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LITERARY INTELLIGENCE 1596 IMPORTANT NOT...
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St. Dunstan's House, E.C., December 15, 1890.
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A FTER more than half-a-century of persi...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
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i f . - ¦ ¦ ¦ - ' ¦ 1 ¦ . ¦ •¦ - ' : ¦ ' . ' ij , " ^ i 596 The Publishers' Circular Dec . 15 , 1890
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Literary Intelligence 1596 Important Not...
LITERARY INTELLIGENCE 1596 IMPORTANT NOTICE , 1597
BOOKS AND RTJMOTJRS OF BOOKS 1597 NOTES AND NEWS 1598
BOOKSELLERS OF TO-DAY—XIII . MR . ELLIuT STOCK , 1601
THE MAKING OF CHRISTMAS BOOKS 1602 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 1603
THE FORTHCOMING 'WORK' EXHIBITION 1604 SALE JOTTINGS V 1604
TRADE CHANGES ,.,. 1605
IN MEMORIAM 1605
REVIEWS , Ac 1605 INDEX TO BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT
BRITAIN BETWEEN DECEMBER 1 & 15 . 1610 BOOKS PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN FROM
DECEMBER 1 TO 15 1613 AMERICAN NEW BOOKS 1620
NEW BOOKS AND BOOKS LATELY PUBLISHED .. 1622 MISCELLANEOUS 1628
BUSINESS CARDS 1640 BOOKS WANTED 1641
BOOKS WANTED TO PURCHASE 1641
St. Dunstan's House, E.C., December 15, 1890.
St . Dunstan ' s House , E . C ., December 15 , 1890 .
A Fter More Than Half-A-Century Of Persi...
A FTER more than half-a-century of persis-- £ * - tent opposition to the fair claims of foreign
authors , the Americans have surprised the world by a sudden resolution to be just . On
December 3 , the House of Representatives passed the Copyright Bill by 139 votes to 95 ,
and those who are on the ground and best qualified to judge confidently expect the Senate
to follow the laudable example set by the sister Chamber . As the President recommended
the measure in his message to Congress , his signature may be regarded as certain , so that
it may be reasonably assumed that at last the rights of the alien author are to be fully
recognised and protected in the United States . The Bill , matters go according to
anticipation , will become law on July 1 next . On and after that date any book written by an
English subject may be copyrighted in the States , and thus authors who are fortunate
enough to be popular favourites on both sides of the Atlantic will probably find their bank
accounts swelling agreeably . At the least they will have the satisfaction of sharing to the full
in the profits that may accrue from their works . This is eminently satisfactory , and we
congratulate British writers—not , indeed , on their enlarged constituency , but on the more solid
returns which that constituency will shortly begin to make . That beautiful dream , which
in a moment of supreme exaltation Mr . Besant dreamed , English writers writing for
hundreds of millions of people of Anglo-Saxon speech , and being paid for every book that is
sold , is about to become a reality . A new era is dawning in literature — the golden era .
There will be no more Grub Street , for the * creator of literary property * will have the
full market value of his wares , none daring to rob him . It is a glorious prospect , and again
we congratulate English authors . We may
| r also congratulate ¦ - ' American ' > ¦ authors , for the
A Fter More Than Half-A-Century Of Persi...
American market will no longer be flooded
with cheap unpaid reprints of foreign books to the detriment of the ' home industry . * Without
authorial expensewill cease to appear in advertisements , and native and foreigner will
enter the lists on equal conditions . This is surely a matter for the sincerest congratulation .
Finally , we congratulate the members of the Copyright League on the success that has
attended their efforts to secure equitable dealing between England and America in the
matter of books . The battle has been long and hard , and though the victory is not yet
absolute and complete , there are , as already stated , reasonable grounds for assuming that
it speedily will be . We have said so much on the leading
principle of the Bill . As it is primarily and princi 4 W pa Jfm lly w meant to — protect the interests of
authors , it is right that it should be considered from their point of view . In that view it is ,
in the main ^ m , satisfactory . But there are secondary considerations of no slight — import — -
ance which v deserve to be noticed , and in at least one respect the Bill is open to objection .
We have not yet received the full text of it , and are not , therefore , in a position to discuss
its details , but , so far as can be gathered from a meagre telegraphic description , it provides
that foreigners can take American copyright on the same basis as American citizens in three
cases : first , when the nation of the foreigner permits copyright to American citizens on
sub-JL stantially the A . V same <^ basis as its own ; second , when the nation of the foreigner gives to
American citizens copyright privileges similar those provided in the Bill ; third , when the
nation of the foreigner is a party to an international agreement providing for reciprocity
in copyright by terms by which the United States can become a party thereto at pleasure .
These three main propositions are , we think , fair and reasonable ; they evince a desire for
equitable dealing , and when carried . ^ into force 11 " '"' ¦ ' uJ- " - " ¦'•¦ ¦ ¦¦ -+ : . T r (
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Citation
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Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), Dec. 15, 1890, page 1596, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_15121890/page/4/
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