Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-20
WHY THE COPYRIGHT BILL SHOULD
PASS

WHY THE COPYRIGHT BILL SHOULD
PASS.
Last summer the United States Senate
passed an international copyright bill by
three-fourths vote. There is good lea.
son, therefore, to expect that the new bill,
now passed by the House, will become a
law.
The bill is one of simplicity and easy
to understand. 1t permits foreigners to
take American copyright on the same basis
as American citizens, whenever the nation
of the foreign applicant grants like priv
ilege to our citizens; or when the foreign
nation provides for reciprocity in copy
right; or when the foreign nation has en-
tered into international agreement for re-
ciprccity in copyright, and by the terms OF
which the United States can become a
party to such international agreement.
If the Senate passes the bill it will be a
step in advance in the doctrine and prac-
tice of reciprocity, and will go far to es-
tablish the reciprocal policy as the policy
of the nation. 1t will, if it becomes a
law, operate over very large part of the
globe at once, because Germany, France,
Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia,
Denmark, Norway, Japan, South Africa,
Turis, Mexico, Guatemala. Venezuela, the
United States of Colombia, Ecuador, the
Republic of Brazil, Bolivia and Hayti
now permit foreigners to avail Of copy
right on level with the citizens of those
countries respectively.
In Great Britain the law gives to the
Crown the power to extend copyright
privileges to the people of any nation
that grants to the subjects of the Queen a
like privilege. The passage of the pend
ing bill by the Senate will, therefore,
operate to bring Great Britain into the
category of nations we have named.
There are still objections raised to the
bill before the Senate, but they are not
unanswered. 1t is said that it creates a
monopoly; but it is one the Constitution
recognizes in promotion of the useful arts,
inventive genius and the product of brains.
Does it create book trust? No, since, as
Mr.. r. q. johnson has shown, there never
can be a trust in literature, because the
sources of its production cannot be con-
trolled, and it is not, as in the case of
staple, of one kind.
But it is urged that it will make books
dear. Not so, for present cheapness of
foreign literature in America is due, as
the American League has demonstrated, to
the fact that there is taking without
compensation. All literature in book
form to the date of the law would remain
at its old price. Foreign books to be
published would be higher, because we
would cease stealing the products of foreign
authors, but we would gain in quality by
the cutting of of a myriad Of tawdry, bad
and Indifferent books that sell simply
because of their literary weakness, which
is the synonym for the cheapness now OF
tanning. American books would decrease
in price, however, because they would
have broader market, so that we would
have ample compensation for any advance
in the price of non-pirated foreign works.
The higher price Of American books,
consequent upon restricted market,
deprives small communities and rural
populations of much of the best of Ameri-
can literature, while those in cities enjoy
it by reason of ease Of access to circulating
and free libraries.
As international copyright will cheaper
American books, as shown, the people of
rural sections viii have broader and better
opportunities for reading the literature of
their own country. To occupy the oppoa-
ing ground is to say, as has been well put,
eve must have cheap literature for the
people; but the American books are not
cheap, therefore We will give the pirated
foreign literature to the people"
But there is sentimental reason why
American books should be cheapened.
We do not do well when the people are
stimulated by our laws TO read too
much of foreign writings, which are
not in sympathy with American ideas,
traditions and history. If we are to grow
strong American people We must not feed
their intellects upon foreign-born litera-
ture that has running through it all. or
nearly all-the sentiment of class, of aris-
-tocracy, of monarchy, of caste, OF man
worship, of alien ideas. But We pro-
mote this teaching just as we cheaper the
foreign book at the expense of American
literature. To steal the foreign book is to
steal property, and to legalize literary
piracy is to promote and approve dis
honesty. 1t is in morals as grave an Of
Tense to steal the work of the foreign as
of the domestic writer.