The Washington herald., 1916-05-03
An Attack on Good d-Wil.

Why should book that has been sufficiently
valuable to be entitled to the protection of the
copyright law for term of years be deprived
of the advantage OF continuing protection for
its title2 Briefly stated, this is the question
which the book publishers of the United States
will today ask in hearing before the patents
committee Other questions are bound up in it,
some sentimental for those of us who would
not care so much for an old friend like
"Crabb's Synonymes" if it were called Smiths
Synonymes." Then, too. there is the matter of
goodwill character and goodwill selling value
The matter has come up because of the
proposed enactment of an amendment to the
existing copyright statute. 1t is called House
Bill No. 3o53, and is as, follows
Upon the expiration of the copyright of a
book, or the renewal thereof, should the same
De renewed, there shall exist no superior rights
OF any nature whatsoever in the publisher or
former proprietor thereof to the matter which
name or title thereof, but both the matter which
has been the subject of copyright and its name
or title shall fall into the public domain and
thereafter be forever free to the unrestricted use
of the public.
The publishers appear to be making their
fight to prevent the passage of this bill on two
grounds First, they declare that the proposed
amendment has no place in a copyright statute
because it deals with a situation which exists
after the expiration of the term of copyright
The second main point in their argument is
that, irrespective entirely of the copyright
statute, they should not be deprived of the
property right in the title, and that it is a prop
erty right which be protected under the
common law, and has been so protected by
courts both in this country and in England
George Haven Putnam, who is to appear be-
tore the committee, makes out a strong case for
the publishers Our favorite novelists are not
involved under the proposed amendment. Their
work would remain their own and their pub
fishers" The books which would be hit by the
proposed law are mainly reference books, COM
pilations, and handbooks. Mr. Putnam cites one
instance which will reach the hearts as we'll as
the minds OF many readers-"Chatterbox" This
title, as we all know, was used to cover ma
ter1al collected from year to year in annual
volumes prepared for the of young people.
In this case the matter itself could not be COPY
rtghted, for it had not originated in this country.
Mr. Putnam states that in numerous decisions
the courts have taken the ground that the name
"Chatterbox' must not be used by competitors as
title for books which they wished to publish
1t would seem if the publishers who had built
up the value of the title by skillful editing and
by extensive advertising should be protected in
the of that title
The public itself is the real gamer in this
Without protection of some sort, and this pro-
posed amendment would seem to remove it by a
single blow, encyclopedias and dictionaries Of
any intelligent kind would be out of the uues-
ton. No publisher would be foolhardIy enough
to put in the large sums necessary to the making
OF a fine reference work if he knew that some
one else was at liberty to use the title OF his
work His expensive and integently gathered
material he could, Of course, copyright Then
he puts his name on it or calls it Brit
tanica, or Century, or Standard. Then, another
publisher appears, who scrapes together inferior
hack matter and puts on it the title Brttanica,
or Century, or Standard, just as he pleases
Might not the Patents Committee, as their
contribution to the Shakespeare tercentenary, let
the bill die and cite as their reason: "Who
steals my purse steals trash but he that filches
from me my good name robs me of that which
enrlchcs him not and makes me poor indeed"