Under the bill as it is proposed now, if the author secures a continuation or a renewal of his copyright, and the publisher is not consulted the publisher would be left with his set of plates and his investment in the sheets and stock; and it would be absolutely impossible for him to sell them to anybody, because his contract having expired, and the author may have gone and made a new contract with a new publisher, leaving him entirely out of it. If there is no copyright whatever he can compete on equal terms. I am only explaining why I think the publisher ought to have some consideration under those circumstances. Mr. CURRIER. What do you say to the amendment suggested by the gentleman who last spoke? Mr. SCOTT. Just what was that amendment? Mr. CURRIER. That the publisher might have the right to control the extended term, provided he would pay the same royalty that he had paid. Mr. SCOTT. I think the publisher ought to be obliged to pay the same royalty that anyone else should pay at that time. It might be a very old work. It might be that the time during which he could continue to pay that royalty had expired. Mr. CURRIER. You could hardly set the right up at auction, could you? Mr. SCOTT. I am sorry to say it is very often done. Mr. CHANEY. Would you not think that would give the publisher an undue advantage over the author? Mr. SCOTT. I think the law as it is at present framed is very broad. I only wish to say now that I think the publisher ought to be consulted. I suppose this will come up later, and I have not prepared any argument on the subject. I am only pleading that the publisher ought to have some consideration under those circumstances. Mr. CHANEY. Can not the publisher provide against all that by the contract he makes? Mr. SCOTT. There will be no trouble about the copyrights taken out after the passage of this bill. It is only with reference to copyrights that are now in existence. Mr. CHANEY. Yes. Mr. BONYNGE. You think the language of the bill as it is is too broad? Mr. SCOTT. I think so. I think I should not have made it, myself, quite so broad.