Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-02-06
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT AND
WHAT IT is TO BE.

The international copyright question is
one of much concern before Congress Just
now. The impression prevails that it does
not interest the masses, and relates only to
the author and publishing class. But this
Is error, for it in fact is matter of inter-
est TO all readers, and the Americans are
essentially readers. Moreover it affects a
very considerable class of representative
citizens, whose injury or prosperity in
greater or less degree relates to the well.
being of all others. A succinct statement
OF the issues concerning international
copyright will therefore prove of general
interest, and serve to still further inform
the public mind. The Dorsheimer bill.
introduced in the lower house of Congress
IN 1883, brought the subject prominently
to public attention. 1t failed to get a
hearing, and Mr.. Hawley then introduced
a similar bill in the Senate. 1t, too, failed,
and the fate of both bills was due to
the publishing influence, which insists that
foreign copyright books shall be printed in
this country. That is, the publishers
printers, paper-makers and binders are
willing enough that foreign author shall
be granted exclusive right in America
TO the product of his brain, but demand
that his books so protected shall be print
ed in this country. To this portion of
our writers object, because it will re-
suit in a like rule being applied to them
abroad, and thus amounts to no grant at
all to authors foreign or domestic. Other
authors are willing to agree to this pro-
viso, in order to secure some sort of a copv-
right law. The former division of writers.
however, ask with much force: "Why
should patent right be granted without
the manufacturing proviso, to the inventor
of machine, and be refused to the in
ventor of book ~ The other side. rep
resented by such men as Professor You
mans, George Parsons Lathrop, r. II.
Stoddard and Allen Thorndike Rice. reply
that nearly all European countries place
similar printing" restriction upon foreign
copyright To this the opposition answer:
But by international agreement we propose
to secure the abolition of this restriction
that literature may be absolutely free, and
our printed books circulate as freely abroad
as foreign printed books may here" They
therefore propose that our Congress shall
legislate TO grant copyright to authors of
other countries that concede like right to
authors of America-that is, to establish
literary reciprocity. Senator Hawley's
bill is again before the Senate, and it rem
reseuts the sentiment last mentioned But
Senator Chace has antagonized it with a
bill containing the printing clause. As
the matter now stands, our publishers NAV
pirate any foreign publication, and the re-
suit is that the cheapest and worst exam
pies of foreign literature are thrown upon
our market in competition with the pro-
ducts of our own writers, and this, it is
claimed with much force, is working grave
injury to our literary classes and demoral-
nlng the public taste. 1t is also pointed
out that this selling upon the product of
the labor OF Others for profit is a species of
theft, disgraceful to us as a nation, and dis
honest in whatever light it is viewed.
Those standing out fer copyright pure and
simple have strong vantage ground also in
che fact that printers, binders and publish