International Copyright | Page 5

right, but created

one. The opinion, which was delivered by Justice McLean, was
concurred in by three of the judges, and dissented from by two, Justices
Thompson and Baldwin, who defended the positions and recalled the
arguments of Lord Mansfield and Sir William Blackstone. Justice
Baldwin said: 'Protection is the avowed and real purpose of the act of
1790. There is nothing here admitting the construction that a new right
is created ... It is a forced and unreasonable interpretation to consider it
as restricting or abolishing any pre-existing right!'"
Previous to the act of Congress of 1790, acts securing copyright to
authors for limited terms had been passed in Connecticut and
Massachusetts in 1783, in Virginia in 1785, in New York in 1786, and
in other States at later dates. The statute of 1790 gave copyright for
fourteen years, with a renewal to the author, if living, of fourteen years
further. In 1831 was passed the act of already quoted, and in 1870 the
regulation went into effect that a printed title of the work copyrighted
must be filed with the Librarian of Congress before publication, and
two copies of the complete book be delivered within ten days after
publication.
In 1874 it was provided that the form of the copyright notice in books
should read, "Copyright, 18--, by A. B."
The first step towards a recognition of the rights of foreign authors was
taken in 1836 by Prussia, when she prohibited the sale within her
boundaries of any pirated or counterfeited editions of German works.
In 1837 a Copyright Convention was concluded between the different
members of the German Confederation. In 1838 the British Parliament
passed a law to obtain for authors the benefits of international
copyright, and in 1846 England entered into a convention with Prussia,
in 1851 with France and Hanover, in 1854 with Belgium, and between
1854 and 1860 with Holland, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. Between
1846 and 1861 similar conventions were entered into by France with
Belgium, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, and nearly all the
Continental powers have now copyright arrangements with each other.
As far as I have been able to learn, it is not requisite under these
arrangements to have a book separately entered for copyright in each

country. The single entry in the place of first publication is sufficient to
protect the author, and to leave him free to make, within a specified
time, his own arrangements with foreign publishers.
In the general copyright statutes, Parliament made no express
distinction between native and foreign authors. The copyright was
granted "to authors," without any restriction as to nationality. It has
been contended, therefore, by jurists on the one hand that the privilege
must be presumed to have been intended for British subjects
exclusively, and on the other that it of necessity belonged to all authors,
whether native or foreign.
There were, previous to 1854, several conflicting decisions of the
courts on this question. In that year the House of Lords decided, in the
case of Jeffreys v. Boosey, that a foreign author, resident abroad, was
not entitled to English copyright.
In 1868 the House of Lords, in the case of Routledge v. Low, with
reference to the rights of an American author who was residing in
Canada at the time of the publication of his book in London, declared
that an alien became entitled to English copyright by first publishing in
the United Kingdom, provided he were, at the time of publication,
anywhere within the British dominions. Drone says that "this judgment
has continued to represent the law."
It is certainly the case that for a few years after 1868, as a consequence
of this decision, several American authors whose books were being
published in London, took up a temporary residence in Canada, which
enabled their London publishers to enter the books for copyright, and to
pay the authors an honorarium.
I am not able to quote any decisions that have set aside or modified the
above, but I have been advised by leading London publishers that the
effect of this judgment has in some way been nullified, and that
"Canada copyrights" can no longer be depended upon for protecting
American authors in England.
In the United States copyright can at present be secured only by a

citizen or permanent resident, and there is no regulation to prevent the
use, without remuneration, of the literary property of foreign authors.
The United States is therefore at present the only country itself
possessing a literature of importance, and making a large use of the
literature of the world, which has done nothing to recognize and protect
by law the rights of foreign authors of whose property it is enjoying the
benefit, or to obtain a similar recognition and protection for its own
authors abroad.
It has