THE COPYRIGHT QUESTION.
TO THE ED/TOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
Edinburgh, April in. MA. gla—Your article on the Copyright Bill, in hat number, is the nearest ,ap. .1 I have seen to a reasonable view of the subject ; hut there ere one or sP„":,;,:ints which it might be of service to the public to bring a little more pro. r.,tly into view.
very erroneous noti
lit.the rst Pace, ons are generally entertained respecting
fi
csoiight. An author is said to have the same exclusive properry in a hook h he writes as in a house which he builds ; the want of all analogy between th,. ca,e9 being quite overlooked. It is not a pinperty in a book which is in
' but an exclusive right, conferred by statute, to sell copies of a honk at aurainn,
which may suit the pleasure of the puty interested. Copyright is in facts nosorot.y, exactly the same as those which formerly existed over almo-t eeeeei rticleof public necessity ; and in attended with all the usual effccts of ;„011'„polies—high prices, languor in the supply, and so forth ; but is vet y pro- perly sanctioned, under certain limitations, by the Legislature, as the ohfeadle means of remunerating authors. The great question is, how long should this exclusive right he allowed to last.
At present it lasts twenty.eight years, or as much longer as the author may live. Is this too long, or is it too short ? We all know that it is sidficiently long to keep the sale of ninety-nine books in a hundred under lllll nopoly, as long as they enjoy any sale at all. The few which survive ii. popularity
--is it sufficient for them? I ant humbly of opinion that this ia a question which ran only be determined by a consideration of the circunostmces of par- ticular cases. If a book has been of such a n Awe as to prove highly trimme- r:tire to the author during his lifetime, I think it may very fairly, at bb, sleuth, he surrendered to the public. But if its profits have been small, and its value ouly then beginning to be appreciated, an extension of fourteen years might well be granted. I cannot say how this might be worked ; but meters could probably be devised without much difficulty. But even of the few copyrights which continue of any value at their present termer expiration, by far the greater number are in the hands of publishers. I believe I am within the mark when I say that nine-tentha are so. N. one, of course, desires that copyright should be extended in favour of publisher.. &TOM TALFOURD even proposes to take away from these gentlemen the right of continuing to print at the end' of the present term, and to cleat. a new or second copyright in the person of the author's descendants. This the pub- lishers resist; and on good grounds, for the ri7ht of continuing to print. though no longer under the monopoly, is a privilege really valuable to them, and one on which they are entitled to calculate, as having been implied in their bargains. On the other baud, it is quite a fair thing to the public, as other publ6hers are at liberty to corn-tete with the late possessors of the copyright. I have little doubt that the publlshers will be able to make good their point against this provision ; but I am not so hopeful that the public interest will be secured. It has been rumoured that, to conciliate publishers to the measure. the drscendents of assignees of copyrights will be put upon the same footing with the descendant of authors,—that is to say, in order that the creators of books pity benefit one.tenth, the tradesmen who issue them to the world will be
allowed to benefit nine-tenths, all at the expense of the public. Can it be possible that such a design should be entertained? It is notorious that pub. Inherit, when assigning price* for hooks to authors, do not in general calculate won profits for nearly the whole of the present term. The boon will therefore one entirely appropriated to publishers, without doing the least good to Whom
to the public, the result of the protraction of copyright to the extent pro- per' by the bill, whether in behalf of the descendants of authois or of pith,. tubers, must be simply this-- that all the admired productions of the present and futtue times will be kept up at monopoly iirices till not one in a hundred continues to be in demand. The literature of the future will be a luxury of the kw. The many must wait a century for editions coming within the reach of their pockets. That large anti important part of the present pellishing bUsi• DM, which consists in the multiplication mid diffusion of the el sale works of the last century—the JOHNSONS, the GOLDSMITHS, the I LAIRS. the BURNS'S. the COWPERS—muht cease, or languish upon the diminishing popularity of the works already. exempt from patent. To give ■ou an idea of the evils it will produce, I will Just mention one fact—that a well known novel, Oiler being for a dozen years almost out of the market, in conersiuence of the monopoly price, has recently been reprinted on the principle of e, mpetition by several publishers, one of whom soh' six thimeand topics of it du mg the fleet hair months. All this kind of publishing, by which alone the ; rent bulk of the middle and the whole of the lower clio,es lire • pos,u2,,ed DI books, must be .topiled, or deadened, and thus a lei put upon the intellectual pi gress of the nation ; and all for the ostensible purpose of preventiug the giar dcbildreo of 601Ie future MILTON from being in poverty. "trill, the defenders of the measure may say, the public interest 1 nothing to the nairvidual author : he has written his book, and he ought to 1.e allowed to do wen it as he pleases: the benefit of the public must not be td ught at his expense. It might be shown that the book is not so much his le, he supposes. Boone book is ever wiitten without aid from other books, in the education of the author, in giving him facts and ideas, or kindling his mind to terary enter- prise. In the ease of one of the more miginal kinds of books, the author must Mill Live adopted characters, facts, and scene; y frown nature, dill go which he is no more entitled to call his own than he Is entitled to make c property of the law of gravitation. As soon as ;he labout and ingenuity of tio composition Its been fairly rewarded, it is no more than right that the book shs uld become part if that common stuck from which all liteiary materials, and all means of mental training, are derived. Every existing and future authot must have leen immensely indebted to books out of copyright, and to the comparative ease with which he could purchase that clues of books :—are foto, e authors to be entirely denied the same advantage respecting his own ? I urn vu rry to make the remark, het it is unavoidable, that in this and other features of the mea- sure a graspieg spirit is betrayed on the part of literary men, wli ch I do not think existed in any former age. Alen used to write for fame and f r the benefit of mankind, as well as for money; but now money seems to be :he only con- aidelittion—quocunquo mink rent. It is very unfortunate that the public at large are completely I nacquainted With the nattne of Sergeant TA LFOURD'S Bill, anti with the who!, question of copyright. I fear they will look patiently on, while one of the nu it important privileges they possess is voted away. It is also unfortunate char our Repre. kotatives are more likely, if they give the subject any consider:it:1n at all, to :ct under what they will esteem the "generous" view of the qi cation, than .0 suspect that the hill strikes a grand blow in favour of popular ig °ranee. It is surely desirable that you should raise,anotber and a louder voire in behalf of the public; and that some other journalists, who feel an interest in the cause of education, should take up tile question, and endeavour to draw gi neral atten. tion to it.
"WI hope to see this done; and meanwhile remain, Sir, I ur obedient S(rvant, AN EDINBURGH liLILISHER.
Previous page
