"The court held that the law had been settled in England to the effect that the author had no right in a published work excepting that secured by statute; that there was no common law of the United States, and that the common law as to copyright had not been adopted in Pennsylvania, in which State the cause of this action arose; and that by the copyright statute of 1790, Congress did not affirm an existing right, but created one. The opinion, which was delivered by Justice McLean, was concurred in by three of the judges, and dissented from by two, Justices Thompson and Baldwin, who defended the positions and recalled the arguments of Lord Mansfield and Sir William Blackstone. Justice Baldwin said: 'Protection is the avowed and real purpose of the act of 1790. There is nothing here admitting the construction that a new right is created ... It is a forced and unreasonable interpretation to consider it as restricting or abolishing any pre-existing right!'" Previous to the act of Congress of 1790, acts securing copyright to authors for limited terms had been passed in Connecticut and Massachusetts in 1783, in Virginia in 1785, in New York in 1786, and in other States at later dates. The statute of 1790 gave copyright for fourteen years, with a renewal to the author, if living, of fourteen years further. In 1831 was passed the act of already quoted, and in 1870 the regulation went into effect that a printed title of the work copyrighted must be filed with the Librarian of Congress before publication, and two copies of the complete book be delivered within ten days after publication. In 1874 it was provided that the form of the copyright notice in books should read, "Copyright, 18--, by A. B." The first step towards a recognition of the rights of foreign authors was taken in 1836 by Prussia, when she prohibited the sale within her boundaries of any pirated or counterfeited editions of German works. In 1837 a Copyright Convention was concluded between the different members of the German Confederation. In 1838 the British Parliament passed a law to obtain for authors the benefits of international copyright, and in 1846 England entered into a convention with Prussia, in 1851 with France and Hanover, in 1854 with Belgium, and between 1854 and 1860 with Holland, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. Between 1846 and 1861 similar conventions were entered into by France with Belgium, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, and nearly all the Continental powers have now copyright arrangements with each other. As far as I have been able to learn, it is not requisite under these arrangements to have a book separately entered for copyright in each country. The single entry in the place of first publication is sufficient to protect the author, and to leave him free to make, within a specified time, his own arrangements with foreign publishers.