LITERARY COPYRIGHT IN GERMANY.—The Court of Austria will, it is
said, shortly take up, with a view to its final adjustment, the question of copyright of books published in Germany. At present, an author has no right whatever, as a book miblished in one state is immediately pirated in the next, and the states are so numerous that any thing like prevention of this piracy is quite hopeless. The consequence has been, that German books are invariably printed on the coarsest paper, and in the cheapest form possible; and the price of the first edition of a work is no greater than of the twentieth. The public profit, the booksellers profit, but the poor author starves; and should the system continue much longer, the race must die out for want of encouragement. The Emperor of Austria proposes to remedy this by conferring a modified copyright on all German books, within the dominions of Austria, whether originally printed there or not. lithe other states, as it is probable they will, be guided by the Emperor's generous example, an author in Germany will in future have the same protection as he has always had. more or less, in every other country of prone.
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