I Have Heard No One Say
That An Author's Property In His Own Works Should Not, In Accordance
With Justice, Be Insured To Him In The One Country As Well As In The
Other.
I have seen no defense of the present position of affairs,
on the score of justice.
The price of books would be enhanced by an
international copyright law, and it is well that books should be
cheap. That is the only argument used. So would mutton be cheap if
it could be taken out of a butcher's shop for nothing.
But I absolutely deny the expediency of the present position of the
subject, looking simply to the material advantage of the American
people in the matter, and throwing aside altogether that question of
justice. I must here, however, explain that I bring no charge
whatsoever against the American publishers. The English author is a
victim in their hands, but it is by no means their fault that he is
so. As a rule, they are willing to pay something for the works of
popular English writers; but in arranging as to what payments they
can make, they must of course bear in mind the fact that they have
no exclusive right whatsoever in the things which they purchase. It
is natural also that they should bear in mind, when making their
purchases and arranging their prices, that they can have the very
thing they are buying without any payment at all, if the price asked
do not suit them. It is not of the publishers that I complain, or
of any advantage which they take, but of the legislators of the
country, and of the advantage which accrues, or is thought by them
to accrue, to the American people from the absence of an
international copyright law. It is mean on their part to take such
advantage if it existed; and it is foolish in them to suppose that
any such advantage can accrue. The absence of any law of copyright
no doubt gives to the American publisher the power of reprinting the
works of English authors without paying for them, seeing that the
English author is undefended. But the American publisher who brings
out such a reprint is equally undefended in his property; when he
shall have produced his book, his rival in the next street may
immediately reprint it from him, and destroy the value of his
property by underselling him. It is probable that the first
American publisher will have made some payment to the English author
for the privilege of publishing the book honestly, of publishing it
without recurrence to piracy; and in arranging his price with his
customers he will be of course obliged to debit the book with the
amount so paid. If the author receive ten cents a copy on every
copy sold, the publisher must add that ten cents to the price he
charges. But he cannot do this with security, because the book can
be immediately reprinted and sold without any such addition to the
price.
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