Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-06

If this be true, the whole fabric of sophistry
falls, and with it the abusive conclusions.
What creates the property right? The law The
their great book as it is now. American law
gave no copyright property in this country to
the Messrs Blacks book when they made it.
the American people have pronounced upon
International copyright by the voices of their
representatives, and the decision, although pos
s,bly erroneous, is binding until changed, both
as to law and morals.
The reasoning of the irm-one of the
largest retail establishments in the Union
ingeniously avoids the pith of the ques-
ton. 1t passes over the real issue-that
OF honesty. No one denies the legal right
to pirate the book of foreign author, but
those who study the question from the
standpoint of fair play, are invincible in
their position that the absence of inter-
national copyright protection does not
make that morally right which, if the
protection were afforded, would be illegal.
Men who consider their duty to be sub
servient to the rules of right and honesty,
do not go to the law to ascertain its limits.
Conscience and the recognition by common
mankind of the meum and tarum right in
things, sufficiently instruct them.
But it is amusing, if not instructive, to
read the further defense of these literary
pirates, and since we have printed so much
in condemnation of Them it is but fair to
present their defense in full. 1t thus con-
cludes:
| Follow the insane claims of property in ideas
/ to their logical result. Every man or firm re-
printing and publishing foreign books, trading
sonal use, and reading them, or deriving adj
vantage 10 any way from paper, printing or
binding, is, in the charming language OF the
elegant Evening Post, thief. The same would
be true of books on which all copyright has ex-
PRED; the property in ideas should be recog-
nized by ali moral persons to the third and
fourth generations of heirs and assigns even
| though the law should fail to protect; all the
modern-made hymn books must go from the
churches; men and women wearing clothes of
American stutfs, copied from foreign designs,
are equally thieves with the mill men and
! traders, as are also artists, engravers, women
skilled IN needlework, and SO on ad iiatfnitttna
For the foregoing reasons, which could be
elaborated at length, our firm proposes to con-
| tinue the sale of the Encyclopedias Britain
mica" and we claim Tor the decision the justif-
| cation of the highest moral principle.
The opponents of literary piracy are
perfectly content to rest their case upon
this defense set up by the pirates For it
must be apparent to all who read its la
bored lines, that it is hollow wall, and
cannot for one moment stand before this
| simple statement: "the labors of authors
represented in printed books creates in
that book brain property No man has
the right to take that property without
the consent of its creator and owner; that
there is provided no punishment for those
who do seize upon and appropriate it,
does not lessen the iniquity ofthe ofense."
Upon that declaration of moral principle
the enemies of literary piracy are willing
to go to battle