COPYRIGHT. 



451 



In the United States of America the jurisdiction of 

 this subject is vested in the federal government, by 

 the constitution (art. 1. sec. 8), which declares that 

 congress shall have power ' to promote the progress 



fur which such demand shall be ao made ; and he is hereby 

 required, within one month after any such book, or volume 

 shall be so delivered to him, to deliver the same for the use 

 ill such library. And if any such publisher or warehouse- 

 keeper shall not observe the directions of this act, he and 

 they so making default shall forfeit, besides the value of the 

 said printed copies, the sum of 5 for each copy not so de- 

 livered or received, together with the full costs of suit; to 

 be recovered by action in any court of record in the United 

 Kingdom. 2. 



Pr. -vided always, that no such copy shall be so demanded 

 or delivered, &e., of the second, or of any subsequent edi- 

 tion of any such book, unless the same contain additions 

 or alterations ; and in rase any edition after the first shall 

 contain any addition or alterations, no printed copy there- 

 of shall be demanded or delivered, if a printed copy of such 

 editions or alterations only, printed in a uniform manner 

 with the former edition of such book, be delivered to each 

 of the libraries aforesaid : Provided also, that the copy of 

 every book that shall be demanded by the British Museum 

 shall be delivered of the best paper on which such work 

 shall be printed. 3. 



And whereas by the said recited acts it is enacted, that 

 the author of any book, and the assign:, of such author, 

 should have the sole liberty of printing and reprinting such 

 hook for the term of fourteen years, &c. ; and it was provid- 

 ed, that after the expiration of tiie .said term of fourteen 

 years, the right of printing or disposing of copies should re- 

 turn to the authors thereof, if they were then living, for 

 another term of fourteen years. And whereas it will afford 

 further encouragement to literature, if the duration of such 

 copyright were extended ; Be it enacted, that the author 

 of any book or books composed, and not printed and pub- 

 lished, or which shall heieafter be composed, and be print, 

 ed and published, and his assigns, shall have the sole liber, 

 ty of printing and reprinting such bonk or books, for the 

 full term of twenty eight years, to commence from the day 

 of first publishing the same ; and also, if the author shall be 

 living at the end of that period, for the residue of his na- 

 tural life: and it any bookseller or printer, or other person 

 whatsoever, in any part of the United Kingdom of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, iu the Isles of Man, Jersey, or Guern- 

 sey, or in any other part of the British dominions, shall, from 

 and after the passing of this act, within the times granted and 

 limited by this act, print, reprint, or import, or shall cause 

 to be printed, &c., any such book, without the consent of 

 the author, or other proprietor of the copyright, first had in 

 writing ; or knowing the same to be so printed, &c. , with, 

 out such consent shall sell, publish, or expose to sale, or 

 cause to be sold, &c., or shall have in his possession for 

 sale, any such book., without such consent first had and ob 

 tained ; such offender shall be liable to a special action at 

 the suit of the author or other proprietor of such copyright ; 

 and every such author or other proprietor may, in such 

 special action, recover damages, with double costs; and 

 every such offender shall also forfeit such book, and every 

 sheet of such book, and shall deliver the same to the author 

 or other proprietor, to be made waste paper of, and shall also 

 forfeit the sum of 3d for every sheet thereof either printed or 

 printing, or published or exposed to sale, the one moiety 

 thereof to any person who shall sue for the same time. j 4. 



And in order to ascertain what books shall be from time 

 to time published, the publishers of every book demand- 

 able under this act shall, within one calendar month after 

 the day on which any such book shall be first sold, published, 

 advertised, or offered for sale, within the bills of mortality, 

 or within three calendar months in any other part of the 

 United Kingdom, enter the title to the copy of every such 

 book, and the names and place of abodeof the publisher, in 

 the register book of the company of stationers in London 

 (for every of which several entries the sum of 2s shall be 

 paid, and no more), under a penalty of the sum of 5, to- 

 gether with- eleven times the price at which such book shall 

 be sold or advertised: to be recovered, together with full 

 costs of suit, by persons authorized to sue, and who shall 

 first sue for the same : Provided, that in the case of rnaga 

 zine.s, reviews, or other periodical publications, it shall be 

 sufficient to make such entry in the register book of the 

 said company within one month next after the publication 

 of the first number or volume : provided, that no failure in 

 in. .king any such entry shall in any manner affect any 

 copyright, hut shall only subject the person making default 

 to the penalty aforesaid under this act. $ 5. 



