COPYRIGHT WITH AMERICA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5715, 20 June 1879, Page 5

COPYRIGHT WITH AMERICA.

(from the Timec.)

The question of international copyright between this country and America, though never allowed to slumber, has for some years been in a lethargic state. Since Lord Clarendon’s proposal for a treaty in 1870 no special effort has been made in the cause of justice to literature from this side of the Atlantic, and from the other, to say the truth, it was not expected. During the last few yean, however, a change has been made in the manner of production of the works of British authors in America, which has inclined the American publisher to take what he calls “ a new departure.” There lies before us a memorandum from Messrs Harper and Bros., the great publishers in New York, which has been addressed, as we believe, to all those English authors who have hitherto had dealings with that firm in respect to what are called “ advance sheets,” and which “ invites such suggestions open the subject of international copyright as they deem useful or necessary.” It is prefaced by the views upon this subject of the late Dr Johnston and Lord Mansfield, and maintains throughout a highly moral and judicious tone. Hitherto the money given for advance sheets has bee*, the only remuneration which natives of thiii country have received in America for their literary labours, and the smallness of the sums has been accounted for on the ground that the advantage secured has been only that of priority of publication a few days, or at most a few weeks, before the work could he produced by other American firms. This explanation, however, has not been wholly satisfactory to one of the two parties concerned. Although there has been no the “ courtesy of the trade,” or, more vulgarly, that honour which is said to exist amos£ the predatory classes, has up to a mcent date prevented the _Americq3 Lu and this chivalrous idea has, it is understood, been supplemented by the fact of a certain large sum being annually set apart by the great houses for swamping, by a very cheap edition, any attempt of their smaller rivals to encroach upon leges. Certain publishers in Chicago, however, uninfluenced by such moral or other considerations, have recently taken to issuing those works of English novelists which are popularly supposed to sell here in the threevolume form at a guinea and a half at 7d and even sd. These editions, of course, it boa been found impossible to “ swamp ” by underselling, and it has hence occurred to- the great publishing houses to consider whether international copyright may not be the “ best policy ” after all. " However, it is not forus to look the gift horse in the mouth j whatever the motive, we have only to welcome the result. So far as those publishers are concerned who heretofore have been held to be the chief antagonists of this important measure, they are no longer to be reckoned among the opposition. They still, indeed, “ decline to view copyright from the purely abstract point of absolute inherent right,” and they hold themselves “perfectly competent to manufacture the books that shall embody the English author’s thoughts in accordance with the needs, habits, and tastes of their- people j in other words, they still object to toe English publishers’ expensive editions. ■ It certainly seems strange that they should deny to their more wealthy fellow-countrymen the right of buying such if they please j and, indeed, a high duty upon their importation would be an easy protection from injury, in that respect, and one which would oprtainly not interfere with the political traditions of the. United States. But, after all, these are matters of detail; the principle of piracy has been ahan* doned, and the black flog of literature is hauled down. Curiously enough, while it was braving the battle and the breeze in the shape; of ..protests and appeals from every of justice, and especially from those persons in this country who would fain accord to America and its institutions their respect as well as their admiration, it was not the British author who was the duel sufferer. He was stopped and plundered as it wore, upon the high seas, but, having certain watertight compartments of Ids own, ho .could not be scuttled and sunk. It was the American authors who underwent, that fate { or, rather it would be more correct tq say,that they were blockaded in port and nofc i permitted even to put to sea. For many years post, their cry has gone up in vain td Congress that they are crushed and ex« languished ,by the absence of international copyright with this country. “Though « ; nhtion.pf novel-readers,” says one of them, ini astriking pamphlet upon this subject, “ we ; havd no novelists, or next to node. What pubr ! Usher will buy our works when those of the i best English authors can bo purchased for the ; pittance given for advance sheets F" And of ! late, things have become infinitely worse foif i them. “ What publisher will buy our works,’.!! they may now say, “ when English novels Can |be bad, for nothing and are sold for sd, ?’? ! Thp unfortunate scribe adds something cow corning the want of patriotism in . Amoiacßiki ) publishers,yrhich permits them to flood their) I own country with ideas, monarchical- and; otherwise,' that are antagonistic tothe Iciples of its constitution —an appeal: which, i* the , circumstances, we must set down to a national sense of humqnr too strong to. bo exv tinguUpod by pecuniary misfortune. ~» -v d » ! It is sufficient to soy that the Government? ; oft s>o most book-reading nation in the world! ;has hitherto so contrived- matters that! it iaki almost any other, and has;’ Made literature as a profession among; iit* ironJjeqple; well nigh' impossible-: It,thaai now to ba sosp whether, with author! andi publisher both demanding it, it will satisfy, that claim of justice which all other civilised! naticms, admitted j or whether, as on ai terna?».occasion, it will gravely, tell us that, literature saould he free as the. air we, bieatho, which at present is all it gives the British author to exist upon.