International Copyright | Page 5

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 looked after the rights of the makers of its sewing-machines, its telephones, and its mouse-traps, but it appears to have entirely forgotten the makers of its literature. The position taken by our government in securing for an American author the benefit of the sale of his works at home, while practically estopping him from obtaining any advantage from their sales abroad, is somewhat analogous to its treatment