450 



COPYING MACHINES COPYRIGHT. 



lhan is at first supposed. Without a reproduction of | 

 (he original, in the mind of tin- cop\ist. his imitation 

 cannot be perfect. He must have the power to con- 

 ceive, and transfer to his own canvass, the living 

 spirit of the piece Ix-fore him. What an immense 

 difference there is between the copy of an artist of 

 genius and the literal exactness of a Chinese ! This 

 consideration leads us a step further, to the miscon- 

 ception of the character of painting and sculpture, 

 which would confine the artist to a strict imitation of 

 particular objects in nature. If this were the great 

 aim of the arts, any view of a market would lie bet- 

 ter than a Teuiers, and any landscape superior to a 

 painting of Claude Lorraine. It is true that a cat so 

 painted as to be hardly distinguishable from tiie liv- 

 ing animal, or a drop of water which we try to wipe 

 away, call forth our praise of the artist's skill ; but 

 they are only studies. It is the life which breathes 

 throughout nature, and (in the higher branches of 

 i he fine arts) the ideals at which nature herself aims, 

 which the artist must be able to conceive and to ex- 

 hibit. It is with the above arts as with the drama. 

 A drama would be an extremely dull, poor, and per- 

 haps vulgar production, if all we could say of it were, 

 tliat it is an exact copy of certain particular occur- 

 rences. As copies of the great works of art may 

 convey, to a considerable degree, the same pleasure 

 as the originals, it were to be wished that great 

 sculptors would copy their own works, as Thorwald- 

 sen did his beautiful Triumph of Alexander. The 

 copy is on a reduced scale, and in terra cotta. 



COPYING MACHINES. The most convenient 

 mode of multiplying copies of a writing is by litho- 

 graphy, and this mode is much used by merchants 

 and others in preparing circulars ; also in the differ- 

 ent departments of government. In Mr HawKins's 

 polygraph, two or more pens are so connected as to 

 execute, at once, two or more copies. Mr Watt's 

 copying machine is a press, in which moistened bibu- 

 lous paper is forced into close contact with freshly 

 written manuscript. The writing is, of course, re- 

 versed, but, the paper being thin, the characters can 

 lie read on the opposite side. Doctor Franklin used 

 to cover writing, while moist, with fine powdered 

 emery, and pass the sheet through a press in contact 

 with a plate of pewter or copper, which thus became 

 sufficiently marked to yield impressions, as in the 

 common mode of copperplate printing. 



COPYRIGHT denotes the property which an au- 

 thor has in his literary works, or which any other 

 person has acquired by purchase, and which consists 

 of an exclusive right of publication. In some coun- 

 tries, in Europe, this right is perpetual ; in others, as 

 in Britain, France, and the United States of Ame- 

 rica? it is for a limited period. In England, the first 

 legislative proceeding on the subject was the licen- 

 sing act of 1662, which prohibited the publication of 

 any book unless licensed by the lord chamberlain, 

 and entered in the register of the stationers' com- 

 pany, in which was entered the title of every new 

 book, the name of the proprietor, &c. This and 

 some subsequent acts being repealed in 1691, the 

 owner of a copyright was left to the protection of the 

 common law, by which he could only recover to the 

 extent of the damage proved, in case of its infringe- 

 ment. New applications were therefore made to 

 parliament, and, in 1709, a statute was passed (8 

 Anne, 19), by which the owner of a copyright was 

 required to deliver a copy of his book to each of nine 

 public libraries, and severe penalties were provided 

 for guarding the property of copyright against in- 

 truders for fourteen years, and no longer. In 1801 

 tlie act was extended to Ireland, and two additional 

 copies of all works entered in stationers' hall were 

 to be delivered : one to Trinity college, Dublin and 



one to King's Inns, Dublin. The delivery of eleven 

 gratis copies is very burdensome to authors and pub- 

 lishers, especially when the works are of an expen- 

 sive character, and the impression taken is small. 

