556 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



book. The materials and labor used 

 have their fixed price in the market ; 

 but, when the book is produced, the 

 publisher arbitrarily determines what 

 it shall sell for. He is at liberty to fix 

 the scale of his own profits, and as a 

 business man he will always do it with 

 sole reference to his own interest. Va- 

 rious considerations may influence his 

 decision; but the most important fact 

 is, that the copyrighted book will en- 

 counter no competition in the market. 

 For these reasons it is of the greatest 

 moment to publishers to make such ar- 

 rangement with authors as will secure 

 them the large possible benefits of copy- 

 right. If the author's interest in a book 

 is represented by ten per cent., than 

 the publisher's interest is represented 

 by ninety per cent. ; that is, the pub- 

 lisher is nine times more concerned to 

 get this advantage than the author. 

 Hence the strong desire of foreign pub- 

 lishers to get into the American market 

 under cover of their authors' rights. 



Now, Mr. Collins comes over here 

 as the virtual agent and attorney of his 

 English publishers. He first makes an 

 outcry about the violation of his rights 

 as an author in this country, and then 

 he includes as one of these rights the 

 liberty of carrying his publisher with 

 him wherever he pleases. He will only 

 be satisfied with an international copy- 

 right law in which this is conceded. 

 But he here asks for a privilege, a con- 

 venience, a very profitable condition to 

 his friends, and not for a guarantee of 

 justice to himself. Mr. Collins has rights 

 which ought to be regarded and de- 

 fended in this country by international 

 arrangements ; his English publisher has 

 no such rights, nor can he claim on any 

 principle of justice that our Govern- 

 ment should so shape its conventions 

 that he can supply our market, if he 

 pleases, with only English editions of his 

 books. If there were no other way for 

 the Americans to obtain his works, it 

 might be different. Mr. Collins might 

 well demand that there be no impedi- 



ment to the supply of his publications 

 that would hinder his realizing the full 

 benefit of American sales. But, so long 

 as there are plenty of publishers in this 

 country eager to make contracts with 

 him, it is no wrong not even a hard- 

 ship for him to get what he rightfully 

 asks, on the condition that his books 

 shall be published here. 



Mr. Collins unwittingly concedes the 

 case when he undertakes to define his 

 claim. He says : " The object of inter- 

 national copyright is to give me by law 

 (on conditions with which it is reasona- 

 bly possible for me to comply) the same 

 right of control over my property and 

 my book in a foreign country which the 

 law gives me in my own country. In 

 Europe this is exactly what we have 

 done. When I publish my book in Lon- 

 don, I enter it at Stationers' Hall and 

 register it as my property and my 

 book is mine in Great Britain. "When 

 I publish my book in Paris, I register it 

 by the performance of similar formali- 

 ties and again my book is mine in 

 France. In both cases my publisher 

 (English or French) is chosen at my 

 own free will." But the same right of 

 control over his property in his book 

 in a foreign country that the law gives 

 him in his own country is exactly what 

 it is now proposed that he should have. 

 His native protection stops with the 

 British Islands and hardly extends to 

 the provinces ; his French protection is 

 bounded by the limits of France ; and 

 his protection here would be coexten- 

 sive with our nationality. What more, 

 then, can he ask than an international 

 copyright treaty that shall enable him 

 to register his book in Washington, by 

 which it becomes his American prop- 

 erty, with the liberty of playing his 

 free-will from the Atlantic to the Pacific 

 in the choice of a publisher? 



Nearly fifty English authors of the 

 highest character have recognized that 

 their rights of property in their books 

 in this country should not be compli- 

 cated with the interests of their home 



