International Copyright | Page 7

fiction, is
true, though to a less degree, with books for young folks and works in
other departments of literature. It is to be said, however, that this
difference in favor of English productions has been very much greater
in past years than at present, and is, I think, steadily decreasing.
American writers have, against all disadvantages, forced their books to
the favorable attention, not only of the American but of the foreign
public, and the best work is now fairly secure of a hearing. But there is
no question but what the want of a copyright measure has, as above
explained, operated during the past three quarters of a century to retard
and discourage the growth of American literature, especially of
American fiction, and to prevent American authors from receiving a
fair return for their labor. An international copyright is the first step
towards that long-waited-for "great American novel."
In 1876 a Commission was appointed by the Government of Great
Britain "to make inquiry in regard to the laws and regulations relating
to home, colonial, and international copyright." The Commission was
made fairly representative of the different interests to be considered,
comprising among authors: Earl Stanhope, Louis Mallet, Fitzjames
Stephen, Edward Jenkins, William Smith, Sir Henry Holland, James
Anthony Froude, and Anthony Trollope, and also Sir Julius Benedict
for the composers, Sir Charles Young for the dramatists, Sir John Rose
and Mr. Farrer for colonial interests, and Mr. F. R. Daldy for the
publishers; and it has done its work in the thorough, painstaking way

which is characteristic of the methods of British legislation.
It has collected during the past two years a vast mass of testimony from
various sources, and after full consideration has arrived at a series of
recommendations which it has presented to Parliament, and which will
in all probability be adopted.
It is recommended that the copyright on books, instead of holding for
forty-two years from date of registration, shall endure for the lifetime
of the author and for thirty years thereafter. This is the arrangement at
present existing in Germany, and it has the important advantage that
under it all the copyrights of an author will expire at the same date.
The Commission further recommends (and this is the recommendation
most important for our subject) that the right of copyright throughout
the British dominions be extended to any author, wherever resident and
of whatever nationality, whose work may first be published within the
British Empire.
With reference to the present relations of British authors with this
country, it uses the following words: "It has been suggested to us that
this country would be justified in taking steps of a retaliatory character,
with a view of enforcing, incidentally, that protection from the United
States which we accord to them. This might be done by withdrawing
from the Americans the privilege of copyright on first publication in
this country. We have, however, come to the conclusion that, on the
highest public grounds of policy and expediency, it is advisable that our
law should be based on correct principles, irrespectively of the opinions
or the policy of other nations. We admit the propriety of protecting
copyright, and it appears to us that the principle of copyright, if
admitted, is of universal application. We therefore recommend that this
country should pursue the policy of recognizing the author's rights,
irrespective of nationality."
Here is a claim for a far-seeing, statesmanlike policy, based upon
principles of wide equity, and planned for the permanent advantage of
literature in England and throughout the world. Contrast with this the
narrow and local views of the following resolutions adopted at a

meeting held in Philadelphia in January, 1872, with reference to
international copyright, at which, if I remember rightly, Mr. Henry
Carey Baird presided;
"I. That thought, unless expressed, is the property of the thinker" (a
pretty safe proposition, as, until expressed, it could hardly incur any
serious risk of being appropriated); "when given to the world, it is as
light, free to all.
"II. As property it can only demand the protection of the municipal law
of the country to which the thinker is subject."
The property which would, if it still existed, most nearly approximate
to such a definition as this is that in slaves. Twenty years ago, an
African chattel who was worth $1000 in Charleston became, on
slipping across to the Bermudas, as a piece of property valueless. He
had no longer a market price.
It is this ephemeral kind of ownership, limited by accidental political
boundaries, that our Philadelphia friends are willing to concede to the
work of a man's mind, the productions into which have been absorbed
the grey matter of his brain and perhaps the best part of his life.
"III. The author of any country, by becoming a