Arguments before the Committee on Patents of the House of Representatives, conjointly with the Senate Committee on Patents, on H.R. 19853, to amend and consolidate the acts respecting copyright: June 6, 7, 8, and 9, 1906.United States. Congress. House. Committee on Patents
History
Arguments before the Committee on Patents of the House of Representatives, conjointly with the Senate Committee on Patents, on H.R. 19853, to amend and consolidate the acts respecting copyright: June 6, 7, 8, and 9, 1906.
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Patents
Copyright -- United States
In regard to cheap editions, which he spoke of and said that at the
end of the copyright a publisher was desirous of securing as large a
circulation as possible for his books--that is true within a year or
two of the end of the term of copyright. But I can not recall at this
moment a single book the price of which has been reduced materially
until so close to the end of the term of copyright as to make it
practically valueless to the original publisher unless he did reduce
the price; and he does it, not for love of the public, not because
he is considering the public, but simply to get ahead of his
fellow-publisher. He is the man who then has a couple of years in
which to exploit a cheap edition; and it seems to me that under the
law as it is suggested, a term of fifty years from the date of the
death of the youngest of the authors is going beyond what the framers
of the Constitution decided was a limited time. Let us assume that
Mark Twain, if he were 80 years of age, were to write a book. He has
his daughter, who may be 20, write a few lines in that same book. Mark
Twain dies in a few years; she lives to be 90. There is seventy years
of copyright, and fifty years after her death, making one hundred and
twenty years. I do not believe that that is a "limited time" within
the meaning of the phraseology of the Constitution. [Laughter.]
Mr. CHANEY. That is the joint-author clause.
Mr. OGILVIE. There is just one point that I had overlooked. I was not
at any of the conferences, but I have been informed that an attorney
representing certain of the special interests at those conferences
suggested that the public should be considered; and to quote literally
what I was told as to what happened, "he was hooted at and laughed
down." And I think that very fully expresses the sentiment contained
in this proposed copyright act, so far as the public are concerned.
I thank you, gentlemen.
STATEMENT OF FRANK H. SCOTT, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE CENTURY COMPANY,
NEW YORK, AND PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' ASSOCIATION.
Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Chairman, I only wish to clear up two points that have
been raised by my predecessor. I am not responsible for the exact
wording of the clauses covering these two points, but I do wish to
emphasize their importance.
The first is as to the question of the original publisher's rights at
the termination of the present contract or the present copyright.
Under the law as it now stands, at the termination of the copyright
the publisher would have a set of plates and possibly a large number
of books on hand. He can enter the market, no matter who comes into
the field, and compete on at least equal conditions.
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