Provided always, that if any publisher shall be desirous 

 of delivering the copy of such book or volume, on behalf ot 

 anv of the said libraries, at such library, it shall and may 

 be lawful for him to deliver the same at such library ; and 

 such delivery shall be held as equivalent to a delivery to 

 the said warehouse-keeper. 



And if the author of any book, which shall not have been 

 published fourteen jears at the time of p.iseing this act 



of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited 

 times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right 

 to their respective writings and discoveries." By 

 the acts of congress of May 31, 1790 (ch. 15), and 

 April 29, 1802 (ch. 36), the authors of maps, charts, 

 books, engravings, etchings, &c., being citizens of 

 the United States, or resident therein, are entitled to 

 the exclusive right of publishing for fourteen years, 

 and, if the author be living at the end of that period, 

 for an additional term of fourteen years. The Bri- 

 tish la\v does not distinguish between resident and 

 non-resident aliens, like the American law. 



In France, the law of copyright is founded on the 

 law of 1793, which gave to authors a right in their 

 works for life, and 10 their heirs lor ten years after 

 their deaths. 1 lie decree of 1810 gave the right to the 

 author for life, and to his wife, if she should survive 

 him, for her life, and to their children for twenty years. 

 A work, already published in a foreign country, may 

 be published in France without the consent of the au- 

 thor. There is a disposition in France to enlarge the 

 term of copyright ; and propositions have been made, 

 within a few years, to extend it to the legal repre- 

 sentatives of the author for lifty years after his death. 



In Germany, the laws respecting copyright vary in 

 the different countries ; but, in general, there is no 

 iixed time. The copyright is almost always given 

 for the lifetime of the author. But the diet of the 

 Germanic confederation has not, as yet, succeeded in 

 agreeing upon a general law, and an author's works 

 may be printed in any of the states in which he has 

 not taken out a copyright. Austria is notorious for 

 piratical, incorrect, cheap editions ; the government 

 seeming to calculate according to the old maxim of po- 

 litical economy if the book is pirated there, the cost 

 of it does not go out of the country. There is one 

 check, however, against pirated editions, viz., the 

 Leipsic book-fair (q. v.), where the German booksel- 

 lers meet to settle their mutual accounts, and where 

 no member of the community would like to appear in 

 the character of a piratical publisher. 



A copyright may exist in a translation, or in part 

 of a work (as in notes or additional matter), with 

 an exclusive right to the whole ; but a bona fide 

 abridgment of a book is not considered, in Britain 

 and America, a violation of the original copyright. 

 So a person may use fair quotation, if, by its applica- 

 tion, he makes it a part of his own work ; but cannot 

 take the whole, or a large part of a work, under the 

 pretence of quotation. If an encyclopedia or review 

 copies so much of a book as to serve as a substitute 

 for it, it becomes liable to an action for a violation of 

 property. A n encyclopedia must not be allowed, by its 

 transcripts, to sweep up all modern works. In Ger- 

 many, abridgments are not protected as they are by 

 the laws of Britain and America, as they tend 

 greatly to the prejudice of the authors of original 

 works, who are liable to have the most valuable fruits 

 of their toils given to the public in the shape best fit- 

 ted to command a rapid sale, for the beneiit of others, 

 while the original works are comparatively excluded 



shall be living at the said time, and if such author shall af- 

 terwards die before the expiration of the said fourteen years, 

 then the personal representative of the said author, and the 

 assigns of such personal representative, shall have the sole 

 right of printing and publishing the said book, for the fur- 

 ther term of fourteen years after the expiration of the first 

 fourteen. 



And if the author of any book which has been already 

 published shall be living at the end of twenty-eight year* 

 after the first publication, he or she shall, for the remaindei 

 of his or her life, have the sole right of printing and pub. 

 li.shing the same. 



Actions and suits shall be commenced within twelve 

 months next after such offence committed, or be void and 

 of no effect. 7, 8, 9, 10 



Musical compositions, engravings, maps, sculptures, 

 models, &c. enjoy a similar protection. 



