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Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), 1st July 1890, Edition 1 of 1, Page 798, _ . , : _J

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  • Departments (2)
    • O 01ST OTIE 3STTS
    • St. Dunstan's House, E.C., Jxdy 1, 1890.
  • Text (6)
  • Transcript

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      798 The Publishers' Circular juiy If l 89 O

      O 01st Otie 3stts

      O 01 ST OTIE 3 STTS

      Literary Intelligence 798 Books And Rumo...

      LITERARY INTELLIGENCE 798 BOOKS AND RUMOURS OF BOOKS 799

      NOTES AND NEWS 800 AMERICAN NOTES AND NEWS 802 CONTINENT AL NOTES 803

      IN DARKEST AFRICA 804 IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT DECISION SOG | THE LATE MR . F . A . SITTTABY 806 !

      THE BOOK-FINDER 807 i LORD BROUGHAMS COPY OF THE EDJNBVHOII , REVIEW . * . ' 808 \

      HINTS TO BYRON COLLECTORS 808 ' TRADE CHANGES 808 |

      THE STANLEY BOOK DINNER 808

      IN MEMORIAM 814 REVIEWS , & c 814

      | INDEX TO BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN BETWEEN JUNE 16 & 30 821

      BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN FROM JUNE 16 TO 30 .. 823

      NEW BOOKS AND BOOKS LATELY PUBLISHED .. 828 , MISCELLANEOUS 841 '

      BUSINESS CARDS 848 BUSINESS FOR SALE 850 SITUATIONS WANTED , 850

      ASSISTANTS WANTED 850 BOOKS WANTED TO PURCHASE ,, 851

      St. Dunstan's House, E.C., Jxdy 1, 1890.

      St . Dunstan ' s House , E . C ., Jxdy 1 , 1890 .

      We Reproduce On Another Page The Cabled ...

      WE reproduce on another page the cabled report of a decision given in the United

      States Circuit Court which must very materially affect the pending question of International

      Copyright . Messrs . A . & C . Black , of Edinburgh , sued , through their American

      representatives , Messrs . Charles Scribner ' s Sons , a firm JL of Transatlantic M M ** r msr l /^ w publishers m-r who —¦ had

      ^ issued JQJ JLJL ± A ^ a p irated ^ » - ^» edition ** ^ •» ^* * ^^ of ^ - the " » " - ^ » ^ " — k E — nc *~~ yc l opaedia — - — — — ifritai Britannica mica' containing containing articles articles bv oy native native

      , authors , these articles being of course copyright . The defendants sought to justify their

      act of appropriation on the extraordinary ground that the publishers of the '

      Encyclopsedia Britannica' had used an unfair and fraudulent device in employing American

      authors to write for them , and that therefore a Court of Equity could afford them

      no protection from being plundered . This curious ethical doctrine did not , however ,

      commend itself to the mind of the judge , and he gave a verdict for the plaintiffs , an issue

      which , it is needless to say , has tilled the advocates of international Copyright with hopes

      of a speedy and complete victory . Nor do those hopes seom to us ill-founded . True ,

      Judge Shipman ' s finding is primarily in the interest of the native author , whose right to

      his own literary property has never been questioned save by the singular moralist who

      would make him suffer for his disloyalty in accepting British Bervice and British gold .

      But the decision has important ulterior bearings , inasmuch as it concedes , in no equivocal

      language , American copyright to an English book written by American collaboration . The

      English publisher is still at the mercy of the American publisher where a book is wholly

      written by an English author or a group of flfa Eng ¦ ? , :. ¦ ,:., lish ¦ authors . . - But .. ¦• the judgment wjiich ~

      has just been delivered may be said to have ;

      established the validity of the principle of collaboration . No doubt the enterprising

      American publisher might legally plunder by excising those parts written by native

      authors , if he could discover them ; but the value of a work , particularly of a standard

      work like the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica , lies in its completeness , and probably no man

      in his senses would think it worth his while to to re reproduce produce it it in in a a garbled garbled edition edition , since since it it

      , would no longer be a marketable article . And i there is another phase of the question . Judge

      Shipman ' s decision is something tangible and authoritative . Mr . G . H . Putnam , Secretary

      to the American Publishers' Copyright League , attributes the defeat of the Bill recently

      introduced into the House of Representatives to the fact that the representatives of remote

      and ignorant communities are not abreast of the times . In centres of enlightenment the

      feeling is all in favour of granting the rights of alien authors and publishers ; but in the

      4 backwoods 7 the legitimacy of literary theft is still a part of the popular creed . A legal

      decision , however , has great force with ignorant minds , greater force than any amount of

      high talk or moral suasion , and it is not unreasonable to expect that Judge Shipinan ' s

      verdic 4 backwoods t will ' prove conscience a stim . Then ulus to even the Texas slow ;

      and Missouri may swing round to Mr . LoweIl H opinion , that there is one thing better than

      a cheap book , and that is a book honestly come by . ' We congratulate Messrs . Black on .

      their success , and the friends of International Copyright on the prospect before them . •¦¦

      W *+W " Hhhe Time Has Once More Arrived ...

      w * + w " HHHE time has once more arrived when the makers

      - * - great army of prospective holiday is zealously engaged in making its preparations I . '» ¦ - ¦' . ¦¦ . ' ' " ' ' " . ¦ ¦ "" mJ

  • Citation
    • Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), July 1, 1890, page 798, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_01071890/page/4/