The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-07
ARTISTS COPYRIGHT.
OBLivIOUSNESS TO THE FACT THAT
THEY HAVE LEGAL RIGHTS.

The Law and the Penalty-Maltreated
Copies of Excellent PaintinEs-How a
Painter stopped the Demonstrating
. Pirate.
The subject Of the copyright has recently
become very familiar; the gallant efforts Of
American authors to protect themselves and
their brethren abroad In such ordinary rights
Of property rs even barbarous nations extend
TO the owncrs of pots and pans, have had the
sympathy of Christendom; but there is one
phase of copyright matters not so often dis
cusscd: it concerns the claims Of artists to
their work. An entire misapprehension Of
the artists rights, or rather an entire obliv-
iousness tn the fact that be has any rights, has
gotten a good many people into trouble
lately, AMI il Is rather for the enlightenment
and benefit Of the public than in defense of
the cause of the artists that this little paper is
written.
Not only can any American artist secure a
copyright on any composition or design he
makes, biIt any original art matter In any
copyrighted periodical is covered by that
copyright, and any one infringing thereon is
liable to suit for damages, possibly very
heavy damages
The recent awakening in art matters has re-
suited, among other things, in greatly increas-
ing the number and kinds Of reproductions Of
pictures; good photographs Of paintings are
now made here; commerce in them competes
with the enormous trade in foreign photo
graphs; more and more engraving of all
kinds is being done; American etchings in the
vernacular of the trade, are having a BOOM
and the cheaper and more mechanical pro-
cesses of reproduction are many, and con-
stantly increasing. A copyright on picture
that Is likely to be popular in these cheaper
forms may be worth anywhere from $500 to
$4,000.
WAKING UP TO THEIR RIGHTS.
The artists are finding this out, and are
copyrighting their pictures ten times as fire.
quently as they did ten years ago, and the il
lustrnted periodicals are also waking up to
their rights to their own pictures These
changes are bringing trouble upon a great
many worthy and energetic cigar manufac-
turers, almanac publishers, soap boilers and
patent medicine men. The taste for art has
spread among these gentlemen, and many Of
them pay handsomely for very good pictures
to be used in advertising, and others prefer
to get very good pictures without paying for
them 1t is in pursuit of this enterprising
end that the trouble comes.
Every drug and cigar shop window is Or
namented with more or less maltreated cop
les Of excellent paintings. Until some inter
national copyright law is passed the whole
world Of foreign pictures Is open to any sort
OF piracy, and it is a common thing to see
some ornament Of the Paris Salon utilized to
spread the fame Of somebody's liver pills or
baking powder.
The charming little picture, .Jack and Me-"
bad copies Of which so long advertised GER
tain plaster, is the work of a Munich painter
Of standing; the merits of certain cigarettes
are sung on worse reproductions of George
Charms delightful "Frou Frou." Clarin, it
may be said parenthetically, is one Of the first
Partisan painters Of the time Bougureau
and Millais are two other great men whose
genius American enterprise applies tS. the
good OF the cornstarch and tobacco trades
Without an International copyright these
privileges are secured to the advertiser, and
the foreign artist can't help himself.
STOPPING THE oFFENsE.
F. s. Church is one of our painters
who earliest found it necessary to copy
right his pictures There was some
thing in his poetic and often semi
humorous compositions that struck the ad-
vertiser in his first excursions into the field
OF art, and they have contrived to strike
him more or less ever since-often, alasi to
his sorrow. NJ. Church has fallen upon
him With the startling information that his
pictures are his own and that the law pro-
tects him in his ownership
Often he has definitely lost money by the
manded and received indemnification; but
otherwise he has usually good-naturedly con-
tented himself with stopping the offense. His
picture of young woman sitting on a cres-
cent moon, called The Witch's Daughter"
has been found at various times gracing cigar
boxes, almanacs and stationery. Naturally
this Is no more to the taste OF the gentleman
who owns the picture, and who paid q good
round sIi;u for IT, than it is To the satisfaction
of the painter q. y. Turner, j. q. Brown
and William ST. John Harper are other prom
nient painters who suffer from this painful
popularity.
The regular publishers and importers Of
copies Of foreign pictures have no legal re-
dress for their sufferings at the hands Of the
advertisers; but they have invented little
game that sometimes brings them to grief.
Among their copies of French, German or
English pictures they are beginning to insert
few reproductions of American pictures.
The pirate, secure in the immortality of the
Laws of his country, begins stealing from
these supplies, and unawares appropriates one
Of the unsuspected American copyrighted
pictures-whereupon he is "nabbed."
The advertiser is not the only habitual pict-
ure stcaler. There are book publishers who
exercise enough ingenuity in stealing old pic
lures to earn the money to pay for new ones,
IL they could but see it. They py;t ii new
backgrounds, photograph the Originals SO as
to reverse the composition, perhaps eliminate
some details or small figures, aud then swear
solemnly even to themselves that the original
creations result-Cor New York Graphic.