 Large books with plates, which may cost ten or 

 twenty pounds a copy, and the demand for which is 

 limited, feel it severely. In America, I'nissia, Sax- 

 ony, and Bavaria, only one copy of any work is re- 

 quired ; in France and Austria, tiro copies are re- 

 quired; in the Netherlands (Helium and Holland 

 under the old regime), three Three copies for this 

 country, namely, one for England, one for Scotland, 

 and one for Ireland, would be more reasonable than 

 the present number. The delivery, in some in- 

 stances, was evaded by publishers; but, in 1811, the 

 university of Cambridge brought an action to enforce 

 the delivery, and obtained a verdict; and, in 1814, 

 an act was passed, confirming this claim on the part 

 of the libraries. 



Notwithstanding the statute of Anne, it was, for 

 some time, the prevailing opinion, in England, that 

 authors liad a 'permanent, exclusive copyright, at 

 common law ; and, in fact, it was decided, in 1769, 

 by the court of king's bench, in the celebrated case 

 of Millar v. Taylor (4 Burr. 2303). that an author hail 

 a common law right in perpetuity, independent of the 

 statute, to the exclusive pruning and publishing of 

 his original compositions. liie court were not 

 unanimous in this case. Lord Mansfield and two 

 other judges were in favour of the permanency of 

 copyright, in which they were confirmed by judge 

 Blackstone: the fourth judge, Yates, maintained that 

 the words of the statute were a limitation. A sub- 

 sequent decision of the house of lords (1774) settled 

 the question against the king's bench, by establish- 

 ing that the common law right of action, if any exist- 

 ed, could not be exercised oeyond the time limited 

 by the statute of Anne ; and that the exclusive right 

 si ion hi last only fourteen years, with a contingent re- 

 newal for an equal term, if the author happened to 

 be alive at the end of the first period. The law con- 

 tinued on this footing till 1814, when the right was 

 extended to twenty-eight years, by rendering the last 

 fourteen years certain, instead of leaving them con- 

 tingent ; and, if the author were living at the end of 

 that period, to the residue of his life.* 



As the existing act regarding copyright often requires to 

 be consulted, we subjoin here its principal clauses : 



Having recited the acts 8 Anne c. 19, and 41 Geo. 3. c. 

 107., it enacts, that so much of the said several recited acts 

 as requires that any copies of any books which shall be 

 printed or published, or reprinted and published with addi- 

 tions, shall bf delivered by the printers thereof to the ware, 

 house-keeper of the said company of stationers, for the use 

 of any of the libraries in the said act -npntioned ; and as re- 

 quires the delivery of the said copies by the warehouse- 

 keeper for the use of the said libraries ; and as imposes any 

 penalty on such printer or warehouse-keeper for not de- 

 livering the said copies, shall be repealed. 



And that eleven printed copies of the whole of every 

 book, and of every volume thereof, upon the paper upon 

 which the largest number or impression of such bonk shall 

 be printed tor sale, together with all maps and prints be- 

 longing thereto, which from and after the passing of this 

 act shall be printed and published, on demand thereof being 

 made in writing to or left at the place of abode of the pub. 

 lisher or publishers thereof, at any time within twelve 

 months next after the publication thereof, under the hand 

 of the warehouse-keeper of the company of stationers, or the 

 librarian or other person thereto authorized by the persons 

 or body politic or corporate, proprietors or managers of the 

 libraries following; videlicet, the British Museum, Sion 

 College, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Public Li- 

 brary at Cambridge, the Library of the Faculty of Advocates 

 at Edinburgh, the Libraries of the Four Univeritie> of 

 Scotland. Trinity College Library, and the King's Inn Li- 

 brary at Dublin, or so many of such eleven copies as shall oe 

 respectively demanded, shall be delivered by the publisher* 

 thereof respectively, within one month after demand made 

 thereof in writing as aforesaid, to the warehouse-keeper of 

 the said company of stationers ; which copies the said 

 warehouse-keeper shall receive for the use of the library 



