Leonard Scott

“ If authors have an inherent right to the products of their brains, the lapse of time should be no reason for taking that right away, and English publishers are as morally guilty of robbery when they fail to make remuneration to such authors or their legal representatives, after the law no longer protects them, as are the American publishers who do the same with English copyright books for which there is no American protection. ”

“ Great Britain may arrogate to herself national liberality for having opened her ports, with little or no restriction, to the commerce of the world; but the motives which prompted such liberality were as purely selfish as were those of the United States in fettering commerce by her high tariff. Great Britain, assured of her supremacy as the great manufacturer of the world, did not fear the competition of other manufacturers, whether protected or not ”

“ I grant that if all the nations of the earth had one common interest and one common government to support it, so that legislation should always be for the mutual advantage of all the inhabitants—the same in one section as in another—then the reprinting of a book by or for any one but its author would be a violation of right; but as this Utopia does not and never will exist, we must deal with men, and governments, and their selfishness as w T e find them. ”

“ Nations legislate for what they believe to be to their own advantage, and without regard to the interests of their neighbors. Thus, England manufactures goods, and the manufacturer claims that he has a natural right freely to offer these goods as cheaply in one part of the world as in another, save only the cost of conveyance. ”

“ O most conscientious Briton! when thou doest unto others as thou wouldst that others should do unto thee, then mayst thou, with more consistency, indulge in the abuse of those whom thou delightest to call "piratical publishers." ”

“ Does not our government send experts abroad to gain information on subjects of the greatest importance to our interests at home? Do not these experts closely examine the establishments, public and private, of the Old World and gain all the information possible in regard to them? ”

“ In conclusion, it may be well to remark that, even in England, brain-property is not treated like that known as personal or real, for, while the latter has perpetual protection by law, the former has only protection within prescribed limits, the English copyright extending only for a certain number of years, and it is well known that many of the most valuable standard works, both in prose and poetry, are being continually republished in England without any remuneration to the authors or their heirs. ”

“ Suppose there were no such market for English books as the United States now offers, would English publishers any the less continue to print them? These works are produced mainly for the markets of Great Britain and its English-speaking dependencies. The withholding of an international copyright law does not take away from them what they never possessed or had any right to claim. ”

“ The fact is that, the intercommunication of nations gives advantages which isolation could not afford, and if such advantages include the spread of knowledge among the people, obtained either in the way I have here described, or by the cheap reprint of a foreign book, it would be difficult to show anything criminal in thus acquiring it. ”

“ In short, do they not inform themselves of everything likely to be of benefit to their own country, and, although the information given them may have been the result of centuries of brain-labor, do their countrymen hesitate to appropriate such information to their own use and without pay? ”