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. The only security which the American publisher has against
the injury which may be so done to him is the power of doing other
injury in return. The men who stand high in the trade, and who are
powerful because of the largeness of their dealings, can, in a
certain measure, secure themselves in this way. Such a firm would
have the power of crushing a small tradesman who should interfere
with him.
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