply Tor
copyright, and by importing the printed sheets
"and covers separately, make publication
"here,r that seems to us no objection. ANY
author can do that now. Ii Judge IOur@ce
secs fit to manufacture his books in England
and import them, bound or unbound, there Is
nothing in the existing copyright law 10 lntef-
fere with his doing so. But the tariff makes
such course improbable, and Che tarlli VIII
protect American manufacturers just as well
under an international copyright law as 1t does
without one The objection that the DORIS
heimer bill will not prevent a publisher nom
practically reprinting an English book III
some other country and then circulating it here
is not pertinent. OF course the DOrshcimer
bill does not undertake to protect the authors
of one foreign country against pillage by the
booksellers of another foreign country. If an
English author can be pirated in Canada, what
has the United States Congress to do with that
We can only forbid pillagc by our own citi-
zens. The circulation Of piratical publications
in the United States Chat is, when there Is an
American copyright in them is already pro-
hibited by statute. Judge Tourgce would have
all foreign editions of a copyrighted book,
even by the authors consent, absolutely pro
hibted, so that an English work to be circu-
lated at all in this country must be reprinted
here. and tho original wholly excluded. Ims
regulation would make it impossible for Amerl-
cans to secure choice copies OF valuable works
no matter at what price. In the case OF sclen-
tifc books this might be Il serious wrong. For
example, the American reprint Of " The Ency-
clopgdia Britannica corrupted as 1t is with
errors and other defects, would hold the mar
| ket by the forcible exclusion of the original